The scientific studies reviewed by Harvard Health, Healthline, and WebMD all agree: sugar is terrible for our health.

Like so many others, this struck me as a highly inconvenient truth. I grew up in a time when the dangers of sugar were still poorly understood, allowing my sweet tooth to grow unchecked. Then, when adulthood arrived in all its complexity, chocolate and ice cream quickly became my default coping mechanisms. Simply put, sugar was my fuel for getting through tough times.

Fortunately, reason eventually prevailed. It took several years, but I’m now at the point where sugar no longer has any say in my life. And you want to know the best part? What I thought would be a painful sacrifice turned out to be an amazing journey with an even better destination:

• Removing this sweet coping mechanism from my life enforced a career recalibration, leading to much less stress and more creative freedom.
• To my great surprise, the varied whole-food diet that replaced sugar and other unhealthy foods proved deeply enjoyable.
• I discovered the good vibes from understanding how much my healthy diet means to society and those around me.
• That empty-calorie-binge guilt is no longer part of my life.
• The occasional sweet treat at a special occasion now tastes even better.

I would love it if more people could experience these benefits. So, please check out the seven ideas that cured my sugar addiction and choose the ones that fit your life. We’ll start with a convenient short version, followed by more elaborate descriptions for the interested reader.

The Short Version

1. Patiently remove your emotional eating triggers

See your cravings as valuable guides for personal growth by using them to pinpoint any areas of life where real change is needed. Then take patient action, acknowledging that meaningful change takes time.

2. Build your personal zero-compromise eating plan

Believe it or not, a diet can be healthy, tasty, practical, and affordable all at the same time. Establishing such an eating regimen is a fantastic one-time investment that will deliver great returns for the rest of your life.

3. Understand how a healthy diet makes the world a better place

The societal value of nourishing food extends well beyond climate change and animal welfare. Fully understanding all the powerful reasons for healthy eating will give you plenty of motivation for positive change.

4. Deactivate your binge-eating triggers

Make any patterns that trigger you to stuff yourself more expensive using a charitable donations contract. This simple idea lets you support some great causes every time you engage in self-sabotage.

5. Keep your environment free from temptations

Bringing highly addictive empty calories into your home also deserves a prime spot in your charitable donations contract. If you commit to always pay the true cost of these junk foods, they become much less tempting.

6. Line up some healthy distractions

Irrational cravings are not particularly intelligent things. A few preplanned distractions are often all it takes to make them go away.

7. Find healthier alternatives

In those cases where some unhealthy treats create genuine value, try choosing something luxurious that at least comes with a few nutrients.

If you need more detail about any of these ideas, please scroll down to the appropriate section below.

1. Weed Out Emotional Eating Triggers

Sadly, my former sugar addiction is far from unique. Nowadays, a tremendous amount of unhealthy food is being consumed to soothe negative emotions like stress and anxiety with disastrous health impacts.

Thus, our first step on the road to effortless healthy eating is to identify our biggest emotional eating triggers and put a plan in motion to gradually weed them out. In some cases, this can be a daunting mission. You might need to change jobs, end an incompatible relationship, or even admit that you need professional help.

On the bright side, it can also be a springboard to great personal growth. In my case, emotional eating resulted mainly from a work situation that kept me overloaded and unable to freely pursue the creative ideas piling up in my head. It took several years, but my determination to weed out this emotional eating trigger eventually led to complete financial and creative freedom — Nirvana for a research scientist like me.

So, next time you’re irresistibly drawn to emotional eating, take a few seconds to pause, open your mind as much as possible, and say to your body: “Talk to me. I’m listening.” Don’t judge. Just listen. If you do, the resulting train of thought will help you identify the root cause behind this unhealthy craving. When it becomes clear what you need to do, thank your body for sharing and get on the job.

As mentioned before, this job will likely require plenty of patience and bravery. But even when you’re still early in the process, the fact that you’re doing something about it will already weaken your cravings. Use the extra willpower reserves liberated by this early progress to double down and eradicate your emotional eating trigger once and for all.

2. Build A Zero-Compromise Diet

Many people still live under the misconception that healthy eating should be bland and boring. Not true! The key to healthy eating is to consume a wide variety of whole foods containing the full spectrum of nutrients. This variety opens tremendous possibilities for making delicious dishes. To give just one example, I would take my 2-minute whole-food breakfast over a typical sugary cereal on taste alone any day of the week.

