Craving Carbs? Here’s What’s Really Going On
When you start craving carbs or sugary treats, it can start to feel like you’re stuck in a loop, constantly reaching for bread, sweets, or other simple carbs. Carb cravings can be particularly infuriating if you really want to eat healthy.
If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t seem to break free, let’s talk about what’s really going on when you find yourself craving these foods.
There are two main reasons why you may be experiencing these cravings: the biological loop of blood sugar spikes and the psychological impact of food restriction. We’ll explore why addressing the mental and emotional aspects of your relationship with food is often the key to breaking free from the craving cycle. If you've tried every diet without lasting success, it's time to shift your focus. I invite you to consider the deeper causes of your cravings and why willpower alone isn't the answer.
-In this article-
The biological loop of cravings
The psychological side of cravings
Finding balance: which path to take?
If you’ve never had issues with food control…
But if you’ve tried every diet…
Moving beyond willpower
Prefer to listen instead of read? Listen to me speak to you about this topic in this 3-minute audio.
The biological loop of cravings
One side of the story is purely physiological—it's all about what's happening in your body when you eat sugar or foods high in carbohydrates. When you consume simple carbohydrates, like bread or sweets, your blood sugar spikes quickly, giving you a burst of energy. But then, as fast as it rises, it drops again, leaving you feeling low, tired, and craving more of that quick fix. This cycle of blood sugar highs and lows keeps you wanting more, creating a biological loop that’s hard to escape.
Giving in to carb cravings is not about willpower or lack of discipline; it’s a natural biological response, dictated by your body’s hormones. Your body is responding to eating carbs, and the more you eat these simple carbs, the more your body wants them. Hormones like insulin bring our blood sugar level back down, but when we’ve eaten a ton of sugar, our blood sugar can dip quite low, and the cycle of craving is perpetuated.
It’s also important to note that carbohydrates are the main source of fuel for the body and whether they come from cane sugar or more nutrient-dense foods like sweet potatoes, the body needs an adequate level of carbohydrate intake to keep a consistent blood sugar level to keep hunger at bay.
One way you can support your biology and be gentler with your body is to eat regularly, honor your hunger and cravings, and experiment with how it feels in your body when you eat healthy carbs, complex carbs, or starchy carbs versus simple carbs and refined carbohydrates. You may find sugar cravings go down and your energy evens out from giving some attention to the type of carb you are eating.
If you’re having a consistent lack of energy, you may want to consider if the root of your lack of energy goes beyond the plate.
The psychological side of cravings
But there’s another side to this story that’s just as important: the psychological side. This is where things get a bit more complex. You might be craving carbs and sugary foods not just because of how they affect your blood sugar but because of the mental and emotional restrictions you’ve placed on them.
When we tell ourselves we can’t have something, it becomes all we want. If you’ve been restraining, restricting, or mentally labeling carbs and sugary foods as “bad,” you’re setting yourself up for a cycle of craving, resisting, and eventually giving in. It’s that classic pattern: you hold out for as long as you can, and then when you can’t take it anymore, you cave and eat everything that you once restricted. The more you restrict, the stronger the cravings become. I call this cycle of eating “the romance and the fall.”
Finding balance: which path to take?
Balancing these two sides—biological and psychological—is key to making any real progress with cravings. So how do you know where to start? It all comes down to your relationship with food.
If you’ve struggled with disordered eating, if dieting has been a constant in your life, or if food thoughts consume you daily, there’s a sequence that matters here: the psychological must come first. You have to start by addressing the emotional and mental factors at play because your body can handle the nutrition side of things. We’re made to process all kinds of foods; our bodies are resilient. But if your mental, emotional, and even spiritual strength isn’t there, addressing nutrition alone won’t solve the issue. You’ll just stay stuck in that crazy loop of restriction and craving.
If you’ve never had issues with food control…
On the other hand, if you’ve never really struggled with dieting, emotional eating, or disordered eating—if you don’t feel out of control around food—then you can address carb cravings on the physical level. Focusing on stabilizing your blood sugar to address sugar cravings and carb cravings is smart and can make a huge difference in evening out your insulin levels and taming your hunger. For you, making balanced food choices such as watching things like added sugar, and limiting refined carbs in your diet, can make food craving a thing of the past. This can work because, for you, it’s a simple problem with a relatively simple solution.
But if you’ve tried every diet…
But if that’s not you, if you’ve been on every diet out there, if you’re managing conditions like diabetes, autoimmune diseases, struggling with weight, or even considering drastic measures like bariatric surgery because nothing else has worked—this is where you need to start. The psychological comes first. If a food plan alone could fix this, you would have figured it out by now.
For example, when you are using food as comfort, eating to self-soothe, and literally turning to sugar because it acts as a source of much-needed sweetness in your life, there are more complex reasons for your reaching for treats that would be helpful to explore.
Moving beyond willpower
What I offer is the opportunity to go deeper into the work of healing your relationship with food. I’m here to help you explore the root causes of overeating, rather than just focusing on behavior changes driven by willpower. Because the truth is, willpower is too fragile. It’s not adaptive enough to withstand the ups and downs of daily life. The real work is about understanding your cravings, connecting with your needs, and finding a way to nourish yourself that goes beyond just food.
If you find yourself constantly craving carbs and sugary foods, it’s essential to look beyond surface-level solutions like restrictive diets. Addressing the psychological aspects of your relationship with food is the first step, especially if you’ve struggled with dieting or feel out of control around food. By understanding and healing the deeper causes of your cravings, you can break free from the cycle and find a more balanced, fulfilling approach to eating.
Are you ready? Let’s keep in touch through the monthly letters I send out.
Jayne Anne Ammar