More and more research is being done to help us understand the true impact of gut health on other systems in the body. Commonly reported symptoms like weight gain, weakened immunity, anxiety, depression, changes in mood and energy levels, aches and pains are being reported alongside inflammation, digestive issues and other diseases. Do you see the pattern here? They all stem from the gut!

Anxiety in particular is something a lot of us carry with us and thus is an important topic of conversation. Out of all mental health diagnoses, it is the number one issue in the United States, affecting 40 million adults every year. Maybe you fall into this category or know someone who does. Health journals have been reporting on anxiety for years. And recently, scientific reviews of these journals have been suggesting thatyour gut could be a major factor playing into your mental health.

In a review published in General Psychiatry, researchers from the Shanghai Mental Health Center looked at over 20 studies, examining more than 1,500 participants, to see if gut bacteria had any effect on anxiety. Some people might say this is out of left field, but in fact, a growing amount of research indicates that bacteria found in the gut play a role in brain and mental health—namely, the gut-brain axis, which facilitates communication between the nervous, immune and endocrine systems.

As soon as we heard this, we had to know more! After all, Dr. Jennifer Noonan recently sat down with our co-founder Morgan Kline for the Coffee & Kettlebells podcast to talk about how important a healthy gut really is. So, there must be something to this whole “gut health” thing. When your gut is out of balance, everything else in your body is too. Balancing your gut is essential to living your life with greater vitality.

First things first: What makes a gut healthy? There are trillions, yes trillions, of microorganisms in the gut. We call them microbiota. These little guys perform important functions in the immune system and metabolism by providing essential inflammatory mediators, nutrients and vitamins. When intestinal flora is affected, a series of changes in physical and/or mental symptoms can occur. Here’s where we hear about the ever-so-popular IBS, IBD, GERD and a number of other acronyms related to gastrointestinal (GI, in case you needed another one) issues.

If you’re unsure whether your gut is healthy or not, here are some symptoms that might indicate bad gut health. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list but does address some of the most common symptoms.

1. Gas, bloating and bowel movement changes

The number one telltale sign of gut dysfunction is digestive issues like bloating, gas or bowel movement changes. This is due to the number and diversity (or lack) of bacteria living inside your gut, intestines, stomach and colon. Gas in particular should signal to you that food is fermenting in your gut because your stomach acid is falling down on its job. This leads to an imbalance of bacteria, resulting in the inability to break down the food you’ve eaten…and, yes, gas.

2. Bad breath

But I swear I brushed my teeth! Sometimes bad breath isn’t just a result of poor dental hygiene. In fact, chronic bad breath, aka halitosis, stems from odor-inducing microbes, which increase when the ratio of good and bad bacteria in your gut is off. This may start as a mild inconvenience for your social life, but if your gut flora is off, you are more vulnerable to health conditions linked to bad breath such as kidney infections and diabetes.

3. Skin problems

Diving further into the realm of vanity and mild inconveniences, another sign of an unhealthy gut might be staring right back at you in the mirror. Your skin can tell you a lot about what is going on inside your body. For many people, food intolerances or poor digestion of foods consumed can cause things like eczema and breakouts. By balancing the microbes in your gut, you might be doing more for your skin than any face wash ever could.

4. Sugar cravings

Scientists have determined that the bacteria in your gut produce proteins similar to leptin and ghrelin, which are dubbed the “hunger-regulating hormones.” Here’s a quick breakdown: Bacteria try to get us to eat foods that they thrive on. So if you eat a lot of sugar, you feed the unhelpful bacteria that love it and they pump out the proteins to make you crave more sugar. It’s a vicious cycle! Not to worry, though—there is still hope! By fixing your gut, you can eradicate the bacteria that cause you to crave these foods in the first place and—boom!—no more sugar cravings.

