Sugar Cravings Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Biohacking Your Sweet Craving With Baking Substitute Tips

While you don’t need sweets to survive and would be better off without sugar, biohacking your sweet craving works if you work it.

And it works well when you bake your own goods and proof your own dough (like in the sweet veggie umami pizza that you can read about below).

I’m living proof it’s doable 🤗

…I’ve had a super sweet tooth since I was a child… candy, cookies, ice cream, you name it. Going to the dentist became so familiar, that now as an adult, I don’t have any dental office chair anxiety. That’s the good news.

…And I think that’s one of the places early on where I realized that no news is good news.

The happy sugar on the tongue and mind keeps dentists and doctors in business. Most (not all) people have a daily sweet hankering that’s hard to shake off (well, maybe with a milkshake or a rich smoothie!).

Especially us Vatas who love sweets. And if you get in the habit of eating sweets because those around you (or you) bring it in the house, then below are some biohacking your sweet craving tips that I use.

Plus, ingredients you could consider adding or substituting (and my personal faves!).

…Especially over the past few years, people have been more cooped up indoors snacking, and sugar is everywhere and part of irregular stress eating patterns, that lead to increased weight and growing health issues.

Health is what got me to change my sweet ways. But I feel like I haven’t missed a beat in sweet enjoyment making a few adjustments. You can change your tastes because of healthy desires.

Chocolate cake, for example, wasn’t one of my fave flavors and now is. It’s one of the healthier cakes that I call Cocoa Cake.

Because it’s mostly made with cocoa. It’s healthy without the rich buttery decadence we’re used to associating with chocolate cakes.

I bake with unsweetened cocoa and a flour blend that includes gluten-free flour and probiotic Greek yogurt, almond milk, unsweetened applesauce, and eggs.

Some of those ingredients are healthy, especially without full-on fat and sugar. A ‘lil dab of the bad will do you… or better yet, you could substitute with healthy fat and fruits that have fructose sugar…

Your sweet spot is “in moderation” relative to your body’s tolerances for healthy goodness. If you have a Kapha body imbalance you want to reduce sugar, and if you’re daily “getting addicted” to sugar. It’s common sense + building good habits.

You can use nuts, higher in fiber and protein. And you can use coconut oil or light EVOO that I use as baking oil to give a batter moistness, and also make consuming daily fat-soluble vitamins more bioavailable to the body.

And my personal favorite is fruit zests and spices to add sweetness. It’s not cheating… it’s being smart with your health and calories.

And here’s a savory example that most of us have a weakness for: french fries. Without frying oil, potatoes are healthy sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

So when roasting or cooking our potatoes, they’re then healthy. And even better if we add spices like turmeric, oregano, and pepper. Or my personal fave: tarragon.

And if you add proteins and veg to your plate, then you’re off to the races.

…Speaking of races, I’m still getting goosebump chills over the Kentucky Derby win over the weekend… the least likely to win (80-1 odds) horse, won. Maybe he got his winning oomph from the healthy grass diet too.

…Which btw, we too could graze on more plant-based foods for our human sustainable energy. And for world sustainability.

That’s what I did with this untraditional plant-based pizza. Or a pie, that we called it when I was a teenager working in a pizza-pie shop. 🍕

…And where I learned pizza-making techniques for 4 years. Most of the pies had tomato sauce, but occasionally, customers would order no sauce, light, or extra sauce. This pie has no tomato sauce.

It’s loaded with eating-from-the-rainbow goodness and flavors. It has beets, sweet potatoes, white cannellini beans, ricotta (goat or buffalo cheese also would be good too!), cilantro, garlic, and truffle oil baked into a whole wheat crust.

Then it was drizzled with balsamic vinegar for a sweet-umami flavor that “hit the spot” for lunch. I didn’t need a side dessert or sugar.

So this brings me to the first tip I have for biohacking your sweet craving:

When you eat less sugar, you crave less of it; and when you crave less, you eat less. So, you can use the cycle to your advantage.

And then your body resets to a “new normal” for the better, which helps you, your health goals, and prevents glucose spikes.

And you can more easily achieve this by baking and cooking that help change the way you look at the foods you eat. Because then you decide what ingredients to add and how much.

You get more choosy about what you put in your body and that can help you make healthier choices.

You end up making the extra effort and time when you know the health and tasty benefits. That’s what this girl did.

Besides the sweet-savory veggie truffle pie, I baked a pan pizza with spinach, tomato, and ricotta that was just as easy to make. Oh, Vata me… I forgot to take a photo. Next time.

There’s also a time for other options for all of us like selecting pre-made convenience, eating out, or ordering out.

The big healthy difference is many packaged goods have more than 30 ingredients (some you’ve never heard of and are hard to pronounce).

