Who hasn’t given into a sugar craving or turned to food for comfort when stressed or bored — whether consciously or subconsciously? Sugar cravings and emotional eating can affect anyone. And apart from sabotaging your weight-loss efforts, it can also lead to eating too much high-calorie, surgery, and processed foods.
Luckily, if you're prone to sugar cravings and emotional eating, there’s a 4500-year-old superfood that can help regain control of your eating habits.
What’s feeding your sugar cravings and emotional eating?
Most people experience food cravings. You know — that nagging feeling telling you you’re not satisfied until you eat that one specific thing. And while it’s often downplayed as simple hunger, research from Cambridge University suggests that hunger is rarely the reason you crave. Instead, your mood often dictates your cravings.
So, a simple craving really isn’t all that simple. In fact, there are real differences between physical hunger and emotional hunger…
Physical hunger hits slowly. Emotional hunger hits hard and fast.
Physical hunger makes you crave a variety of food groups. Emotional hunger makes you crave one specific food.
Physical hunger provides fullness and a cue to stop eating. Emotional hunger pushes you to binge and never feels satisfied.
Physical hunger provides no negative feelings. Emotional hunger leaves you with feelings of shame or guilt.
And here’s why…
A study published in the journal NeuroImage used MRIs to explore the brain and the areas linked to food cravings. Participants were fed a healthy drink to reduce hunger during the MRI. They were then asked to think about the texture, smell, and taste of a favorite food to trigger a craving. It turns out induced cravings showed up in the areas of the brain that involve drug addiction:
- Hippocampus for memory — causes you to crave foods via reward-seeking habits.
- Caudate for reward — helps you form food-related habits.
- Insula for emotion — provides an emotional connection between your cravings and food.
And there are lifestyle factors that contribute to sugar cravings and emotional eating, including:
- Poor sleep
- Stress and anxiety
- Inflammation
But here’s the good news: There’s an ancient superfood that can help you gain control of your eating habits and nourish your body — turmeric!
What is turmeric?
If you haven’t heard, golden milk is all the rage! And its beautiful golden yellow/orange color comes from turmeric. Turmeric, a plant related to ginger, is commonly used in its dried form. It’s most familiar in curry powder blends. But turmeric also has a long history of medicinal uses — thanks to its active compound curcumin — which dates back 4500 years!
Benefits Of Turmeric
Turmeric for a better night’s sleep
Did you know that even one night of sleep deprivation can lead to increased hunger? Poor sleep affects how your brain’s motivation centers respond — not only to the look of food but also the thought of food. Basically, when you’re lacking sleep, your brain and body send strong food signals.
And, of course, all those extra calories mean extra weight, which explains the connection between poor sleep and weight gain.
However, researchers recently looked at seven studies that used a variety of methods to improve sleep time. They found that those who got more sleep ate less during the day. In addition, their cravings for sweet and salty foods declined.
Turmeric, which is proven to help with a wide variety of health issues, may also help you sleep more soundly at night. Additional health benefits of turmeric like improved digestion and balanced blood sugar can also directly affect your ability to fall asleep.
In fact, a controlled animal study found that turmeric also helped protect mice against the damage associated with 72 hours of sleep deprivation. This is one of the main reasons golden milk has become such a popular bedtime drink.
Turmeric supports healthy inflammation
Short-term or acute inflammation of the body is an important part of the immune system's response to wound healing, bacteria, and infection. But when chronic inflammation takes hold, that’s when problems begin.
Studies show that chronic inflammation is the pathway to a number of health conditions. And chronic inflammation not only contributes to weight gain but also makes it difficult to lose weight.
One of the reasons is likely the role inflammation plays on mood. A study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that inflammation can aggravate stress-related mood issues.
When you’re stressed, chemical messengers to the brain can trigger low mood, fatigue, and overall unhappiness with life — the basic foundation for emotional eating.
Turmeric fights sugar cravings
Curcumin, the main active compound in turmeric, has been shown to help boost serotonin and dopamine levels — the feel-good chemicals produced by the brain. One study found that turmeric, along with piperine, could be useful for improving mood.
Turmeric, widely known for its healing properties, can provide benefits that have a cascading effect, resulting in improved sugar cravings.
What you need is a bedtime “fat-burning” tonic
If your solution to getting enough turmeric in your diet is to add it to your food, you may be missing out. While that might make for tasty dishes, it’s difficult to reach the appropriate levels needed by just adding the spice to your food. To feel the full effects, you need to supplement with significant amounts of turmeric.
Unfortunately, curcumin (the active compound in turmeric) is poorly absorbed into the bloodstream. However, consuming piperine along with turmeric makes it more bioavailable. Piperine is what gives pepper its heat and just a pinch of black pepper increases the absorption of curcumin by 2000%!
The problem is, not all supplements or products contain piperine. This means no matter how much turmeric you take, you just won’t reap the benefits needed to control your sugar cravings and emotional eating. Earth Echo Foods has a superior product that can help you get your life back on track. Not only is Golden Superfood Bliss engineered to maximize bioavailability making it highly absorbable, but this stress and sleep formulation also:
- Helps curb your stress and anxiety
- Relaxes your mind and body and helps you fall asleep faster
- Helps fight inflammation
- Includes seven additional superfood ingredients proven to cripple hunger and cravings even more
All of which fights cravings, curbs hunger signals, and helps you to release more fat!