5. Mood changes and mental health problems

Last but not least, we underestimate the impact our gut function plays on the levels of our “happy hormones,” serotonin and dopamine, as well as vitamin D. Part of the reason people with leaky gut may experience mental health issues is the micronutrient deficiencies that happen when the body is unable to absorb nutrients. The majority of the happy hormones are actually made in your gut. If you are unable to absorb micronutrients that help facilitate these hormones, it is likely you could experience moodiness, anxiety or depression due to a lack of crucial hormones responsible for regulating emotions.

Don’t worry, we won’t leave you high and dry to figure this out on your own! If you are wondering how you can get your gut health back on track (or keep it on track), there are a few things you can start being aware of in your diet that will definitely have in impact.

Like we touched on before with sugar cravings, a diet high in processed foods and added sugars can decrease the number of good bacteria in your gut. High amounts of refined sugars, particularly high-fructose corn syrup, are what the bad bacteria crave, helping them to outnumber the good guys. Cut out the sugar, cut out the bad bacteria, lessen the cravings and make more room for good bacteria to thrive! So stay away from added sugars. Instead, try eating a wide variety of whole foods. A lack of diversity within the gut bacteria limits recovery from harmful influences, such as infection or antibiotics that kill off good bacteria. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains can lead to a more diverse gut flora. This is because the food you eat provides nutrients that help bacteria grow. A diet rich in whole foods provides your gut with a variety of nutrients that help promote the growth of different types of bacteria, resulting in a more diverse gut flora. The adage “the more the merrier” applies here!

Also, if you don’t eat probiotic-rich foods already, now is the time to start! Foods like yogurt, miso and tempeh and drinks like the ever-popular kombucha all have the wonderful microorganisms that make up a healthy gut. One great part about the research we told you about earlier is that they looked into the use of probiotic-rich foods to help address symptoms of anxiety. Their findings indicated that more than half of the studies found that regulating gut bacteria helped to improve anxiety. Obviously, there is still a long way to go with research in the gut-brain axis world before determining direct causation between anxiety and gut health. With that said, eating more gut-friendly foods has been shown to help the bacteria already in your intestines flourish (instead of simply introducing more bacteria, which happens when taking supplements). If your gut is flourishing, the cause-and-effect chain can ripple on up to your brain, improving your mental health as well.

A huge bonus of eating a diverse diet with loads of probiotic-rich foods is that you’re also going to be getting more prebiotic foods! Not to be confused with probiotics, prebiotics are a type of fiber that passes through the body undigested and promotes the growth of good bacteria. Again, many whole foods have naturally occurring prebiotic fiber. Some examples include legumes, oats, bananas, asparagus, garlic, onions and nuts. Including these in your diet will help your body flush out the bad stuff and leave room for more of the bacteria that can absorb all of the micronutrients necessary to help regulate emotions.

Mental health issues like anxiety can be overwhelming, but getting your gut health in check could be just what the doctor ordered to give you some peace of mind. Isn’t it wild that whole foods have the ability to heal such an intricate system of hormones in the body—minus all the extra pills and supplements that can rack up a huge bill and actually have a negative impact on your gut health in the end? The potential for a more accessible solution for mental illness, like anxiety, with small changes in your diet and lifestyle is an incredible step in a positive direction! As always, we encourage you to speak to a doctor before making dietary changes or if you think you may have anxiety. Head to the BE. blog to learn more about prebiotics and probiotics as well as the link between gut health and cravings, and to learn more about the importance of gut health and how to heal your gut, listen to this episode of Coffee & Kettlebells!­­­­

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To take control of your gut health, you have to work on repopulating your gut with good bacteria as well as providing that good bacteria with an environment it can thrive in. Introducing prebiotics and probiotics into your diet is a great place to start.

Probiotics are the actual bacteria in your gut, and prebiotics are what the probiotics—or gut bacteria—live on. A simple way to look at the two is by imagining probiotics as seeds and prebiotics as soil.

So which is more important: prebiotics or probiotics? Herbalist and wellness practitioner Rachelle Robinette says, “You can make the case that prebiotics are more important because if you take probiotics but there is nothing in your gut microbiome to sustain their wellbeing, they will die very quickly.” Ultimately, consuming probiotics without prebiotics is like planting a seed in dried-up soil.