And you really only need 2-4 ingredients to make a healthy meal or bake a whole cake. (That’s another category of whole food.)

With fewer healthy ingredients, then you change your taste buds one bake and bite at a time.

Today, if someone handed me a sweet something, it’d have to be pretty darn good for me to eat an entire serving because of the changes I made and how I see food in general.

For sweets, a smaller bite is all that’s needed to be sweet and happy if ya know what I mean.

That’s true for most. At a grocery store or during any food shortages, you’ll never hear, there needs to be more sweet options.

Overall if we bought less processed foods, then the big companies would make more of the good-earthbound healthy-happy packaged goods.

I wouldn’t mind some healthy strawberry licorice …anyone else? 😉

And biohacking your sweet craving with baking substitutes is another good way to change your sweet tooth.

For baking, these are some ingredients I use just about every week. These are a mix of healthy ingredients and iffy in-between ones I use in moderation.

Applesauce

*Berry Jams

Cardamom

Cherries, Maraschino

Cinnamon

Cocoa, unsweetened

Coconut, shredded

Coffee/espresso

Dark chocolate morsels

Ginger

Greek yogurt

Fruit zests

Fruits, Dried (currants, dates, apricots, raisins)

Fruits, Whole

Honey, Raw (instead of maple syrup)

Orange pulp and peel

*Pineapple chunks

*use sparingly

Switching up your ingredients does your body good (encouraging a diverse healthy gut microbiome that is also a gateway to our brain health).

Our gut wants to be happy and healthy like we do.

If a recipe calls for refined sugar, say ¾ cup, and it’s great for emulsifying like in ice cream, I only use about ¼ cup or substitute with monk fruit sugar.

You can always zhugh it up later or to individual tastes.

You can also make your own sweet sauce, dips, glazes and frosting. These are a few other ideas:

Balsamic-chocolate sauce: mixing balsamic vinegar and melted to liquid chocolate is quick and easy.

Coconut cream frosting: Long gone for me are days of grocery shelf frosting and powdered sugar icing. You too can make your own frosting with coconut cream.

When you buy a can, the thick part can also be used for ice creams, and keep the liquid parts for your soups. After you open it, you can freeze what you aren’t planning to use within a few days.

Extracts: I used to add vanilla extract to everything sweet, but I usually skip the step unless it’s the dominant or only flavor, like in vanilla ice cream. Zests and spice flavors come through best, and mixing them together, and changing them up is even better.

The fun part of experimenting with less sugar and healthy bakes is creating your own faves.

Variety is the spice and zest in life. 🧡

And if you want to take it up a level from biohacking your sweet craving to biohacking sweet breakfasts, healthy eating, and fasting, then stay tuned to future blog posts.

Once upon a time, I couldn’t do without a non-sugary breakfast growing up on fortified cereals, and these days that’s all changed… and that was one-step at a time easy and something you can do! 🥣

This site is all about happy and healthy living and eating ways and inspiration. If this is your first time here, I encourage you to find out more about me and this healthy lifestyle blog.

Fresh Orange Juice (No Juicer Needed)

Fresh orange juice is a popular, year-round favorite. In the winter, oranges are in season, so you can find an abundance of oranges.

orange juice

That’s also when most people load up on Vitamin C that they associate with orange juice, and why orange juice grocery shelves can be full or running empty.

And summer is a popular time too as it’s served in vacation towns and resorts.

I share below how you can optimize an entire orange in homemade fresh orange juice squeezed by hand.

If you’re inspired by fresh juices, this is a smart idea to save money, be healthy, and enjoy conveniently at home.

And speaking of enjoyment, last week I had a nice surprise.

I won a gift card to a local smoothie place I’m inspired by. They are my inspiration for tropical smoothies.

One day I saw someone coming out of a yoga studio in my town who was carrying this mermaid blue color bowl that’s the size of a large yogurt container.

I had to find out what this healthy ingredient is!

I learned it comes from an ingredient called blue majik (that’s the magic in the blue bowl). 🥣

The South Block smoothie chain also uses ingredients like camu camu and maca root.

You feel like you’ve been invited to a new array of rainforest superfoods shipped from an exotic locale in the world and infused in your made-to-order bowl or smoothie.

It’s dreamy, no?

OK, I could go on and on excited!…

But, today I also wanted to share how you can optimize oranges in a house-made fresh orange juice.

I’ve become super sensitive to how much sugar I consume and that’s healthy motivation.

And that hopefully inspires you to think healthy food and drinks at least most of the time (as it does for me).

Vatas are attracted to oranges and sugar so this is perfect for satiating sweet cravings.

Next time you think about getting orange juice from the store, consider making your own fresh orange juice from whole oranges where there’s no added sugar.

