How I Beat My Sugar Cravings With Avocado

How often throughout the day do you get "Hangry"?  If you're not familiar with the term, it's when your hunger is so strong that you become short tempered and your only mission is to get food in your stomach and how you react to others is the least of your worries.  What's happening is your blood sugar is suddenly dropping and you're running on fumes, leaving you to reach for the closest thing to give you quick energy, most often something with sugar.  This begins the rollercoaster of diet problems so many of us have.

My Story
The relationship I've had with food has been evolving for a very long time and is still deepening.  The connection between food and one's health is sometimes not stressed as much as it should be and many of us just eat to get by or to satisfy a craving.  The most difficult eating pattern that I've overcome with the help of saturated fats is feeling the need to eat until fullness to avoid that empty hunger 2-3 hours later or eating something sugary to avoid that crash.  It was not a healthful way to live.

Simple Carbs vs. Saturated Fats
When we eat sugar or simple carbs, they are quickly converted into energy by our liver, giving us that boost when we're in a slump.  This is fine if you're leaving the gym (quickly brings blood to the muscles) or are on a hike and expending a lot of energy.  There are two problems with consuming simple carbs like sugar though: a) the energy is empty and doesn't last long, b) we take in more energy (sugar) than we expend (don't exercise) and it turns into fat.  One distinction is eating whole fruits such as an apple- the fiber carries the fructose through the body so that the energy is digested longer rather than dumping sugar in the system like when people have a frappuccino or soda.

Why Should I Choose Saturated Fats?
There is a better way though!  Fats have been consumed and highly valued for thousands of years as they are true, long lasting sources of energy.  Fats are stored and not just consumed but also used to heal the body when there is a wound externally or internally.  When you replace sugar for a saturated fat, your sugar craving ceases as your body is getting that energy it was needing.  When you're craving sugar, your body is saying, "Hey! We're running low on energy here, let's do what we did last time that got the energy right up!"  It's a cycle that has long-term harmful effects on your health.

What To Do?
The next time you're craving something sweet or you're feeling 'hangry', take either a teaspoon of coconut oil or ghee (yes, just eat it- you'll like it) or slice an organic avocado and eat half.  You'll find that in about ten minutes, you won't feel hungry and you'll have a different type of energy- long lasting energy with clarity.  You also won't feel that sudden drop and intense hunger because your body is running on long-lasting energy.  I highly recommend incorporating saturated fats such as ghee and avocado into your everyday diet.  Your skin will become moistened again and your fullness will be more sustained.  Moving away from sugar will reduce the inflammation in your body and the fat will help heal this inflammation.  Every cell in your body has a liposomal layer- a fat layer, so when you're not consuming fat or have a fat free diet, you are withering yourself away in a sense by denying your body the fat it needs.  Saturated fat is not the enemy- refined or high amounts of sugar is; allow yourself no more than 10g of sugar a day.  If you're craving more than that, you have to assess your diet.

Tamasic Food as it relates to sugar
In Ayurvedic medicine, they have three classes of foods: Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic.  Sattvic food is full of vitality, gives you clear energy and heals you.  Examples would be fresh vegetables and fruit, fresh milk or butter or a beautiful meal cooked with lots of love- there is an energy to these items that give your body deep satisfaction.  Rajasic foods would be things like garlic and onion which are pungent and spicy.  These foods are the foundation of motion and activity but too much can cause anger- they say that before wars, they would give soldiers garlic to boost them.  The last category is Tamasic foods which should be avoided at all cost.  These are low quality food that dull our life force- prana or weaken our Qi.  Tamasic foods are sugary foods, refined/processed foods, frozen or leftover foods or foods that are cooked in anger.  Try to think of the lack of energy that is in these foods.  Why would you want to put them in your body?  When you eat Tamasic food, you will feel a dullness- yes, a craving has been satisfied, but your energy is empty and you cannot think clearly.  Start to pay attention to how you feel after eating food from each of these categories and develop that communication with your body.  Have a healthful day! -Collin