7 Tips to Prevent Food Cravings

From morning through night, Shelly craves sweets. She can’t get enough of them. Sometimes she’ll want a sweet treat right after eating a meal. At times Shelly’s cravings are so intense, she can’t take her mind off of a food until she eats it. She feels guilty, knowing sweets aren’t good for her since she has a metabolic disorder called polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) but can’t stop the urgent cravings. Sound familiar?

Cravings are usually triggered by emotional cues or physiological reasons. For women with PCOS, high insulin levels are the main reason for increased cravings for sweets. The reason is simple: Insulin is a growth hormone and appetite stimulant. Having high levels of insulin makes you want to eat sweets. The more sweets you eat, the more you want them and the higher your insulin levels become. It’s a continuous cycle that can be difficult to break unless you learn how to break it.

Here are 7 tips to prevent food cravings.

When you’re hungry, you’re much more likely to want sugary foods. That’s because the longer you go without food, the lower your blood sugar gets. Sugary foods quickly enter the bloodstream to raise blood sugar levels. To best regulate your blood sugar, eat every three to five hours.  

Processed or sugary foods (baked goods, candy, bagels, flavored beverages) quickly enter the bloodstream and raise blood sugar levels, leaving them to plummet soon after. That’s when cravings can arise. In contrast, whole grain foods such as quinoa, oats, and brown rice, take longer for the body to break down, resulting in a slower, more controlled blood sugar regulation.

If you’re constantly having food cravings, not having enough protein at your meals could be the problem. Protein foods don’t raise insulin levels to the degree that carbohydrate foods do. Having sufficient protein at meals can help stabilize blood sugar levels.

Try experimenting with your food choices to see which combination of foods satisfy you the most and help to minimize cravings. For example, in the morning, instead of your standard bowl of oatmeal or cereal, chose a higher protein meal such as eggs or a protein smoothie. If you need more guidance, consider a consultation with a registered dietitian nutritionist.

If you know you can’t have tempting food at home because it’ll be gone soon after it enters your house, don’t buy it. Have the best efforts but still find that tempting foods make it home from the store? When food shopping, avoid aisles where tempting food is and don’t food shop when you’re hungry. Having groceries delivered or ready for pick-up can also help to avoid tempting foods.

Physical activity is an effective way to manage stress and for some people, stress is a major contributing factor to food cravings. Doing activities that promote mindfulness like walking or yoga can help you to tune into your emotions and prevent cravings.  

Before eating tempting foods, stop and ask yourself this one question: Am I hungry? If the answer is no, chances are you craving a food is due to an emotional reason. Eating it will only temporarily calm, soothe, or distract you from what you’re really feeling. Instead, sit with your feelings, as uncomfortable as they may be, to see what’s really affecting you.

If you’ve tried the tips above and still experience strong and frequent cravings it could be that you are insulin resistant. This means your body isn’t regulating your blood sugar as well as it should be. Talk to your doctor about taking an insulin-sensitizing medication such as metformin. The dietary supplement inositol has also been shown to lower insulin and improve glucose levels in women with PCOS and could be a good alternative to managing cravings for those who can’t tolerate the side effects of metformin.