Fresh Orange Juice

organic navel orange peel for fresh homemade orange juice. — Look for heirloom, organic, or local farmers market produce as in season (free of pesticides, good for us and the environment)

And oranges are one of my favorite fruits as I love the smell of oranges. Here’s why…

They are good for calming anxiety, aromatherapy, and if you’re leaning into the Vata mind-body ways or wanting to restore any Vata imbalance.

If you can’t get the work life balance or life is stressful, keeping an orange near you to sniff and that’ll help calm you.

And making fresh orange juice will also in its healthy-balancing effects.

And if you feel it in your nervous digestive tract, you can try an orange elixir like this recipe:

organic navel orange peel for ayurveda drinks

Orange Digestif Juice

Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 orange (pulp, zest, peel)
Apple cider vinegar (amount adjustable to liking)
5 Spice blend (Five spice is star anise, cloves, cinnamon, fennel, and black pepper) - (amount adjustable to liking)
water (dilute as needed)

Instructions

Zest and peel an orange. Keep all the parts. Tip: use navel, Cara Cara, blood, or heirloom oranges. They are good for the calming (and good for parasympathetic nervous system also affecting good digestion).
Squeeze the pulp into your orange juice container (or enjoy).
Add your zest and peels to the container.
Add five-spice blend.
Add apple cider vinegar
Fill up with water. Shake and refrigerate. Enjoy when you have an upset stomach.

There are so many orange varieties to choose from. I love the Cara Cara sweetheart orange variety (common around Christmas) that can be juicier and sweeter than a California navel orange that’s in season a little earlier.

Plus fresh orange juice makes me think of my second home, staying in nice hotels! Once upon a time I worked in hotel catering management where I got my first taste.

And you may have seen out and about those gigantic commercial machines that crank out fresh orange juice from whole oranges. That would be a fun job for a day!

You may have seen one of these at selective grocery stores if you live in a larger metro area.

Fresh orange juice definitely ruined me for any added sugar orange juice that comes from a carton (like I grew up drinking).

Concentrated is high sugar and harsh on the stomach, and especially along with a morning coffee routine that Americans commonly do. That’s double acidity.

Plus ontop of that, most common foods are usually acidic.

And if that’s your typical morning routine…

👉 You can opt for making your own organic cold brew coffee and diluting orange juice with water.

So let’s begin and get your fresh orange juice-on!

For equipment, you can use a citrus squeezing tool, which is one of my favorite kitchen tools because it’s bright yellow so I have no choice but to be sunny with the brightening citrus when I use it 😉.

And a zester microplane tool that looks like a zester.

Orange zest from a fresh orange juice.

These are the parts of the orange.

Orange Zest (essence). Before I cut into the orange for orange juice, I go around the orange peel, grating, and capturing all the outside orange zest as essence for zhughing up other sweet morning smoothies, dishes, and garnishes (that’s where my former-catering mind goes and yours can go wild too!).

Orange Pith. Most people throw the spongy, slightly bitter part out, but consider keeping.

This would good in the orange digestif recipe mentioned already.

The orange pith is high in Vit C (as is the juicy pulp) and anti-inflammatory flavonoids. For those reasons alone, it’s worth considering mixing in foods and drinks/smoothies.

Plus leaving no traces of fruit is good for not attracting critters. 😉

Orange Juice and Pulp. Then cut the orange in half (perpendicular to the top or the stem or from left to right).

I know it’s tempting to cut the orange any which way since it’s perfectly round, but cutting the right way lets you cut through each orange segment to maximize juice.

Otherwise you could get stuck on a pillowy-feeling orange segment.

Now you’re ready to squeeze each orange half or use a citrus squeezer tool, and squeeze away the juice into a tall glass.

Let go of all your stress squeezing oranges. Activating calming oranges around you is a relaxing sensory exercise.

Keep repeating until you have the amount of juice you want. Add back pulp as desired if you like high pulp juice.

You can also add some water to dilute some or stretch the juice out for more.

And enjoy!

No-Waste Eco-Friendly Ideas: Save the orange pulp if you prefer high-pulp OJ and add small orange pieces to your drink.

Save the seed to grow a plant. Save the pulp and zest for cooking and baking recipes. Save the pith that has the most nutrients for digestifs and foods. Save the orange sticker as a reminder for getting the Produce LookUp (PLU) item again. 😉

If you like fresh juices, you may want to give Fresh Peach Juice and Mango Juice other sunny yellow inspiring fruity juices a GO.

Creamy Orange Smoothie Plus 5 Healthy Creative Drinks

Creamy orange smoothie is the description of one popsicle I grew up with (and probably you did too with the ice cream man you could hear inching toward the neighborhood. Those were fun times).

And for beverages, the orangy flavors are one calming drink idea because of the orange factor…

Oranges calm our parasympathetic nerves that directly impact if we feel anxious or not. It’s also one healthy way to celebrate that we have decadent beverage variety choices when we get a ‘lil creative.

