Train your brain to tame your sweet tooth

Whenever I try to stop eating added sugar, I fail. I do okay for a while. I pass on dessert. I drink fruit-infused water instead of lemonade or ginger ale. But here’s where I always go wrong…

After a few weeks of doing without the sweet stuff, I decide to reward myself. I let myself have apple crisp with ice cream one night, because what’s the point of life if you can’t dig into a plate of warm apple crisp every once in a while?

That’s when my resolve crumbles faster than the delicious brown sugar and oatmeal topping on my apple crisp. The next day after dinner, I start thinking about how good that apple crisp was. Then I remember that there’s still some leftover in the fridge. There’s still ice cream in the freezer too.

All heck breaks loose after that…

I start craving dessert every night… even after the apple crisp is long gone. I make banana bread and eat the whole loaf in two days. I have a ginger ale with my veggie pizza. And it just keeps snowballing, because the more sugar I eat, the more I crave.

When I go cold turkey, I’m fine. But the second I get a taste again, I can’t control myself. I imagine that’s what it’s like when you’re addicted to drugs or alcohol too. That’s why it’s so important not to break your sobriety.

If you struggle to practice moderation with sweets, I’m sure you understand my predicament. I want to allow myself the occasional treat without completely falling off the wagon. And there is hope on the horizon, for people like us. In fact, there’s a videogame that’s proven to help us sugarholics tame our sweet tooth for the long haul…

Brain training helps you make healthier choices and lose weight

A recent study from researchers at Drexel University found that a simple computer game can train your brain to eat less sugar.

This brain training game called “Diet DASH” targeted the part of the brain that inhibits impulses, so people could practice more self-control around sweets.

The study included 109 people who were overweight and who ate sweets. They started the study by participating in a workshop that gave them advice on how to follow a no-sugar diet. Then, they were asked to play a computer game for a few minutes every day for six weeks and once a week for two weeks.

Related: 12 natural substitutes for processed sweeteners (infographic)

The game was basically a virtual shopping experience. Participants were supposed to move speedily through a grocery store and put healthy foods in a grocery cart to earn points. They also had to avoid putting unhealthy foods (like sweets) in the cart.

Participants with the strongest sweet tooth experienced major benefits. The game helped them lose 3.1 percent of their body weight on average during the eight week period. They also reported enjoying the training and wished they could continue it daily.

Start training your brain to stay away from sugar now

Unfortunately, for sugar lovers like me, this game isn’t available for purchase. But there are plenty of other ways to strengthen your brain’s ability to make good food choices…

In fact, why not turn real-life grocery shopping into a game? Give yourself a point for every healthy food purchase you make and subtract a point for every unhealthy purchase you make. Then, when you reach a set number of points, like 50 or so, reward yourself with a treat that’s not food related. Buy a new outfit, treat yourself to a massage, book a weekend away —  you get the picture.

This will help you form a habit of making healthy purchases and trigger the reward centers in your brain, just like the video game. You may feel silly doing this at first. But months from now, when you turn down a piping hot plate of apple crisp and realize you’ve tamed your sweet tooth (and as a result, reduced your risk of cancer, diabetes, and obesity), you’ll be grateful you trained your brain to stop succumbing to the sweet stuff so easily.

Editor’s note: Getting fit is not as complicated as you might think. In Dr. Cutler’s free report, you can read about 10 easy steps to a natural total health makeover based on just 7 basic fundamentals that cover ALL the bases… My favorite is #7: Indulge occasionally! For the rest, click here!

Sources:

1. Train your brain to eat less sugar — MedicalXpress