Brigid Titgemeier explains why holiday sugar cravings spiral: eating more sugar desensitizes your taste buds and changes your gut bacteria, both pushing you to want sweeter foods. She recommends tracking your weekly holiday events and sweets to break the all-or-nothing cycle.
Chapters
If you're experiencing more cravings this time of year, I want to explain why. The science shows that your taste buds crave what you feed them, so the more sugar that you have, the more sugar that you'll crave. This is an entirely normal process, but a lot of times leads to you feeling more shame and guilt. So the truth is, is that as you eat more sugar, your microbiome changes. It increases the bacteria that release more compounds that increase cravings and desire for food, which leads you to continuously wanting more. The number one thing that I would recommend is doing an audit of your week to see how many holiday events have and in that case, how many times will you go for something sweet. This helps with decreasing the all or nothing mindset.