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The Sweet Truth

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Sweet cravings are usually very hard to explain. From pondering over spreadsheets, power points, nappies, or whatever else has caught your fancy, your mind suddenly wanders in the direction of cookies, cupcakes, chocolates. And, depending on where you are, your body suddenly wanders towards a bakery, a fridge or a secret stash in a secret drawer that nobody knows about. Because, you know, it’s a secret.

Could this sugar craving be symptomatic of something else? While sugar cravings could mean that you could have a blood sugar imbalance, and it’s a view that is commonly and correctly held, I’d like to examine other reasons why you suddenly feel the urge to reach out for that dessert more often than you did.

  1. YOU COULD HAVE INTESTINAL PARASITES OR FUNGI

If your intestinal tract is looking like a free for-all Airbnb where yeast, bad bacteria and assorted fungi have come to stay, it could cause a spike in your sugar cravings. These unwelcome guests feed on sugar, and by virtue of that, boost cravings for both sugar and carbs. While this spike in intestinal bacteria is usually found in people with chronic illnesses or autoimmune conditions, it’s best to get it checked out

  1. YOUR SUGAR HABIT COULD BE LEADING YOU TO CONSUME MORE SUGAR

Sugar consumption is a vicious cycle. When you consume too much sugar, it tricks your brain into producing  dopamine, which is known as the `pleasure neurotransmitter’ or the `feel-good’ hormone. When the dopamine levels start to crash, we feel down an out. To regain that warm, fuzzy feeling, we regain our enthusiasm for sweet, unhealthy foods. And, with it, gain weight.

  1. YOU MAY BE CONSUMING ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS

This is typical of short-term benefits at the cost of long-term strategising. Artificial sweeteners, some studies suggest, could be linked with an increased craving for sugar, leaving you worse off than when you started. And artificial sweeteners are everywhere: from colas to chewing gum and are available in handy sachet and tablet form, among others.

So now that we have defined the conditions under which excess sugar is consumed, what can we do about it?
The key, of course, is ensuring your blood sugar levels are stable. And you can do this by:

a) Upping your protein intake: Protein is brilliant for managing sugar cravings. Ensure that you get enough. The recommended dosage is 0.8-one gram per kilo of actual body weight. So if you weigh in at 68 kilos, you need about 55-68 grams of protein a day.

b) Have a healthy breakfast, especially, one that is rich in lean protein like egg whites.

c) Eating every two hours: Long gaps between meals make you crave for more food and dropping your sugar levels. Break up your overall food intake into smaller meals.

d) Junk processed foods and sugars and artificial sweeteners: Processed foods spike your sugar levels and then bring them crashing down, leading you to reach for the sugary stuff.

e) Drink water: Water really helps staving off those cravings. You’d be surprised at how brilliantly this simple trick works.

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In Bombay Times - Ask the expert

Eggs are bad for me?

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Dear Pooja,
I have been an egg lover for years but now that I have reached almost 35, people say i must not have so many eggs in one day. I am not fat, just a little overweight but I end up eating too many eggs in a day. (around three at least) People have asked me to stop eating yolks but that is the tastiest part of the egg, so i cannot! I walk three to four times a week for around 45 minutes… and that is the only exercise i ever do. Should I stop eating eggs? Are they really bad for my age?
Please advise.

Eggs and bad? Never! How can something that has so much nutrition and so little calories ever be bad for you? At only 16 calories, the egg white provides a massive 4 grams of protein and is a 100% reference protein, which means that it all has all the nine amino acids needed for full utilisation by the body. Thus I can easily say that consuming about three to four egg whites can be a safe number for most adult to have on a daily basis. Yes, depending on you lipid profile and other healthy parameters, the number of yolks you can have weekly will have to be decided. The yolk may be tasty (for some) but there is some caution needed while having this daily – therefore discuss this with your doctor or nutritionist to get the exact count.

But egg whites are the safest, healthiest and most easily accessible form of complete protein that one should try and include daily. It helps one get better muscle tone, weight loss, stronger and longer hair and nails, lesser sugar cravings, better stamina, more attention and retention powers while studying, lesser aches and pains and this list is endless. Therefore let nobody fool you into stopping the egg whites Shikha, enjoy them daily – guilt free!

 

 

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In Articles to munch on

YOUR TRAVEL MENU

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The chance to sample different cuisines from different parts of the world can be as exciting as seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Northern Lights. But nobody wants to come back from a vacation all happy and then cry about not fitting into their clothes. Sometimes, you can’t tell what’s on a menu in a foreign country. Here’s a guide to choose better.

ITALIAN

 

Order these: Minestrone soup, chicken masala, grilled white meats (like chicken or fish), leafy salads, pasta (in tomato or marinara sauce with little olive oil and no cheese), cappuccino with skimmed milk and fruit sorbets (with no added flavours or syrups).

Skip these: Caeser salad, pasta in alfredo or bolognese sauces (or anything in a white sauce), lasanga, ravioli, cannelloni, fried calamari or anything fried, gelato, tiramisu, anything in `parmigiana’ (it’s loaded with cheese).

CHINESE

Order these: Chicken prawn vegetable suimai, seafood or vegetable cheung fun, prawn chicken vegetable dim sum, steamed bread or mushroom chicken bun, tom yum soup, wanton soup, chicken vegetable noodle soup, steamed rice, soft stewed rice with vegetables, soft stewed noodles, steamed prawns in lemon sauce, steamed fish in soya, ginger and spring onions, chicken prawn exotic vegetables in hunan or oyster sauces.

Skip these: Fried wantons, steamed dim sum in chilli oil, Peking duck, pork bun, salt and pepper fried chilli prawns, fried chilli chicken, sesame prawn toast, Szechwan chicken, chicken fish vegetarian manchurian, spare ribs, kung pao chicken potato, chowmein, lomein, anything with the word `golden’ or `crispy’ in it as that means it is fried.

JAPANESE

 

Order these: Sushi ­ especially nigiri sushi (rice and seaweed) made with cooked crabs, salmon, bass, yellowtail, tuna, squid, scrambled eggs, tofu or vegetables, sashimi, maki rolls (raw salmon, tuna, squid or prawn) with no cheese, miso soup, oshinko, steamed edamame, teppanyaki dishes (prepared with no oil), sukiyaki dishes (cooked at the table and you can supervise the oil content), okonomiyaki pizza, broiled sea bass (or any fishseafood) with soya or ginger sauce, ocha or green tea, soba noodles.

Skip these: Tempura, dragon rolls, chicken teriyaki, yakitori, fried dumpling or gyoza, ramen noodles, breaded chicken katsu, green asparagus tempura or sautéed with soya butter, foie gras teppanyaki, sake.

MEDITERRANEAN

Order these: Baba ghanoush (without extra olive oil), hummus, tzatziki, Greek salad and horiatiki salads (with reduced feta cheese and dressing on the side), souvlaki, dolmades, keftedes (baked, not fried).

Skip these: Moussaka, pastitsio, spanakopita, deep fried calamari, tiropita, falafels, red pepper feta, saganaki cheese, gyro platter, baklava, baklava cheesecake.

Carry nuts and fresh fruit with you wherever you go, and steal in quick snack breaks which will help keep your blood sugar stable and make you less prone to stuffing yourself with sugary pies. And stay hydrated: the hunger and thirst centres in your brains are so closely located next to each other, sometimes you crave food when all you want is water.

 

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