How to Crush a Craving -- Fast

Here's how to quickly and easily crush a craving for chocolate: Use your feet.

Literally. A walk worked wonders for a small group of chocoholics. When compared with a couch-potato group, the chocoholics experienced a major drop in chocolate cravings after only 15 minutes of putting one foot in front of the other.

Keeping the Pace
It's a concept that's gaining clout. Other research has shown that exercise reduces cravings for alcohol and cigarettes, too, by stimulating the activity of feel-good brain chemicals. This is the first study to apply the concept to chocolate cravings. Keep your pace moderately brisk and you may stifle that craving for up to 10 minutes after the walk. And by then, your thoughts should have moved on!

Cravings Schmavings
Need more help getting those comfort-food cravings under control? Here are some other ideas for you:

• Stressed? Bored? Angry? Know why you're reaching for food. Get tips on understanding -- and controlling -- emotional eating.
• Wet your whistle. Science shows that people often confuse hunger and thirst. Here are 10 more ways to outwit your appetite.
• Try an appetite suppressant. Not a pill -- a natural one -- like a quarter cup of this hunger-suppressing smoothie.

It's okay to indulge in the occasional piece of dark chocolate. Here's why.

Acute effects of brisk walking on urges to eat chocolate, affect, and responses to a stressor and chocolate cue. An experimental study. Taylor, A. H., Oliver, A. J., Appetite 2009 Feb;52(1):155-160.