How to stop sugar cravings (and is sugar addiction real?)
Sugar cravings are rarely beaten by force. What tends to help is eating regularly, spotting the moments your cravings turn up, changing the routines around them and dropping the all-or-nothing bans. In my experience, working on the wanting itself, not just the eating, is where hypnotherapy may help.
If you’ve ever said “I’m addicted to sugar”, you’re in good company. It’s one of the things I hear most often in my sessions. The feeling is real, even if the science on sugar addiction is less clear-cut than the headlines suggest.
Why sugar cravings feel so strong
- Reward and memory. Sweet things often arrived early with good feelings attached: sweets after school, pudding for clearing your plate. By adulthood a bar of chocolate can carry all of that.
- Habit cues. Something sweet with every cup of tea or after every evening meal. After a while the tea or the meal triggers the craving on its own.
- Tiredness and stress. When you’re running on empty, sugar is the fastest lift, so cravings get louder on bad days and short nights.
- Long gaps between meals. Skipping meals often leads to a strong pull towards something sweet later.
- Restriction. Telling yourself you can never have chocolate again keeps the desire alive. Sooner or later the ban gives way.
- Food made to be hard to stop. Many sweet foods combine sugar, fat and texture in ways that keep you reaching for more. That’s not a personal failing.
Is sugar addiction real?
The honest answer is that it’s debated. A careful 2016 review by researchers at the University of Cambridge found little to support sugar addiction in humans. Most of the evidence comes from animal studies, and the binge-like behaviour seen in rats mainly appeared when they were given sugar only some of the time, which looks more like a response to restriction than a drug effect.
Other researchers argue that some people develop something that looks like an addiction to certain highly processed foods. The question is still open, and you don’t need to settle it to make progress. Call it an addiction or a habit: the pull you feel is real, and the practical steps are much the same.
To be clear: I don’t treat addiction or eating disorders. I help people with sugar habits and the feeling of being addicted, which is very different from a diagnosis.
How to stop sugar cravings: what to try
None of this is quick or magic, and it takes effort. Pick a few and stick with them.
- Eat regular meals that include protein and fibre, so you’re not running on empty by mid-afternoon
- Find your cue: notice the time, place and feeling when the craving shows up
- Change the routine around the cue: a walk after dinner, or a different drink with your afternoon break
- Wait ten minutes before you decide. Many cravings pass if you give them a little time
- Plan sweet things instead of banning them. Choose something you really enjoy and eat it slowly, sitting down
- Don’t keep a stash. If it’s in the cupboard, you’ll be negotiating with it every evening
- Look after sleep, because tired brains want quick energy
- Expect slips. One biscuit is not a reason to write off the day
Bread, pasta and white carbs often come as part of the same pattern. My guide on changing your relationship with carbs without banning them covers that side, and my guide on sugar and chocolate cravings looks more closely at the memories behind them.
Chocolate cravings
For many people chocolate is the one food they can’t seem to budge. It’s often tied to comfort, reward and a small daily ritual, as much as taste. A useful question is: what is the chocolate doing for me right now? A lift in a flat afternoon, a reward after a hard day, company on a quiet evening. Once you know, you can meet that need in other ways, and enjoy good chocolate on purpose rather than on autopilot.
How hypnotherapy may help with sugar cravings
In 17 years of clinical practice, sugar has been one of the most common things people bring to me. In our sessions we pin down your cravings and the moments they turn up. In hypnosis, I help you change how sweet foods feel to you, so they lose some of their pull, and we rehearse the moment of choice, so you can pause instead of reaching on autopilot. If the sugar is soothing stress or low mood, we work on that too.
Many people find the cravings become weaker and less in charge. Results vary, though, and there are no good trials of hypnosis for sugar cravings specifically. Hypnosis supports your effort and sensible eating rather than replacing them. You can read more about the wider evidence on does hypnosis work for weight loss?
If the cravings feel more like constant thoughts about food in general, my page on food noise may fit better. My cravings and snacking page covers snacking more widely. To try something at home, there’s a simple self-hypnosis method and two free hypnosis downloads.
Free podcast sessions on sugar and chocolate
Full hypnosis sessions from my podcast, The Hypnotist, free to listen to. Listen somewhere comfortable, never while driving.
Hypnosis to Break Emotional Eating that Started in Childhood
Looks back at a childhood where puddings and home cooking stood for love, and helps you find other ways to feel comforted so sweet food doesn’t have to do that job.
Weight Loss Hypnosis for Evolutionary Change
Puts quality before quantity, so a little really good dark chocolate, eaten slowly, can satisfy more than a lot of something ordinary.
Hypnosis for Overeating and Self Control
Shrinks the vivid mental picture that comes with a craving and swaps it for an image of yourself eating calmly and in control.
Common questions about sugar cravings
Is sugar addiction real?
The science is debated. A careful review found little evidence that sugar is addictive in the way drugs are, with most supporting evidence coming from animal studies. That doesn’t mean your cravings aren’t real: many people feel addicted to sugar, and the habit can be very strong.
Why do I crave sugar after dinner or in the evening?
Usually it’s habit and tiredness. If something sweet has followed your evening meal for years, the meal itself becomes the cue. Changing what you do straight after dinner, such as a short walk or brushing your teeth, often helps.
Should I cut out sugar completely?
Some people do well with a clean break, but many find strict bans backfire and the craving gets louder. Cutting down steadily and planning sweet things you’ll really enjoy tends to be more sustainable.
Can hypnosis stop sugar cravings?
It may help them feel weaker and less in charge, but I won’t promise it will stop them. There are no good trials of hypnosis for sugar cravings specifically. In my experience it works best alongside sensible eating and your own commitment to change.
Could my sugar cravings be a sign of something medical?
Usually they’re about habit, tiredness and stress, but it’s worth checking. If cravings come with feeling very thirsty, needing to pass urine more often, unusual tiredness or unexplained weight change, see your GP.
Where to start
Is hypnosis right for you?
Take my free four minute suitability test for sugar cravings. You get an honest answer about whether hypnotherapy is likely to help, and how.
Work on it with me
Book a consultation call and we will talk through your eating, what you have tried and whether hypnotherapy is right for you. Use code SLIM at checkout for half price: £24.50 instead of £49 (or $29.50 outside the UK). The fee comes off your first session.
Or start with a recorded session
Sessions from my store, recorded for this kind of eating. Listen somewhere comfortable, never while driving.
Please read this first
If you’re eating very little, making yourself sick, or your eating feels out of control, please speak to your GP or contact Beat, the UK eating disorder charity, on 0808 801 0677. If you think you may have a medical problem, or you take prescribed medication, speak to your GP or prescriber first. My work is with adults only, and you should never listen to hypnosis while driving.