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I’ll be the first to admit that gut healing with a sweet tooth is no picnic.

Gut Healing with a Sweet Tooth

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Love asking Y’all on the ‘Gram what you want to know about.

I always get an insane amount of questions! Here is a great one I recently received:

How to focus on gut healing (IBS/SIBO) when you have a serious sweet tooth?

It’s great because I was once there, and I know many of you are there as well.

In case you didn’t already know, I’m a cakey-carby-pancakey-lovin’ girl; always have been. 

It certainly made my healing journey extremely hard, especially because a rotten gut can and will have you craving all. the. things.

So, what’s a girl to do?

Here are my four best tips for gut healing with a sweet tooth.

4 Tips for Gut Healing with a Sweet Tooth

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1] Cut cold turkey.

Sugar is everywhere.

Don’t believe me? Then make sure to grab THESE 192 sources of sugar.

And no, I don’t care if it’s “natural” sugar or not. Honey is natural; it is high-FODMAP. But then again, it’s also a monosaccharide, so some tolerate it.

Instead of playing that game, you might need to just cut cold turkey. 

It’s certainly not what you want to hear. It doesn’t fit in with intuitive eating. And it definitely doesn’t make sense if you read my post Dieting Harder.

But listen, sometimes (and it was the case for me), you have to just cut cold turkey.

This is what I did, practiced and preached. And no, you will not miss out on essential nutrients by giving up the daily chocolate bar. 

So how do you cut cold turkey from sugar? It’s simple, not easy. Don’t eat it. 

Start by asking yourself, 

How badly do I want to heal my gut?

Then, see my fourth and final tip below.

2] Sugar swaps.

If you don’t want to cut cold turkey, you might be able to do some sugar swapping.

In fact, this is exactly how A Loving Spoon was born. 

In the post Sugar Substitutes, I provided these 6:

1. Manuka honey
2. cinnamon
3. bananas
4. fruit in general
5. coconut butter
6. monk fruit

So, if you’re trying to heal your gut (and you’re desperate to; just not fully willing to give up sugar), which of these would I choose?

Personally, I’d choose no more than 1 teaspoon of Manuka honey at any given time, cinnamon freely, 1 small banana a day (I did extra-ripe, but it might not work for you), and coconut butter in 1 tablespoon amounts per sitting.

Fruit in general is subjective, and while I think you could do the monk fruit (Stevia for some), the problem with a fake sugar is that your body might crave even more sugar then.

3] What can you get by with?

Now, if the sugar swaps still won’t suffice that sweet tooth, this gets murky.

However, you could explore the idea of eating sweets as you are able to get by with them. 

Ask your body, “What are you craving?”

Really listen.

Let’s pretend it’s telling you, “A pancake.”

Figure out how to make said pancake in the most gut-friendly way possible. Consider my Sea Salted Cinnamon Almond Butter Pancakes or number 3 from THIS list.

And so on.

Also, if you are keeping a gut-healing journal, it will be far easier to track what you can and cannot get by with.

Get my gut healing journal to see for yourself.

4] Healing is life changing.

The fourth and final way for healing your gut when you have a sweet tooth relates to the first way (cutting cold turkey).

Gut healing IS a diet. Gut health is NOT a diet.

Repeat this out loud again (refer to THIS for the difference),

Gut healing is a diet. Gut health is not a diet.

Click HERE to save it as your reminder for later.

You should not be on a gut healing diet forever. Yes, it can take a long time.

But if you’re healing (via true gut healing diet) for years upon years, other issues can and will erupt. 

If you cut cold turkey and heal your gut, life will improve – significantly.

I mean, healing is life changing.

Staying committed for the short-term yields “normalcy” in the long term.

I believe that sugar can be consumed even if you are trying to achieve overall gut health.

While we do eat too much of it, there is no need to forego it forever. 

But first, you must heal your gut.

Seriously, there is just no way around it because gut bacteria that should not be in certain places of your digestive tract, thrive off sugar. I mean, don’t we all?!

To learn more about sugar:

1. Sugar Addiction
2. What is Sugar Free January
3. What Does Sugar Free Mean
4. 21 Days with No Sugar
5. Gluten Free Foods with Nil Sugar

Xox,
SKH