This can give you a new reason to be happy today. 😊

A creamy orange smoothie like this will help your calming morning.

Your body, balance, and sensitivity to tastes and smells change all the time. What’s good for you in this season may change in the next or even tomorrow.

You can come up with your own creative smoothie ideas like I did below, and stumbled on the creamy orange smoothie. That keeps life interesting!

As a natural Ayurvedic Vata, I was born with a sweet tooth, so if I think a dessert is too sweet, then believe me… it has waaay too much sugar, so that’s why I came up with less sweet, healthier options!

Especially in America, where foods are loaded with sugars, our healthy taste buds and sense can be off track. The average American consumes over 70 grams of sugar a day, when 25 grams of maximum recommended added or processed sugar is agreed on by both the FDA and American Heart Association.

While fruit sugar (fructose) is a better kind of sugar, it’s still sugar at the end of the day.

Going From Morning Frappucino and Coca Cola to Black Coffee, Tea, and A Creative Smoothie

In our American diets, we can go over the recommendation in just our breakfast beverage choices alone! If you like Frappuccinos like many of us do, whether your drink has added whipped cream or not, you’re looking at 50 grams of sugar or more for a 16-ounce drink.

That’s okay once in a celebratory while, but if you order a Starbucks Short size beverage (regular 8-ounce glass size drink), you’ve used up all the recommended sugar for the day… and it may not even be 10 am yet!

And actually, you can see most Americans carrying around the Tall or Grande size beverages (or larger). Our small is often a super size large in other countries.

The healthier order option with no sugar is black coffee or tea. So then, getting back to basics, the only safe beverage out there is water, as pure and healthy… but are they all?…

You can clearly taste the difference between purified waters and artesian waters like Fiji brand water.

The water variety is all sold in plastic bottles and available on grocery shelves, but the cost difference gives you an indicator of the quality difference. And you can clearly taste the difference between Evian and purified water.

In America, you can commonly buy a water bottle case (24-16 ounce bottles) of purified water for under $4.

They’re usually advertised “on-sale” and you can find them in the front of the store when you first walk in.

Higher-end, luxury water brands you can find in the water aisle selections also, but you can expect to pay closer to a dollar or more a bottle.

The good news is most tap water in America is drinkable and many households use a Brita pitcher with a filter or similar.

So as we question drinks such as basic water, we have to wonder about other consumable beverages.

Coca-Cola is known for its evolving trends as society changes and as a popular beverage consumed around the world.

There’s even a Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, GA where you can taste different versions of Coke served all around the world.

As you can imagine the American Coke version is loaded with sugar (too scary to even mention how many sugar grams per can, but you can look it up!).

In my late 20’s I used to drink sodas for breakfast when it was trendy and corporate offices stocked their refrigerators full of soda cans for employees and invited visitors to grab.

I quit the unhealthy soda habit after a few years in healthy awareness although Coke will always be beloved.

I traded caffeinated sodas for healthier morning teas, coffee, and slowly moved drifted over to water and then added back a creamsicle smoothie and other breakfast smoothies as better choices with redeeming health benefits… and hopefully this inspires you if you haven’t done the switch already!

If you want more energy and vitality, getting off sodas and high-sugar drinks is a good move. Often they have 40-70 grams of soda per can!

Water can seem boring to taste, but that’s what our bodies want and will reward you for.

You can always mix it up with carbonated water and naturally flavored waters that are enjoyable.

Despite some of our generally unhealthy cultural habits, Americans have made drinking water, chic and cool, as we carry around water bottles to our work and of course to our workouts and yoga.

It’s a comparison observation I made when I was in Rome in 2019 and saw that even though all the public water sources and fountains are deemed clean and drinkable, you won’t easily find reasonably priced water bottles around. …how funny is that?

So, we’ve gotten better at drinking water regularly and not just taking a vitamin supplement or while we work out.

We know that drinking proper water amounts prevents kidney stones, keeps our bodies functioning and our skin looking young.

So on that healthier level, we can make healthier breakfast drinks like a smoothie easily with the Magic Bullet gadget or a blender.

You can add protein powders or if you like bananas, they’re a good smoothie staple.

Bananas have a higher glycemic index that can spike inflammation, but they are rich in fiber, potassium, and B vitamins, so they’re still a good natural super food good for filling an empty or upset stomach.

These are 7 creative daily beverage ideas including the Orange Creamy one…

1.Citrus-y Banana Creative Smoothie Base

If your tastes favor a banana, you can just blend with vanilla almond milk, and that can be a lovely breakfast starter. You don’t need any other ingredient if you want to keep it vanilla (sorry, I couldn’t resist 😊).

