Mind · 4 min read ·
After lunch or mid-afternoon, the hunt for something sweet begins. There are usually two causes, and a ban fixes neither.
If you have 30 seconds
- 1Straight after a meal, sugar cravings are usually habit. Mid-afternoon, often a blood sugar dip.
- 2An all-carb lunch, a short night and too little water often set them up.
- 3Pudding stays: one portion after a meal, decided in advance.
It's ten to one. You finished lunch five minutes ago and the sugar cravings have started: a biscuit with your coffee, the chocolate in your drawer. At half three they're back, at the vending machine.
The usual answer is a rule: no sweet things from tomorrow. It lasts until Sunday's cake. I see it often in the people I work with. There are usually two causes, each with its own time. Sugar cravings at night are a different story, covered in the article on comfort eating.
Habit or blood sugar dip: how to tell
- It comes the moment you finish eating. On a full stomach it's rarely hunger. More often it's how you round off a meal.
- It comes mid-afternoon, with a foggy head. Mostly after a lunch of pasta or bread. This one is often about blood sugar.
- It's worse after a short night. Short sleep tends to raise your appetite hormone and lower your fullness hormone, so next day you want more carbs.
- It goes after a glass of water. It may be thirst, easily mistaken for a sweet craving.
Why do I crave sugar after a meal?
If it comes straight away, nearly always out of habit. Your brain expects something sweet because that's how meals have always ended.
How the habit runs. The cue is the empty plate, or the coffee. The routine is the sweet thing. The reward is often something else: the break, two minutes to yourself before the inbox. Take away the sweet thing without knowing the reward, and you leave a gap.
Mid-afternoon, it's often the drop. After a nearly all-carb lunch, your blood sugar rises fast and insulin brings it down. But insulin stays high for a good few minutes, and your blood sugar can keep falling, sometimes below where it started. That's when your brain tends to ask for more.
Pudding you've chosen and eaten at the table, without rushing, is part of the meal.
How to stop them without a ban
A ban rarely holds, because the need is still there. Deciding when and how much works better.
Have it as pudding. If you fancy something sweet, have it at the table, after vegetables and protein. It raises your blood sugar less than the same thing on its own at 4pm. One portion, on a plate. Baked a cake? A slice after lunch, and the rest frozen in portions or given away.
A lunch that doesn't crash. Vegetables and protein before carbs, in a normal portion. Your blood sugar rises more slowly and the drop is usually gentler. Then walk for ten to fifteen minutes. Working muscles help use up that sugar.
Keep the reward, change the routine. Decide now what you'll do when the cue arrives: coffee by the window, or a lap of the corridor. You still get the break.
Mid-afternoon, water first. One glass, then wait a few minutes. Still hungry? A snack that fills you up: plain yoghurt with walnuts, or whole fruit with a few almonds. Something sweet on its own is likely to send you back to the vending machine about two hours later.
Try this
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Test yourself
On Sunday you baked an apple crumble. At 4pm on Monday the craving arrives. What do you do?
Start with tomorrow's lunch. If the craving still comes, look at the time and what was on your plate. They usually tell you which one it is.
