Last night after posting (and therefore omitted from the blog) I had chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Amazing! All day today I dreamt about tonight’s dessert…
Dinner was a last minute change of plans. I realized that Ben has alternate dinner plans for tomorrow night and our guac would be brown or I would eat it all (most likely the latter).
Since I didn’t want to eat the entire container of guac in two days I had to incorporate it into dinner… burnt brussels and sad looking taco salad. Don’t you worry, I added chips after the picture (I knew you were worried about that).
Dessert or not to dessert…that is the question.
Question: How often do you eat dessert or a dessert-like snack?
Me: I used to have to have dessert or a “treat” every day, but I’ve been cutting back a bit. I do notice that the more sugar I eat the more I crave. Which is kinda weird…
I would have thought that eating a treat would satisfy my sweet tooth, but it only makes me want more. Is anyone else like that?
I’m curious if that’s a taste bud or blood sugar issue??
I am totally the same way. When I cut back on processed sugar and sweets, I don’t crave them with the same intensity. It’s easy to satisfy that sweets craving with fruit or yogurt + granola. I’ve been cutting back lately and haven’t had official “dessert” in a while. I’m a little scared of how my body will react when I do!
I have a crazy sweet tooth. Once I have something, I definitely want more (which is annoying) but I also can’t go without any sweet stuff for even one day. So I eat a (healthy) sweet breakfast, (healthy) sweet snacks and a dessert everyday and try to not go overboard when I want even more. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Monica,
I have been reading your blog for a while
Oops that last one was a fluke 🙂
What I meant to say was:
I have been reading your blog for a while but never have commented – a lurker, if you will.
This past year I too have struggled with binge eating. My therapist ( also a former binge eater) recommended the book The Diet Cure. This book is really helping me through recovery. Take everything in it with a grain of salt, but i would definitely recommend it.
Anyway, the reason i bring this up is because both my therapist and the author of this book (Julia Ross) believe that there are specifically sugar sensitive people. I am finding out i am definitely one of them ( I think we all are in some respect). People who have literally an insatiable appetite for sugar. Sugar never satisfies me and it just opens up a monster with in me that cannot get enough. As I am eating a piece of cake I don’t savor it, I just think about how I can get more. It also gives me drastic sugar highs and then nasty drops. I am working to cut it out of my diet as much as possible. I definitely have not mastered keeping my hands completely out of the brownie pan yet, but I cannot express the magnitude of how much better I already feel.
I know it sounds like deprivation but to me it is completely worth it to feel full and satisfied by food (instead of that nagging voice that keeps needing more and more sugar).
Just my two cents.
I was JUST thinking about this! I have started giving in way too much to my sweet tooth. After dinner it’s terrible. I want to break this habit bc I end up consuming too many calories I don’t need.
I have dessert every day. I love ending the evening on a sweet note. But since I’m trying to limit my sugar as much as I can, I try and have low calorie treats. And I do think that the more sugar you eat, the more you crave it.
I usually have something chocolate-like every night but Ive been trying to cut back. The problem is I have to have a night time snack & the only thing fitting seems dessert/chocolate. I need to buy some popcorn or something!
Me too!!! Once I cut out processed sugars (ok, who are we kidding, I cut BACK not cut out), I didn’t crave them anymore. I still have dessert but it’s now in the form of yogurt, fruit, cereal, etc.
I’m not really a dessert snacky type person – but I find that if I have a treat a couple days in a row, I start to do it each night out of habit. And conversely, if I don’t have one for awhile – I don’t feel the need!
I forget where I read it but there was a study done on salt and sugar intakes and it showed that the more sodium you consume – the more you become accustomed to it and crave it. Same with sugar. The more you eat, the more you can tolerate and your body keeps asking for it over and over. It’s hard to break that cycle but once you do for a couple days – those craving disappear.
I eat a small amount of chocolate usually every day but I also eat a lot of sweet-ish meals (yogurt, oatmeal, ab & j, etc…) that I don’t crave sugar too often.