Or… at that point, you can sip your beverage. And if you want a little more sweetness, then you could add a ‘lil pineapple juice (high in Vitamin C and bromelain). And for tartness, a ‘lil lemon or orange to your taste’s desire. You could stop here, or…

Add Dimensional Flavors to Your Breakfast Banana Creative Smoothie

If you want a ‘lil kick, add a dash of spice like cinnamon or cardamom in lieu of espresso (where a little goes a long way!). And if you still want more taste, you could add peanut butter that will change the taste of your beverage and make it creamier.

Staying with the first smoothie idea of a tropical pineapple-citrus theme, you could also do a Key Lime Smoothie:

2.Key Lime Creative Smoothie

Lime juice

Banana

Vanilla almond milk

Use unsweet almond milk and substitute a banana for banana flavor protein powder if you want a smoothie recipe with no to low sugar.

And, if you don’t like bananas (maybe thinking they’re blah) or don’t have any on hand (btw, frozen ones are good for smoothies). But if you run out, no worries, I’ve got you in mind… below are healthy dessert smoothies and tea ideas that don’t need a banana.

3. Pumpkin (Pie) Smoothie

If you love pumpkin pie, you’ll love this creative smoothie. You don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving to get your pumpkin-pie on! And this smoothie is a healthy way to consume pumpkin.

Pumpkin is loaded with Vitamin K and C, protein and fiber if you need more healthy motivation. Canned pumpkin is rich in Vitamin A and iron.

You can use a can of pumpkin and a can of evaporated milk (for dense consistency used in pumpkin pie if you decide not to use a banana) or you can use a milk substitute. You get to be creative.

It’s easiest to mix dry ingredients first. I like to add cinnamon but if you prefer a little more kick then use more cloves or allspice. Here’s my healthier recipe:

1 banana (optional)

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

¼ tsp cloves, allspice, or pumpkin spice

1 can pumpkin puree (15 oz)

1 can evaporated milk (12 oz) – you can substitute for nut milk for a pumpkin-inspired smoothie (but it won’t taste like pumpkin pie)

¾ cup sugar (or substitute applesauce for less sugar – 1/2 cup applesauce or one-4 oz. applesauce plastic cup you commonly see on the grocery store shelves sold in various brands)

For an additional taste dimension, add a spoonful of your favorite peanut butter. Most smoothies taste better with peanut or almond butter.

Variety is the spice of life. You can really live it up in the morning with a decadent but healthy beverage like this before you’ve even started the day or your yoga stretch practice.

A creative smoothie idea is easy to come up with (you can’t mess up!) and can brighten up your morning and afternoon. When I first made this creamsicle creative smoothie, I love the textured beige-cream color beverage (and maybe you do too!):

4. Creamy Orange Smoothie

A creamy orange smoothie like this will help your calming morning.

This is much healthier than concentrated orange juice if you want to do a small step replacement for healthy habits. And a much healthier version than the childhood popsicles that this special Creamy Orange Smoothie comes from.

1 orange (a navel, blood, or California orange will give you a balanced sweetness). If you can, opt for organic or heirloom oranges.

Heirloom navel orange peel for ayurveda elixir drinks and creamsicle smoothie drinks is a healthy start and finish if you prefer. — Look for heirloom, organic, or local farmers market produce as in season (free of pesticides, good for us and the environment). This would be good for your drinks, bakes, and even Creamy Orange Smoothie.

1 tsp marmalade (add bold sweetness but you don’t need much)

Vanilla milk

Vanilla Yogurt (to thicken)

Make orange zest from one medium orange, blend with a teaspoon of marmalade, yogurt, and vanilla milk. Marmalade has sugar so that’s why keeping in moderation is a tasty-good idea for this Creamy Orange Smoothie.

This one tastes like the orange creamsicle popsicle but without so much sugar. If you want to add some protein, blend in fine almonds or add powders. And if you want to eliminate sugar, then eliminate the marmalade and cut down on the orange zest.

Enjoy your cream orange morning!

A creamsicle smoothie like this will help your calming morning.

Creamy Orange Creative Smoothie Breakfast Morning

Course beverage, Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 orange (a navel or California orange will give you a balanced sweetness)
1 tsp marmalade (add bold sweetness but you don’t need much)
Vanilla milk to thickness liking
Vanilla Yogurt (to thicken)

Instructions

Blend. Zhugh glass rim with orange zest. Enjoy!

Notes

Creamsicle Creative Smoothie

1 orange (a navel or California orange will give you a balanced sweetness)

1 tsp marmalade (add bold sweetness but you don’t need much)

Vanilla milk

Vanilla Yogurt (to thicken)

Make orange zest from one medium orange, blend with a teaspoon of marmalade, yogurt, and vanilla milk.

