Does Cutting Back on Sugar Actually Make You Crave It Less?

I have a sweets problem. If there are certain kinds of candy (such as Haribo gummy bears) in the house, I do not have the willpower to resist them. I sometimes have to beg Marla not to buy that kind of stuff because if she does, I know I will eat it all.

You’ve probably heard this one before: if you just power through and avoid sweets for a while, your taste buds will “reset” and sugar won’t seem so tempting anymore. It’s a popular idea. But does it actually hold up? A new clinical trial decided to find out, and the results might surprise you.

How the Study Worked

Researchers split participants into three groups for six months. Each group followed a different diet:

Low sweet group: Only about 7% of their food was sweet
Regular sweet group: About 35% sweet foods (pretty typical)
High sweet group: A whopping 80% sweet foods

To make sure people stuck with it, the researchers actually provided about half of their meals and snacks. Think savory biscuits and unsalted nuts for the low group, versus chocolate spread and yogurt drinks for the high group.

The Results

Here’s where it gets interesting. After six months, the researchers tested how much each group liked sweet things using lemonade, custard, and cake. They also let people pick freely from a breakfast menu to see what they’d choose.

The verdict? Basically no difference between groups. People who’d been avoiding sweets didn’t suddenly find them less appealing. And four months after the study ended, everyone went right back to eating the same amount of sweet stuff. Body weight didn’t really change between groups either.

The Bottom Line

We know too much sugar isn’t great for your teeth, weight, heart, or liver. But this study suggests that simply eating less sugar probably won’t make you stop wanting it. The “taste bud reset” theory needs more testing, especially in people who genuinely struggle with sweet cravings.

Photo by Myriam Zilles on Unsplash