Here’s a compilation of strategies that can help you navigate through the sugar cravings. Awareness that craving sweets is not a failure or a weakness, but a physiological response, will contribute to reducing guilt. This understanding might even augment your confidence in the journey towards sobriety. As a fierce proponent of mental health services, Jess believes in the compassionate care and person-centered approach at All Points North. She works to create content that inspires clients and families to advocate for the support they deserve.

Why Do You Crave Sugar When You Stop Drinking Alcohol?

Moreover, starting your day with a glass or two of water can set a positive tone for your body’s hydration requirements. Ensuring you’re well hydrated before meals can also curb overeating and consequently, help manage sugar cravings. To start with, the practice of mindful eating might be the tool you need to manage sugar cravings. This entails pausing before eating and acknowledging the reasons for your cravings. Often, it’s not hunger that drives the craving, but boredom, stress, or other triggers. Shedding light on the science behind these intense sugar cravings after giving up alcohol, we find ourselves in the complex labyrinth of neuroscience.

The Role of Hydration in Managing Sugar Cravings

• But self-reflection and an honest conversation with a healthcare provider is the best way to start to get a handle on the issue.
• You can reap the benefits of many different feel-good hormones without the use of substances or sugar.
• In the study 61 percent of individuals with a positive family history of alcoholism preferred sugar solutions.
• Some people turn to sugar to satisfy their craving for alcohol, swapping one addiction for another.
• Have snacks on hand such as dates & almond butter, popcorn, yogurt & berries or granola, dried fruit, fresh fruit, a smoothie, popsicle, seltzers, teas, kombucha.

Even the original printing of The Big Book in Alcoholics Anonymous mentions a physician who encouraged newly sober alcoholics to keep chocolate or candy on hand to help manage alcohol cravings. Having a structured routine, (i.e. getting enough sleep, which is ideally, 7 or more hours) and eating three balanced meals a day, can also help combat cravings, says Dr. Weiss. Your unique neurobiology will influence whether you experience intense cravings or not, do alcoholics crave sweets says Weiss. From brain chemistry to low blood sugar, we’ll explore the reasons you might get sugar cravings when you quit drinking, and what keeping a healthy balance looks like. Many people who struggle with alcohol addiction also suffer from low blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia. Normally, the liver stores glucose in the form of glycogen, which is then released into the bloodstream steadily throughout the day to keep your blood sugar levels balanced.

Sugar Cravings after Quitting Alcohol: 10 Dietitian-Approved Tips

This is especially true if you are struggling with sugar cravings. Fortunately, understanding why you’re craving sweets after quitting alcohol and finding ways to avoid sugar can help you maintain a healthy recovery. Other sources of caffeine include tea, soda, coffee ice cream, and chocolate. Excessive caffeine intake can actually increase sugar cravings due to fluctuations in blood sugars and dehydration. Alcohol disrupts metabolism, normal hunger/fullness cues, and can produce massive blood sugar swings. These fluctuations in blood sugars can cause cravings for sweets or other high carbohydrate foods.

What foods and vitamins are beneficial for recovering alcoholics?

Understanding that the desire for sweets following alcohol abstinence is a normal phenomenon is the first step towards managing it effectively. Being proactive and employing techniques such as mindful eating, hydrating, and exercising regularly will then adequately arm you to cope with your sugar cravings. Sugary foods can help those in recovery because they affect the brain like addictive drugs. During the early days of addiction recovery, people often battle intense drug cravings and may be calorically deficient.

Sugar and Alcohol Addiction

The Connection Between Alcohol and Sugar

• It can help with digestive issues like irritable bowel and acid reflux, but that’s not all.
• Consuming alcohol and sugar together might feel like it diminishes feelings of drunkenness.
• “If you’re getting in the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, protein and high-fiber foods, it will help stabilize your blood sugar,” Czerwony says.