This one tastes like an orange creamsicle popsicle if you know what those are. If you want to add some protein, blend in fine almonds or add powders. And if you want to eliminate sugar, then eliminate the marmalade and cut down on the orange zest.

Moving on to dessert tea ideas…

Dessert Teas: Earl Grey with a ‘Lil Twist

In a quest to find a good sugar cookie or biscotti-tasting tea and not finding one with any real taste (to substitute for cookies of course), I invented my own.

I find it’s easy to birth creative ideas when you can’t find what you want easily even in a society that is full of conveniences.

That’s actually how business ideas and innovation come to life. So with that in mind, I invented my Earl Grey biscotti. For this drinking tea, I use a Bigelow brand Earl Grey.

Those tea bags are in individual packaging so you can take them along with you in your daily travels.

I added an orange tea (or orange extract) and almond extract to bring some flavor and life to an otherwise bland-mild-tasting tea.

Chocolate Chai Latte

And finally, one of my all-time favorites I like to think I invented at least at my Sunday cafe is the Chocolate Chai Latte (that needs no recipe as the chocolate, chai, and milk ingredients are in the 3-word title 😉).

Notice I didn’t write “chai tea” that Americans commonly say, as that means “tea tea”in India where chai originated, so that would be repetitive and silly-sounding after you’re made aware.

And, apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks the chocolate chai latte is a tasty idea as the Starbucks (Plaid Cafe) church kiosk

I went to, added to their order board after I placed the order and they gave me a blessed smile. Chocolate chai may be the new writer’s warm drink all day as less caffeinated than coffee.

Plus chai has cloves that’s one of the most anti inflammatory food ideas out there.

And btw, is anti-bug because it shews away flies and bugs as they repel the scent.

So, a chai is tasty in and of itself and a healthier black tea. For an American Vata, adding a sweet drizzle of Hershey’s chocolate sauce will drown out the exotic spice tastes if they’re too strong.

You can please your tongue’s sweet spot. Sometimes you just have to balance your daily joy, and give into a teaspoon of sugar love!

We may be behind the 8-ball in American living when it comes to tea consumption, low sugar diets, and having a work-life balance, but we make up for our unhealthier ways with our daily variety, conveniences, and innovation.

And if you’re daring, have a chai and creamsicle smoothie to have a super special day! ✨

Sugar Cravings, Fasting + Low Sugar Orange Scone Recipe

Sugar cravings don’t have to get the best of you… and the orange scone recipe below may help you get over the worst sugar sweets as it was the healthy start for me, someone who ate way too much daily sugar that many of us do. It’s no one’s fault.

Oranges and citrus fruits are good for blood sugar levels as citrus fruits have a lower glycemic index as a general indicator for how a food will impact your blood sugar level.

And juicy foods like oranges also have a way of quenching your thirst and hunger. Like water and tea, you can feel less hungry when you consume oranges and lower your food cravings.

Using orange and orange zest are also a good way to avoid artificial sweeteners while brightening your food and day.

natural orange zest for sugar cravings.

Maintaining a healthy blood sugar level is at the heart (pun intended!) of a healthy heart.

I became aware of the American Heart Association when I volunteered for the American Cancer Society in my backyard while I was attending college.

The “Eat Smart” campaign was one of the promoted programs and I remember posters (remember those?) were donated that had healthy fruits and vegetables.

These are now known as anti inflammatory food ideas like oranges that were brightly represented on the poster and I proudly displayed on my wall.

Who knew that anti-inflammatory foods would become so important with all its healthy benefits and in many healthy diet movements like the Mediterranean Diet and plant-based diets?

And we couldn’t have predicted that the role of Vitamin C would grow in highlighted health importance, and that oranges would relatively stay the same while we see more orange varieties on the grocery shelves.

We keep evolving in food, health, and nutrition.

Vitamins stay as a focal point in the anti inflammatory diet. Some are antioxidants that are good body protectors for preventing heart disease, Diabetes 2, certain cancers, and cognitive decline that can start off as harmless brain fog or short memory mental health lapses.

In the beginning of 2020, I created a smart pantry for “just in case,” where I collected processed, longer shelf-life foods in cans and boxes. That’s where I failed in my sugar cravings dilemma and developed an itchy eczema skin rash by mid-summer that came from sugar indulgence.

Luckily I caught on before things got worse. I got aware and my love for sugar got replaced for Ayurveda ways, moderation, and anti-inflammatory foods.

Sugar we know is good for our happy selves, but not our healthy one. They latch onto lectin anti-nutrients in our gut and can destroy our microbiome that we know controls so much of our daily body functions.

My hope is you’re onboard for a healthier new year, new health progress goals, and micro habit changes. Fasting is one way I have deployed in my healthy lifestyle and you can too. You can download my FREE fasting guide that makes it a sustainable way.