How do you add prebiotics to your diet?

Prebiotics are found in fibrous foods. Therefore, more fiber in your diet equals more prebiotics. The best way to ensure you are consuming enough prebiotics daily is by tracking your fiber intake, just as you might track your carbohydrate, protein or fat intake. If you consume at least 30 grams of fiber a day, more likely than not, you will be eating enough prebiotics to feed the good bacteria in your gut. 30 grams is a great starting point, but don’t be afraid to build from there. “There has been research on people who have eaten 100 grams of fiber a day and they have shown to have extremely diverse gut flora (good gut bacteria),” shares Rachelle.

How do you include more fibrous, prebiotic-rich foods into your diet? “I am a fan of high-fiber smoothies; it’s a simple way to boost your intake. Acacia fiber, dandelion root powder, high-fiber hemp protein, flax seeds, chia seeds, raspberries and plantains are all great high-fiber, prebiotic-rich options to blend into your protein smoothies,” says Rachelle. “You may find getting enough fiber each day is difficult at first, but if you make small swaps in your diet, it can easily be met. For example, if you eat raspberries instead of strawberries, you can increase your fiber intake by 10 grams.”

Some other great options include root vegetables (especially sweet potatoes, yuca or cassava and jicama), chicory root, garlic, onions, green bananas, cacao powder, seaweed, coconut, coconut flour and cabbage.

How do you add probiotics to your diet?

While it’s common to supplement with probiotics, you can also add probiotic-rich foods to your diet to boost your intake. Probiotic-rich foods include many fermented foods, such as kimchi, kombucha, miso, tempeh, kefir, apple cider vinegar, sauerkraut (not canned—the raw, unpasteurized kind from the refrigerated section of the grocery store) goat cheese and full-fat, grass-fed yogurt.

Probiotic supplements can also be extremely beneficial, but it can be overwhelming to figure out which probiotics actually work and which ones are a waste of money because there are many varieties out there. Dr. Mark Hyman, a physician and best-selling author, says, “When shopping for a probiotic, look for one with at least 25 to 50 billion living CFUs (colony-forming units), including the most beneficial strains like bifidobacterium bifidum, bifidobacterium longum, bifidobacterium breve, lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus rhamnosus and lactobacillus bulgaricus.”

The United States does not have any federal regulations or standards for probiotic supplements, which means it’s possible to purchase ones that either do not actually contain the strains of bacteria stated on the label or, even worse, contain strains that are no longer alive. This makes it extremely important to research different brands prior to purchasing to see if there is any evidence-backed data supporting the effectiveness of the product. Dr. Mark Hyman recommends the brands Align, Culturelle and Florastor.

Will consuming prebiotics and probiotics heal your gut?

While prebiotics and probiotics are essential for a well-functioning gut, there are many everyday exposures, lifestyle habits and gut-damaging foods that you must avoid as well. To learn more about what you can do to heal your gut, listen to Coffee & Kettlebells Episode 25: Is Your Gut Healthy? Why It Matters and How to Fix It with Dr. Jennifer Noonan as well as Episode 51: Becoming Metabolically Fit with Primal Health Coach Courtney Bursich.

1. Episode #18: Does Organic Really Matter and How to Start Juicing (with Kat Eckles)

On this top nutrition podcast episode of Coffee & Kettlebells, Kat Eckles, the co-founder of Clean Juice and a certified health coach, discusses why you should be eating organic foods and buying organic household and beauty products. You’ll learn the main contaminants in conventional foods and how they affect your health, plus the top contaminated foods (also known as the “Dirty Dozen”) that you should always buy organic. You’ll also learn the benefits of juicing and green smoothies and which juices are best for your different health needs.

