Sugar is considered by many diet experts to be an addiction as dangerous as nicotine or even heroin. There is nothing that gives us a bigger lift than a shot of sugar. However sugar exhausts the pancreas, is often followed by a crash in blood sugar levels and can lead to diabetes and other serious disorders.

An addiction for sugar usually has its roots in issues to do with stress and emotions.

Many individuals find sweet foods, and particularly chocolate to be extremely comforting. The only problem is that the root cause of the stress or emotional problem that is causing you to "turn to sugar" to solve your problems is not addressed then you will probably always be addicted to it.

If you crave sugar there are some foods that are not sweets and cakes that can help you circumvent the body's addiction to it.

For instance the Jerusalem artichoke is a vegetable that is thought to regulate the body's blood sugar balance. Vegetables such as sweet potatoes and yams can help satisfy the craving for creamy or milky sweets.

However if you do crave sugar the best thing to do is reach for a piece of fruit, which will definitely have fewer calories than a slab of cake.

Some people who crave ice cream or rich products actually have a calcium deficiency. The same thing goes for people who crave a great deal of cheese, which of course can add pounds to a body in no time. To make sure that your cravings for ice cream or cheese are not based on a calcium deficiency it is a great idea to take calcium supplements, eat plenty of broccoli or Swiss chard and drink low fat skim milk.

If you are craving fat, you probably have a bit of an oral fixation.

The craving for fatty foods is quite primal and has more to do with a phenomenon called "mouth feel." Foods that are warm and fatty take us back to the cavemen days when biting into freshly killed meat and drinking the blood was common.

Cravings for fatty foods are commonly found in emotionally insecure individuals who need to express their anger by biting into something warm and fatty in texture. Psychologists call this "eating your anger."

If you are craving sodium then you may need to eat a more balanced diet that includes more vegetables. Vegetables are a natural form of salt. A good substitute for high sodium dishes is sushi as the seaweed that wraps the raw fish is filled with healthy amounts of sea salt.

Drinking too much coffee or alcohol can also cause cravings for sodium. This can cause a shortage of sodium in the blood.

Many cravings have no biological basis at all and are "all in the head." The trick is to realize that a positive association with a food is not necessarily a reason to continually binge on it whenever you feel blue.