‘I gave up sugar, honey, jaggery 4 years ago’: Saumya Tandon swears by these sugar-free desserts—Can you do it too?

In a viral Instagram video last month, that came straight from her kitchen, actor Saumya Tandon claimed that she gave up sugar and all sugar substitutes including honey and jaggery, four years ago. Let me know what you thought..” Saumya Tandon’s sugar-free journey: A game-changer for your sweet tooth Surprising causes of sugar cravings: Reacting on the same, in an interview with HT Lifestyle, Prachi Chandra, Lead Clinical Nutritionist at Sakra World Hospital in Bengaluru, revealed, “Food cravings especially sugar cravings are the dieter’s worst enemy. Generally, reaching for sweet snacks is most often not caused by hunger but by the desire to give yourself temporary comfort, by consuming highly processed and palatable foods especially sweets, which stimulate the brain's reward system and activate specific areas of central nervous system giving body a short term sense of relief, joy and mood improvement.” She highlighted, “'Are we are becoming sugarholic or sugar addict?' Sugar cravings happens more also when we are stressed, have lack of sleep, magnesium deficiency, eat foods which lack nutrients such as fiber and proteins or due to obesity, hormonal imbalance and due to poor gut health.” Prachi Chandra pointed out that the WHO recommends sugar consumption should be less than 10% of total energy ~ 40 gm for adults and in children - less than 30 gm per day. The sugar consumed in form of glucose, sucrose, fructose or starch provides same calorie so eating honey, jaggery, brown sugar is all same from calories perspective.” Life-changing tips to crush sugar cravings naturally: The nutrition expert suggested, “Including natural sugars from sweet fruits, vegetables like sweet potato is a better option instead of consuming ultra-processed sweet meats to presence of some amount of fiber and micro nutrients.