2. Episode #45: Actual Ways to Stop Craving Junk Food (with Samantha Eaton)

Certified nutritional health coach and eating psychology coach Samantha Eaton joins me on this top nutrition episode of Coffee & Kettlebells to chat about why developing more willpower, discipline and motivation won’t prevent your cravings and what you can do that actually helps overcome them. Samantha also shares how to have less self-judgment and more self-compassion when you do succumb to eating junk food, how to deal with stress eating and how to say “no” to the junk food your significant other or children keep in the house.

3. Episode #38: Intuitive Eating: How to Build a Healthier Relationship with Food

(with Chelsey Amer)

In this top nutrition podcast episode of Coffee & Kettlebells, registered dietitian, nutritionist and wellness coach Chelsey Amer shares how you can reset your relationship with food through eating intuitively. You’ll learn signs your diet isn’t working for you, how to begin eating right for your body and how to stop overindulging and binge eating. Plus, you’ll learn the dangers of calorie restriction, why having cheat meals might not be helping you and how to make “all foods fit” into your diet.

4. Episode #24: How to Stay on Track Over the Weekend

If the weekends are your weakness, then this top nutrition podcast episode is for you! In this episode of Coffee & Kettlebells, I address common obstacles that stop you from staying on track over the weekend and share my best tips for enjoying a healthy yet balanced weekend without overindulging or feeling deprived.

5. Episode #13: The Truth About Cheat Days, Exercising When Sick, Post-Exercise Hunger & Pregnancy Cravings

This top nutrition podcast episode is a Q&A edition where I answer your pressing health and fitness questions! I dive into why you shouldn’t work out when you’re sick, how to overcome excess hunger when training intensely, helpful tricks for battling unhealthy food cravings during pregnancy (or just in life!) and why cheat days may not always be the best idea for your health and fitness goals.

6. Episode #28: How to Create a Healthy Meal for Weight Loss

With so many fad diets, it can be extremely confusing and overwhelming to figure out what you should be eating and in what amounts in order to successfully lose weight. In this top nutrition podcast episode of Coffee & Kettlebells, I teach you how to let go of the fad diets and create a healthy meal to boost weight loss. You’ll learn how to stop overthinking and over-complicating your meal choices with my extremely simple tricks for creating healthy and balanced meals every day.

7. Episode #25: Is Your Gut Healthy? Why It Matters and How to Fix It (with Dr. Jennifer Noonan)

This top nutrition podcast episode is extremely beneficial for determining if your gut is out of balance. Dr. Jennifer Noonan joins me to discuss the hot topic of gut health, what it means to have an unhealthy gut and why it is so important to heal it. You’ll learn which foods and daily exposures throw your gut out of balance, signs and side effects of bad gut health, the effects bad gut health has on your children, the top foods to eat and to avoid for better gut health and a detailed plan to reset your gut now.

8. Episode #30: Why Am I So Bloated?

Bloating is not a glamorous topic to discuss, but it’s a common struggle. If you experience bloating regularly, stop living in discomfort because, believe it or not, it can be avoided! In this top nutrition podcast episode of Coffee & Kettlebells, I discuss what foods in your diet might be causing you to bloat and my favorite tips to make it disappear.

9. Episode #19: Your Nutrition Questions Answered: Keto, Macros, Carb Cycling, Sugar and Detoxing

In this top nutrition podcast episode of Coffee & Kettlebells, I answer your burning nutrition questions! You’ll learn my thoughts on the keto diet, what it means to carb cycle and how to do it, and what macros are and how to count them. I’ll also discuss where sugar is hiding in your diet, why you shouldn’t avoid sugar from fruit, the best carbs and the best time to eat them, and the top foods for detoxing your system.

10. Episode #22: Why Your “Ideal” Body Weight Doesn’t Make You Healthy and Happy (with Samantha Eaton)

This top nutrition podcast episode of Coffee & Kettlebells is both informative and extremely empowering. Samantha Eaton, a certified nutritional health coach and eating psychology coach,  shares her story about reaching her “ideal” body weight and what she learned. Samantha discusses why compromising your health and happiness for a pant size isn’t worth it, the negative health effects of over-exercising and calorie restriction, and a healthier and more balanced approach to diet and nutrition.