Putting this into practice will bring different challenges to different people. To me, this was one of the easier steps. Designing the perfect eating plan appealed to my meticulous nature, and my simple lifestyle made it easy to experiment. For those with hectic family lives, it will be tougher. But this only means you need to be pragmatic. The simple plan I use to eat 40 different whole foods per day with only 10 minutes is a good starting point.

Always keep your eye on the prize: Once your zero-compromise eating plan takes hold, it will enrich the rest of your (significantly longer) life. And, if your hectic family life is keeping you from taking this vital step, transform this roadblock into a launching pad by realizing that a zero-compromise eating plan is one of the greatest gifts you can ever give your children.

3. Understand How Your Healthy Diet Benefits the World

After these two inwardly focused steps, it’s time to expand our thought process to the world around us. Few people realize what a tremendous effect their eating habits have on society. Indeed, one of the best things about a healthy diet is that it genuinely makes the world a better place.

In a previous article, I discussed how healthy eating habits promote social justice, combat climate change and other serious environmental problems, improve animal welfare, safeguard our social welfare systems, and improve the lives of those you care about. Fully understanding these positive impacts will bless you with a rich dose of motivation for building and maintaining your lifelong healthy diet.

4. Deactivate Your Binge-Eating Triggers

Is there some combination of events that makes you especially prone to binge-eating? For me, it’s eating in front of the TV. In this environment, my natural satiety response simply stops working. After eating and then eating some more, I get seriously uncomfortable, but my food cravings refuse to go away. Such a total malfunction of one of my body’s key regulatory systems really is quite alarming.

Your binge-eating trigger might be something totally different. Whatever it is, you’ll be much better off removing it from your life. A great way of doing this is to include it in your charitable donations contract. This is an agreement with yourself that you will pay a fixed amount to charity whenever you engage in a specified self-destructive action (like triggering your binge reflex). Over time, it helped me completely deactivate my binge trigger (while simultaneously supporting some great causes).

5. Keep Your Environment Clean

This step is all about nutritional cleanliness — a fancy way of saying that you shouldn’t leave any empty calories lying around. These nutrient-free addictions are designed from the ground up to short-circuit your body’s natural satiety response and make you overeat. Supermarkets only add to the problem by setting up empty-calorie ambushes around every corner to profit from impulse buying.

This is not natural. In an ideal society, these soft drugs (yes, that’s what they are) would be subject to a substantial sin-tax that correctly accounts for their huge societal costs. Unfortunately, however, our society remains quite unsophisticated in this respect, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Luckily, you can straighten out this twisted incentive by including empty-calorie purchases in your charitable donations contract. This will ensure that you always pay the true cost of these slow poisons, including their effects on your health, productivity, self-image, and those around you.

Another great idea is to always have some veggie snacks on prominent display. Even this former sugar addict had to admit that snack veggies like cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, and peas are surprisingly tasty. They’re also expert assassins of pesky sugar cravings. Other healthy snacking options include a grab-and-go green smoothie and your favorite type of tea.

6. Line Up Some Healthy Distractions

Whenever you feel a craving that has nothing to do with physical hunger, be sure to have a couple of healthy distractions lined up. Start by drinking a glass of water and enjoying a couple of veggie snacks. If the craving remains, it means that your body is really trying to tell you something. Use the “I’m listening” meditation described in Step 1 to find out what it is.

It also helps to change your environment. Perhaps you can go for a quick walk, listen (or dance) to your favorite song, or take a shower. In many cases, this little bit of distraction will let you forget the craving.

Brushing your teeth is another powerful craving-buster. I find this trick particularly useful when some annoying cravings keep bothering me after a hearty meal.

7. Find Healthier Alternatives

Finally, we must acknowledge those occasions where some refined sugar or saturated fat can add genuine value. For example, when friends have you over for dinner, openly enjoying a carefully prepared dessert is better than awkwardly declining for health reasons. You can also use some delicious culinary treats to enhance the memory of any celebration.

In such cases, try to indulge in some luxury treats that at least come with a couple of nutrients. This is a particularly useful philosophy to follow whenever you need to bring something tasty to a celebration or social event. My favorites include premium dark chocolate, nuts covered in sweetened yogurt, and high-quality ice cream with fresh berries. It’s also wise to eat a hearty whole-food meal before going to an event where lots of empty-calorie temptations will be waiting for you.

Good luck on your journey to lifelong healthy eating habits! Completing this journey is one of the smartest things I’ve ever done, and I’d recommend it to anyone willing to listen. 😊

Thanks to Alta Cloete.