And when you’re eating, if you’re like me, you’re a bit choosy and conscious about your food choices.

I love foods, food variety, and enjoy good foods. I planned catered parties in nice hotels and foodie restaurants for a decade, so it’s a part of me that has been weaved into my adult DNA. And healthy eating that I learned early on.

But I have a weakness… a sweet tooth.

Many of us enjoy some sweets in moderation.

Having a sweet tooth is natural but isn’t helpful on a healthy lifestyle mission.

If you regularly eat sugary foods to curb your sweet tooth and sugar cravings, you set yourself up to have more sugar cravings. It’s a vicious cycle.

For entertainment, I had started watching The Great British Baking Show, that’sa competition show that started with U.K. bakers… initially, it wasn’t the best thing to watch if you want to curb sugar cravings and stop eating so much sugar.

But I worked through it and can now watch the show without eating a sweet dessert. I’m telling you this because I believe everyone can get there!

In my search, I came across a book called The 40 Day Sugar Fast by Wendy Speake.

It reminded me of a sugar fast I set out to do for 3 weeks in 2011 but ended up doing the sugar fast for around 40 days.

How?

When I had my tonsils removed as an adult, the fast was a smooth transition as I mostly had a liquid diet in the beginning.

And if you’re trying to break the sugar habit, finding a time when you’re not dealing with as much stress is your best bet.

Like if you’re a teacher, do your sweet fast after the school year ends and you have the summer off. You usually crave less food in the hot months anyway, so use all those helpful situations to your advantage.

Another helpful situation is when you have support. To keep me encouraged, the church I was attending was doing an annual fast for those who wanted to participate. So, it was perfect timing as I wasn’t doing it alone.

And as I focused on giving up sweets for sweet Jesus, the sugar cravings also miraculously disappeared. The ones I’d had every single day since I was a child.

I didn’t use my own willpower to make changes. That doesn’t usually work.

I focused on my heart and deeper desires. To my surprise, my way of thinking changed. It was supernatural and beyond my small capabilities to overcome sugar on my own.

But that’s just a reminder that you don’t have to do it alone and can encourage the Universe or higher source you turn to, to help you.

I also use maintaining good teeth as motivation. As a child I always had a mouth full of cavities. I wanted to live a better dental life later in life. That same motivation carried me when I quit all sodas years ago. Previously as a young adult, I’d have at least 1-2 sodas by noon.

Do whatever works for you and your healthy motivations.

Another tip is to look at sugar nutrition labels. Most food labels are in grams and 1 gram = about .24 teaspoons or a quarter teaspoon.

We use teaspoons for baking in America so that’s easier to visualize.

It doesn’t take much in a Western diet to go over 20 grams of refined sugar at breakfast alone!

You can try these breakfast plant-based breakfast ideas and tips to stop sugar cravings and craving sweets if you want some suggestions.

And sodas are off the charts starting at 30-40 grams.

I drank diet sodas early on, but those are linked to heart disease and Diabetes 2 so they’re no better and probably worse off

Also, keep in mind no fat is usually linked to higher sugar in foods, so you’re giving up one evil for another.

The better healthy answer is to change your healthy food and beverage habits. And then you will enjoy the healthy foods and especially after you have adjusted. I promise.

If you’ve every shifted from a whole milk to a plant or other milk, you know what I’m talking about.

You no longer go back to the other because 1) your body doesn’t need the same quantity of nutrients it needed before or growing up and 2) you have a decent food or beverage replacement.

Most of are lazy in this area about food fixing. It we have something easy and near us, we’ll grab that instead of go out and forage if we don’t have to.

And for fruit, I still don’t overindulge even though the Food Pyramid I grew up with recommended 2-4 servings of fruit per day. These days, MyPlate says at least 1 piece of medium fruit.

Even natural fruits and dried fruits have a huge dose of natural sugars, the better fructose sugar, but still sugar. I limit myself to an apple, a banana, and an orange if I’m craving fruits and sweet foods.

Foods that you wouldn’t suspect and maybe even classify as healthy food like a Fig Newton or low-fat “healthy” cereal are loaded with sugar. You discover reality when you do package label reading.

I once felt I had to add a puff of white cloud sweetness that finished off almost every dinner dessert, holiday cheesecake, pie, or warm beverage. The nutritional breakdown ingredients of some whipped foods say “hydrogenated oils” or trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup to avoid.

You can always say “no whip, please.”

And you can choose moderation where it’s okay for a happy celebrations, but not for daily healthy consumption. That’s what I do in the balance.

That’s the modern Ayurveda way that is sustainable. Turning to healthy and anti-inflammatory foods that are also good for weight loss and preventing weight gain, so you don’t have to do one more yo-yo diet that never works long-term.