What is bone broth?

Bone broth is made by simmering animal bones, with or without the meat, in water for an extended period of time, usually 18 hours or more. It is typically made from pork, beef, veal, turkey, lamb, bison, buffalo, venison, chicken or fish bones. Bone broth differs from stock due to its longer cook time, allowing it to absorb more nutrients. Stock is generally cooked somewhere between 4 and 6 hours.

Why is bone broth so healthy?

High in protein and low in calories and carbohydrates

Including bone broth in your diet is a simple way to increase your protein intake without over-consuming calories or carbohydrates. One cup of bone broth contains 10 grams of protein and only 40 calories and .5 grams of carbohydrates.

Collagen

Bone broth contains collagen, which is the most common protein found in your body and provides strength and elasticity to your skin, bones, muscles, tissues and tendons. As you age, your production of collagen decreases, which explains why your skin can become wrinkled and look “saggy” and why your bones and joints grow weaker. Consuming more collagen through bone broth can provide amazing anti-aging benefits, like tightening of the skin and a reduction in the appearance of cellulite, stretch marks and wrinkles. Another benefit of the collagen in bone broth is assisting in building lean muscle mass through boosting the production of amino acids in your body, helping your muscles repair and grow faster. It also helps decrease joint pain by reducing inflammation.

Amino acids

Bone broth has a high amino acid profile, but more importantly it contains all four of the conditional amino acids: proline, arginine, glycine and glutamine. Conditional amino acids are those that your body is capable of producing on its own, but does not produce as well when you are under lots of stress. According to Dr. Axe, a well-known health and wellness doctor, these conditional amino acids provide you with incredible health benefits:

• – Proline rebuilds cartilage, heals joints, reduces the appearance of cellulite and improves gut health.
• – Arginine boosts growth hormones, improves the immune system and helps detox the body.
• – Glycine prevents muscle breakdown, helps detox the body and improves sleep and memory.
• – Glutamine protects the gut lining, which improves gut health, boosts metabolism and increases muscle growth.

Electrolytes and other essential minerals

Bone broth contains the electrolytes sodium, potassium and magnesium, which are crucial for a variety of bodily functions. Electrolytes help to control nerve and muscle function, keep the body hydrated, balance the body’s pH levels as well as blood pressure, and rebuild damaged tissue, especially muscle tissue damaged during workouts. Electrolytes are primarily lost through sweat during exercise. Drinking bone broth is an easy way to rebalance your electrolyte levels. Bone broth also contains other essential minerals, including copper, iron, manganese, phosphorus, sodium and zinc.

How much bone broth should you drink?

The simple answer is: as much as you can! Although the taste is not for anyone, try to drink at least 8 ounces one or two times daily to reap bone broth’s amazing health benefits.

Where do you get bone broth and how do you consume it?

You can either use store-bought bone broth or make your own. It can easily be found at grocery stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Make your own by using grass-fed beef bones or chicken bones, which you can buy from your local farmer, butcher or grocery store. Toss the bones into a crockpot and cover with water, ensuring the water rises one inch above the bones. Add your favorite spices and vegetables, as well as 2 to 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and allow to cook on low for 18 to 24 hours. Continue to add water to ensure bones remain covered. Once cooked, strain the broth and discard the bones and vegetables.

Heat up a cup of bone broth and drink it like a cup of tea or use it in soups and stews. Bone broth is interchangeable with chicken or vegetable stock.  

Start incorporating bone broth into your daily diet to increase your overall health and well-being!

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But instead of just learning tips on how to reduce your food cravings, it’s important to understand why you are having these cravings in order to actually overcome them. So before we dive into how to control them (without more discipline), let’s find out what is actually causing you to experience your cravings.

Reason #1: You have poor gut health.

