Do you crave chocolate often?  If you do, you are not alone.  Chocolate tastes so good, isn’t it?  But that is not the only reason, and may not be the primary reason.

For many people, the direct reason maybe just that your body needs sugar. Our body needs glucose (sugar) for a chain of chemical functions.

Chocolate may be the most common and convenient snack when you feel like satisfying cravings.  We will discuss why in more detail and what to do with it.

Craving sweet means your body needs it

When you ate chocolate for the first time and you really liked it, your brain registered the feelings of reward like a treat instantly spiking those feel-good dopamine levels. It is human nature to keep going back to seek rewards for more every time, it releases dopamine into our brains, and becomes part of our survival instinct. 

When we love something, we just go back time and time again and get more.  That is how we develop an addiction.

Medical reasons for sugar cravings

Certain parts of your brain play a significant role in your cravings. The hippocampus that located in your temporal lobe, is responsible for making both short-term and long-term memories and plays an important role in our behavior to seek reward.

The hippocampus helps us to remember the different tastes of dark chocolate and milk chocolate.  In each hemisphere of your brain, there is a caudate nucleus.  The caudate nucleus influences our reward-seeking behavior.  It is also responsible for us to new habits, whether good or bad. 

I like to have some sweet snacks when I finish my meals.  I don’t need to remind myself.  Whenever I finish the food on the plate, I naturally look for some sweets. The caudate nucleus made the decisions for me to have the habit.  

Why am I craving chocolate

Now let’s talk about chocolate.  Why do we crave chocolate in particular? Studies show that it attracts our emotions. While this may be true, there is interesting science behind the phenomena. 

Just as we discussed above. When you crave something, it is usually because your body is deficient in a specific nutrient.

When it comes to chocolate, the craving normally means you are short of magnesium. Cacao is recognized as the food with the highest amount of magnesium per unit, it is no surprise that chocolate is the first thing we naturally go for when we have a deficiency in magnesium.

Based on this scientific fact, you are likely to reach for a piece of dark chocolate, which contains high cacao content of magnesium when there is a deficiency.

Studies show that women are more vulnerable than men to magnesium deficiency. And postmenopausal women are even more likely to have it as many as 80% of them show signs of magnesium deficiency. With such a high percentage number, it’s no surprise that women are typically more than men to crave chocolate.

There is a good way to test if your chocolate craving is deficiency-related. You can try to take recommended daily dosage of magnesium as a supplement for a short period of time. If your chocolate cravings are much better, then it is likely that you probably have a magnesium deficiency.

So there you have it, taking the right mineral does affect your cravings.

In addition to chocolate, what about other sweets?  It is never easy to cut off all the sweets, especially when you’re used to eating them regularly.

Cutting sugar out of your diet is not an easy thing for many people.   Yet just like craving for chocolate, there are supplements that can help cut the cravings substantially.

I am going to list seven natural supplements below that can really help you resist sugar and chocolate for that matter.

What is one of the most effective ways to stop sugar cravings?

Supplements are arguably one of the best ways to eliminate cravings. If you’ve ever wondered how to supplement and why supplements have the power to reduce and eliminate those pesky cravings for sugar, you’re in luck.

Algae

Superfoods are a great way to deliver high-density nutrients to your body, which can help eliminate sugar cravings. 

Algae is not only a valuable resource for our bodies and the environment, but also it can substantially improve digestive health and provide nutrients that help eliminate sugar cravings. Algae is certainly a superstar in the category of superfoods.  A high-quality algae supplement delivers a potent mix of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, omegas, and amino acids. 

Primarily, it delivers nutrient-rich algae, such as chlorella and spirulina.  Chlorella is a single-celled freshwater micro-algae that contains the highest known quality of chlorophyll found in a nature. Spirulina is also a microalga, but it’s actually higher than chlorella in protein content, at about 60% protein, with all the essential amino acids. 

Digestive Enzymes & Probiotics

We have billions of good bacteria in our bodies.  Many of these bacteria reside in our stomach and digestive tract.  Those are the places where they help to create enzymes.  It aids in the breakdown and digesting of food. 

When these bacteria are in good efficiency, they help extract nutrients from food to be used for the body.  If these bacteria are not well balanced, the nutrients cannot be effectively broken down and it can lead to severely heightened sugar cravings.

Taking proper supplements of probiotics and digestive enzymes can keep the gut bacteria in your digestive tract well balanced, so your body can absorb more nutrients to reduce cravings.

Flaxseed Oil

The primary ingredients contained in flaxseed oil are omega-3 fatty acids, and omega-6 fatty acids, which can help lower inflammation within the body. 

A study published in the Journal of Medical Sciences shows that flaxseed oil is a highly effective nutritional supplement that can help calm down sugar cravings whenever they appear. It’s also used as a powerful supplement to help control and regulate diabetes. There’s even evidence that shows that flaxseed oil can lower blood sugar levels.

The results of the study showed that the participants who ingested flaxseed oil for two months presented lower scores on the binge eating scale. Research shows that one possible explanation could be the role of omega 3 in regulating the functioning of the dopaminergic systems. 

Studies show that omega 3 deficiency results in dopaminergic hyperfunctioning which relates to reinforcing effects. Therefore, this research suggests that there was a regulation of dopamine neurotransmission and the consequent reduction of craving for chocolate.

L-glutamine

L-Glutamine is an amino acid, which is a building block protein necessary for blood sugar regulation.

Studies show that L-glutamine is an effective ingredient to cut sugar cravings and also certain chemicals that cause the cravings as soon they appear. When blood sugar is low, glutamine quickly and easily converts to glucose, and studies have found it to be superior to pure glucose.

When a craving looks for sugar or refined carbohydrates, L-glutamine can rapidly satisfy this craving without decreasing insulin sensitivity.  What it means is that it can help you avoid reaching for not-so-healthy foods such as candy, cookies, and cakes.

L-Glutamine also helps to stabilize insulin levels in the bloodstream and helps to regulate blood sugar levels. But since there is generally not enough L-glutamine in natural food to combat and stop those cravings for sugar during the day, experts suggest taking L-glutamine supplements to boost those levels in your body. 

Magnesium

What happens for someone experiencing intense cravings for sugar? Well, it is a sign that you might have a deficiency of magnesium. One of the most common symptoms of magnesium deficiency is strong sugar cravings. According to a 2016 study, the people with low levels of magnesium tended to eat more sugary foods than those with average or elevated magnesium levels. 

Magnesium is an essential mineral that’s necessary for the human body to function properly.  It is responsible for over 300 biochemical reactions that occur in the body. One of these 300 biochemical reactions is the regulation of insulin and glucose, which have great connections to cravings.

Researchers have also uncovered that some people may crave chocolate as a way to self-correct specific nutrient deficiencies such as magnesium or even help regulate neurotransmitters involved in mood, namely serotonin and dopamine.

Zinc

Zinc is a mineral and antioxidant that is commonly used as a nutritional supplement to sooth the stomach, deal with major depressive disorder, and it is also used to regulate blood sugar in order to reduce cravings. 

In addition to these common uses, zinc can also help balance your appetite to avoid cravings for unhealthy and sweet foods.  Zinc has been researched to have positive influence on overeating behaviors.  On the other hand, a deficiency of zinc can incur  unusual food cravings or aversions.

Zinc can be found in a variety of foods, including oatmeal, almonds, chickpeas, yogurt, lobster, pork and beef.  You can also get it in the form of a dietary supplement.