Ask Lemmy

Eating super refined sugar like candy causes a chain raccoon of events in your body to occur:

1. Your blood sugar spikes. Even in non-diabetic people, eating a sugary treat can cause a spike above 150mg/dL (healthy levels are usually below 100 when fasting and below 130 after eating)
2. Your body ramps up insulin production to help use the sugar.
3. Because your levels have (probably) spiked so high, your body produces a lot of insulin, but your digestion isn't sending any more sugar - you already finished digesting it and got the whole load at once.
4. Your body burns through all the excess sugar in your system and your blood sugar levels fall... precipitously because there's still a lot of insulin floating around.
5. Your blood sugar levels fall low enough that your system decides it must be time to eat.
6. You get the munchies. And since your blood sugar is now lower than your body wants it to be, you crave something extra carby. ...Like more candy.

Repeat this process long enough and your pancreas (which makes insulin) burns out. Congratulations! You now (like me) have Type 2 Diabetes! 🎉✨💫

So... To not eat all your candy at once, do a few things to keep your blood sugar from spiking, triggering cravings for more.

1. Eat fibrous veggies. And eat them at the start of a meal. Getting the fiber into your digestion first slows down processing the rest, keeping your blood sugars from spiking.
2. Eat carby treats as dessert to a meal, not on an empty stomach. Same reason as above.
3. If you've really gotta indulge, try to drink a Tbsp of vinegar (diluted in a glass of water, so you don't melt your teeth) just beforehand. The acetic acid in vinegar interferes with digesting carbs. It's not as good as broccoli, but it helps. (Citric acid does not work like this.)

In addition to the other tips here (Especially keeping treats out of sight), keeping your sugar levels from spiking and crashing helps a lot to curb carb craving.