Did you know your gut controls your food cravings, not your lack of discipline? Your food cravings are shaped by the bacteria in your gut. Your gut bacteria plays a huge role in why you have cravings. You have good gut bacteria and bad gut bacteria; the one that is predominant in your gut depends on the foods you feed your body as well as external sources you are regularly exposed to.

Whether it’s good or bad gut bacteria, it needs more of that same bacteria in order to continue growing and thriving. Bad gut bacteria grows and thrives on processed, high-sodium, high-sugar, high-carbohydrate foods. When your bad gut bacteria takes over, it sends messages to your brain demanding more of these foods in order to stay alive, leading you to experience heightened food cravings.

Reason #2: Your hormones are out of balance.

You don’t always feel hungry because you are actually hungry. When you have lowered or heightened levels of certain hormones, it triggers your brain to falsely believe it needs more food. So if you keep eating and eating and never feel full or are always searching for that extra something to satisfy you, this is a clear sign that your hormones are out of balance.

Two hormones that play a large role in regulating your hunger and appetite are leptin (the “I’m full” hormone) and ghrelin (the “I’m hungry” hormone). When you have low levels of leptin, triggering you to stop eating, and high levels of ghrelin, triggering you to keep eating, your food cravings will be out of control!

Dopamine and serotonin are two other hormones that greatly influence your food cravings. Dopamine and serotonin regulate your mood and happiness levels, and when these hormones are out of balance, you may never feel happy and satisfied with your meals, or they may trigger you to emotionally crave foods.

So now that you know what may be causing your food cravings, what can you do about it?

1. Take control of your gut health!

Your food cravings heavily depend on the quality of your gut health, and the quality of your gut heavily depends on the food you feed it. You want to feed and grow the good bacteria and kill off the bad. So how do you do that?

Avoid foods that destroy your gut health! These include foods that are heavily processed and high in sodium and sugar or converted into sugar easily. Foods that contain gluten, dairy or artificial sweeteners or additives can also wreak havoc on your gut. You also want to avoid drinking unfiltered tap water, control your carbohydrate intake, limit your exposure to antibiotics (especially in your foods!) and restrict your alcohol intake.

To feed and grow the good bacteria in your gut, you want to include more prebiotics, probiotics and whole foods in your diet.

Some prebiotic-rich foods to include:

• – Chicory root
• – Raw garlic
• – Raw leeks
• – Raw and cooked onions
• – Jicama
• – Green bananas
• – Flaxseed
• – Raw cacao powder
• – Seaweed
• – Raw or cooked radishes
• – Shredded coconut and coconut flour
• – Sweet potatoes
• – Hemp seeds
• – Cabbage
• – Berries

Probiotic-rich foods include many fermented foods, such as:

• – Kimchi
• – Kombucha
• – Miso
• – Tempeh
• – Apple cider vinegar
• – Sauerkraut (not canned—the raw, unpasteurized kind from the refrigerated section of the grocery store)
• – Yogurt

You can also supplement pre- and probiotics. Because there are countless different strands of bacteria in your gut and it’s impossible to know which strands your body needs, continue to alternate the brand of supplements you use to increase the diversity of good bacteria in your gut.

And lastly, you want to eat as many whole foods as possible. These are foods that contain only one ingredient and have not been processed. This means eating chicken and not chicken sausage, using natural coconut oil and not chemically altered vegetable oils, and avoiding packaged foods as much as possible. Go straight to the produce aisle, where foods don’t need ingredient lists! Including bone broth in your diet has also shown to be extremely healing for the gut.

Aside from food, a very important and little-known cause of poor gut health is over-sanitizing, especially with hand sanitizer, and using harsh household cleaners, laundry detergent and dish soap.

2. Stop restricting your calories and over-exercising.

There is a huge difference between controlling your calories and restricting your calories. When you eat way less calories than your body needs, you throw your hormones way out of whack!

Your hormones may be out of balance, causing you to experience food cravings, due to eating less and exercising more. When you focus on eating as few calories as possible at each meal and working out longer and harder each day, come nighttime, your hunger and cravings will be unmanageable! More discipline won’t help because your body is not only starved for food but you have also completely thrown your hormones out of whack.

