Appetite and food cravings can happen when you blood sugar levels drop. As the levels of glucose in your blood become low, you may feel weak, sick, dizzy and desperate for something to eat! Because you crave something to increase your glucose levels - this will probably be food high in carbohydrates, like bread, pasta, potatoes or sweet foods like chocolate.

But these are exactly the foods you should not eat when you crave them. Eating them can cause a sudden rise in glucose levels, stimulating production of insulin and a later sudden drop in glucose levels. You will then feel hungry again, and the whole cycle starts to repeat. Some people have a body chemistry that is particularly sensitive to this cycle. These people will often crave chocolate, pasta, potato crisps or chips and can become carbo addicts.

Sound familiar? To stop this cycle, you need to balance your meals and snacks to include medium and slow release carbohydrates. So what are these foods? The Glycaemics Index measures the glucose in foods. High Glycaemic Index foods will give you quick release energy, low Glycaemic Index foods will give you slow release energy. Common foods in these categories are shown below. Try to ensure you eat a number of low index foods throughout the day. And you can best those cravings. Do you want an eating plan that balances high and low index foods? We have a number of books in our Diet Shop

We also have some helpful gadgets to help cravings in our slimming shop

High Glycaemic Index Foods:
Sugar, honey, sweets and most sweet biscuits
Baked or mashed potatoes and cooked carrots
Nearly all breads, including wholemeal, white, crumpets and muffins
All rices, including brown rice
Sugary drinks
Nearly all cereals, including shredded wheat
Dried fruit and bananas

Medium Glycaemic Index Foods:
Boiled potatoes, sweetcorn and raw carrot
All types of pasta
Oats, porridge and all-bran cereals
Noodles
Pitta bread and ryvita
Some fruits including grapes, mango, figs and kiwi-fruit

Low Glycaemic Index Foods:
Most beans and pulses
Coucous
Many fruits including apples, peaches, oranges, plums and orange juice
Many vegetables including mushrooms, leeks, peas, sprouts, green beans, peppers, cauliflower and broccoli
Ice cream, milk and low sugar plain yoghurt

All protein and fat based foods are low glycaemic index foods including meats and oil or butter. Adding these to high index foods can slow their release into your blood stream making them low or medium index foods - so they can be a good thing!