Modern Ayurveda lifestyle people love following natural, doable, and achievable (practical) advice.

So here are 3 actionable Ayurveda creature habits and tips for reducing sugar in your diet and curbing sugar cravings:

Become aware which foods have high sugar, added sugar – fact vs. fiction. Read labels at least until you are familiar with the foods you eat regularly.
Substitute your sweets not for other foods, but for a higher calling or purpose for yourself. Find a motivation that makes you stick to your plan and look forward to maintaining.
Do one daily baby step food choice action you can make to create a healthier micro habit. Reminder: the more you eat sugar, the more you crave sugar.

Maybe that’s substituting an empty calorie sugary dessert with a fortified cereal that at least has some nutrients?

And if you need a replacement for something super sweet, I have a low sugar, Orange Scone recipe below I mentioned above that you can try that’s super easy and you’ll love (or grow to love!).

What I love about this recipe is the orange peel zest you would normally throw away is used as the main sweet ingredient.

Oranges are also good for calming in our parasympathetic nerves, so in the strong orange smells, we experience calmer nerves instead of anxiety. You hear people who like to eat oranges by their bed and this could be a good reason why. They are calmer, better managing worry and anxious thinking hours before sleep o’clock.

This orange recipe has no needed added refined sugars, but you may like the turbinado sugar small packet crunch finish like I do, that has 5 grams of fat total used for the entire 8 scone slices. So you do your daily sugar math and see if that’ll work for you.

I also love that you won’t use all your eggs in one recipe. And, in the easy, it can take less than 10 minutes time to prepare!

It takes about 40 minutes total time (from prep to baking to mouth 😋). That’s something to celebrate!

Print Recipe

low-sugar orange scone for sugar cravings. — with currants and brown sugar topping

Orange Scones (Bread) – Makes 8 pieces

This can become a regular dessert bread for you that’s healthier than sugary processed breads and pastries. Great for a sweet tooth (or a Vata)!

1 egg

2 cup flour total (can mix gluten and gluten-free flours if you choose)

2 tbsp frozen unsalted butter

1/2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ cup plain or vanilla Greek, plus more if needed (this is a good food item to look at sugar labels). Use more solid yogurt parts to bring it together if it gets too crumbly.

Zest of an orange (navel oranges are great)

Cinnamon to liking (and you can purposefully add a little teaspoon of sugar, some tips below)

You omit sugar that normally would be added. Since you’re not using sugar, you don’t need salt either to balance any sugar. NO refined white sugar, yay! 😊

Add flour to a medium bowl. Add butter and cut it into small pieces with a knife. Add the egg and mix with a spoon.

Add yogurt and keep mixing until well mixed. Add baking powder and baking soda. Add orange zest and mix until blended into flour mixture.

Form a ball with the spoon in the bowl. Then place the dough on a baking sheet and flatten it slightly, so it forms into a 6-8” circle.

There will be flour crumbs, just stick them on top of the circle to blend in (like you’re adding clay to pottery before being fired in the kiln).

Sprinkle with cinnamon if you like. Cut 8 slices before placing in the oven.

Optional sweet: if you desire, you can add one brown sugar packet of Sugar in the Raw (turbinado cane sugar) on top of the circle bake before it goes in the oven. These small brown crystals are similar to refined sugar in health terms, but if you add them in moderation, that’s not going to make a big difference. If you’re feeding anyone diabetic, they’re not going to eat it anyway… or if they can eat monk fruit sugar, you can add that.

You can also optionally add ½ tablespoon of dried currants or raisins and blend in the mixture before you form the circle. Or you could do half and half (4 pieces plain and 4 pieces lightly sugar)… then you can please those you’re sharing with who won’t necessarily appreciate your low sugar, healthy scone bread efforts.

Finally, put the baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake the scones to a golden brown for 25-30 minutes at 350°F/180°C degrees. Let your scones cool, and then you’ll be ready to enjoy.

Easy, Low-Sugar Orange Scones

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 8 pieces

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 egg
2 cup whole wheat flour or all purpose flour with gluten free flour optional (almond flour suggested) total
2 tbsp frozen unsalted butter
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 /4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 zest of an orange adds sweetness
cinnamon and currants or raisins (optional) to taste liking
1 sugar In The Raw (turbinado sugar) packet to cover the top of 8-scone slices.

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except sugar and make a circle mound. This is a crumbly dough especially with gluten-free flours such as almond flour.
Take all the crumbly bits and add back to the circle mound. Then, slightly flatten the top with hands to about 1 inch high.
Use one packet of turbinado sugar (optional) to zhugh the top before baking, so the sugar sticks.
Cut lightly or score 8 triangular "pie wedge" shapes.
Bake at 350°F at 25-30 minutes (or until light golden brown color).