Your hunger hormones are extremely sensitive to calorie restriction, so it’s important to understand the difference between controlling your calories and over-restricting your calories. Rather than focusing on eating as few calories as possible at each meal, you need to focus on eating balanced meals. Combine protein, fat, fiber and greens at each meal to naturally balance your hunger hormones and keep you full and satisfied for hours. Consuming balanced meals will stop you from always thinking about food and kill your food cravings. Most likely, you will end up eating less throughout your week if you feed yourself balanced meals each day instead of restricting your calories just to give into your food cravings later.

And what about over-exercising? Hitting the gym for hours a day puts your body into a chronic state of stress. High levels of stress cause your body to release your fight-or-flight hormone, cortisol, causing a domino effect of reactions in your body, ultimately affecting the levels of your hunger hormones. When you fall into vicious cycle of giving into your food cravings and hitting the gym longer the next day to work it off, this is just causing you to crave more and more.

3. Get more sleep.

Sleep deprivation is another big reason why you might experience food cravings. Did you know people who are sleep-deprived have been shown to eat 300 more calories a day than those who get enough sleep? An extra 300 calories each day can lead to about 22 pounds of weight gain per year!

Lack of sleep alters the timing and release of your appetite-controlling hormones, releasing larger amounts of ghrelin, your hunger hormone, and less leptin, your “I’m full” hormone. Even worse, this imbalance of hormones not only makes you feel hungrier, it also stops you from realizing you are full, leading you to continue to eat.

New research shows that sleep deprivation causes the same release of chemicals in your brain as marijuana, causing you to experience the munchies. Lack of sleep also triggers your late-night food cravings by increasing the activity of the emotional center of your brain, promoting heightened emotions and irrational thinking. With both of these effects happening to your brain, you are much more likely to lack the willpower to say “no” to your late-night cravings.

The next time you are short on sleep, observe your hunger levels and food cravings. Most likely both will be heightened. Remind yourself they are not true hunger signals. Concentrate on eating balanced meals with protein, fat, fiber and greens throughout your day and make going to sleep earlier a priority to get back on track and stop your cravings.

4. Stop eating around the clock.

Eating from the second you wake up to the second you fall asleep causes you to crave more and more food. Eating a big meal, a snack an hour later and another big meal an hour after that is horrible for your hunger hormones. Eating around the clock heightens your food cravings and affects not only your gut health but also your hormone levels. You are feeding the bad bacteria in your gut, which send a signal to your brain to eat more food to keep them alive. Eating around the clock also causes your hunger hormones to become numb. They stop signaling properly and prevent you from actually feeling full and satisfied.

Give yourself a break from eating. Simply close the kitchen a little earlier at night or hold off your breakfast for an hour in the morning. This doesn’t mean you need to start intermittent fasting, but waiting 12 hours between dinner and breakfast can be great for rebalancing your hunger hormones and cutting your food cravings.

Instead of just following tips on how to reduce your food cravings, now you understand exactly what might be causing them. You can now take real action to overcome them, rather than just quick fixes!

5. Do more of what makes you happy!

Dopamine and serotonin regulate your mood and happiness levels and when you do more of what makes you happy, you boost the production of these two hormones. Your brain will feel satisfied without having to turn to food to provide you with the same feelings of satisfaction.

Doing more of what makes you happy will also help you deal with stress more effectively. Stress depletes dopamine from the brain and also has a negative effect on your mood and sleeping patterns, leading to more stress which lowers both dopamine and serotonin levels.

To successfully overcome your late night food cravings, ask yourself what makes you happy?  It can be something as small as quietly enjoying a cup of coffee or relaxing while watching your favorite T.V. show. Make a list of all the things that make you happy, followed by a list of all the things you do each day. Compare the two lists and see where you can make changes in your life. Make it a priority to regularly include more of what makes you happy into your life. You will reduce your stress, naturally balance your hormone levels and conquer those food cravings!