I eat dessert or something dessert-like every night. but you’re right, the more i eat the more I crave!
Sugar definitely has addictive qualities to it. I’m the same way you are. If I’ve been really good and haven’t had dessert for a while, it’s not that hard to turn a treat down. On the other hand, if I have a small bit I usually just want more! I’ve gotten a lot better with the whole moderation thing, but with dessert it’s a different story. It’s easier to just not have any in the house, and then only let myself have access to a little bit when I want it.
Wow, it seems that a lot of us have a sweet tooth that is triggered to want more sweets after we eat a treat!
I’m so torn about the best thing to do – Feed the sweet tooth daily, but then always want something sweet? Or Avoid sweets all together, but risk overeating them when I finally have one?
Hmmmm….
I have gotten in the habit of “needing” something to eat every night after dinner. I usually get hungry again so I had to look at my eating schedule/amounts and decided I was simply not eating enough lunch so I was eating dinner too early. Since I adjusted my eating schedule I am doing much better about not needing a treat after dinner. (Although my go to treat of choice is a bowl of cereal!)
That’s a good idea – I like how to re-evaluated your whole day to see the reason behind it 🙂
my sweet tooth def gets worse after i eat a sweet. if i have something sweet at a meal, even fruit, i eat it before the savory stuff so i don’t crave sweets afterwards. kinda helps.
I’ve started having dessert more and more often and I definitely think it’s a lood sugar thing. Sugary snacks make it spike. I still cant help myself though!
I usually don’t have dessert or anything sweet. Or at least nothing “sweet” that doesn’t have nutritional value (because I might incorporate dried fruit, or a lot of bars are “sweet” even though they aren’t a treat to me, or cereal). I defintely think that the more sugar we eat, the more we crave. I think that people who eat a healthier diet overall (like you) are probably more prone to this, but I don’t know if that’s scientific or not 🙂 I know that when I eat a “cleaner” diet overall, sweet food just seems SO addictive to me. I don’t eat desserts because I generally don’t have anything around, but when I do I go crazy because I find it SO addictive. The only way for me to make it less addictive is to incorporate more sugar in my daily foods, which seems silly for me. Vicious cycle!! I do think that if you work really hard to eliminate fat/sugar/salt then the cravings DO go away, but that’s a really hard thing to do (physically + emotionally) and I’m not even sure if anyone would want to.
I’m the same way!!! It’s like a viscous cycle. If I don’t have any all day I’m fine, but the second I give in… watch out!
I am the same way– I’m completely fine until I have something sweet and then I can’t stop and raid the house for anything sweet. For instance, tonight. Just had a Krispy Kreme (I Know, this is why I don’t blog—) and now I want a cookie…. I started reading “The end of overeating” and it made me think that it is the combo of sugar/salt/fat that messes with our brains and makes us want more and that they purposely design foods like that so we want to eat and buy more of them
I’ve read that too! It really ticked me off. I don’t like the idea of food being designed in that fashion. It’s kind of perverse if you think about it.
Do you recommend that book? I’m curious…
It’s an interesting read. Definitely makes you wonder about food they serve in restaurants.
I always crave something sweet after dinner but usually try to curb it with a cup of tea or small piece of fruit. I can’t keep chocolate or cookies in the house for that reason — no self-control!
Definitely a taste bud issue. It’s the same with salt. The less you use, the more accustomed you are to salty foods. For me, oranges always hit the spot because they are super sweet and juicy. But looking at your bowl of berries and chocolate have me rethinking my dessert choices! 🙂
I love desserts, and eat way too many- I agree about craving and feeding the crave, then wanting more, though!
Oh my gosh, all the strawberries everywhere! I want them now!! I eat ice cream, that’s my dessert and I usually have it a few times a week!
Dear God, everything I eat feels like dessert at times. And it’s definitely the more sugar I eat the more I crave. I don’t think it has any connection with being stevia or not: sweetness is sweetness