BYE-BYE SUGAR CRAVINGS

RELIEF: Turn diet fails into forward progress with this proven bounce-back, feel-better plan that rewires the brain. Eat these 21 slimming foods for 21 days to painlessly peel off pounds forever-even shed 269% more in your waistline!

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Call it a biological fact: Stress makes many of us crave foods we don't need. And it's often the sugary, crunchy, salty packaged foods we tend to grab when we're looking for a little treat. Sadly, stress and ultra-processed foods seem to be everywhere these days. But what if we could soothe our stressed-out brain so we didn't feel the urge to reach for junk? Good news: Experts are pinpointing exactly how to avoid falling off the eat-healthy wagon and how to quickly bounce back after a stumble so weight loss feels easier than ever..

To beat cravings, we first have to understand why they strike: When we eat a carb-rich treat, we get a hormone hit of feel-good dopamine in the reward center of our brain. Experts call this phenomenon “reward-related eating.” It is so pleasurable, it can be addictive.

New research in Nature Metabolism shows that five days of eating sweets is all it takes to suffer long-term cravings. There's even something called “Dessert Stomach”—a mechanism in the brain, activated only by sugar, that makes us crave sweets even when we're full, according to a 2025 study from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research. And when we give in, our brain releases endorphins that make us feel euphoric—until the sugar high fades.

“It’s incredibly common for people to eat in ways that go against their best interests,” explains Princeton neuroscientist Nicole Avena, Ph.D., author of Sugarless. “These foods are engineered to hijack the brain, making it difficult to stop eating—even when we know we should.”

Journalist and health coach Connie Bennett is an expert in this. Years ago, the former sugar and carb addict suffered from 44 symptoms until she cleaned up her diet, lost weight and became the bestselling author of Sugar Shock!, which was endorsed by top doctors, including Mark Hyman, M.D.