Sweet treats are bad news because they typically deliver a load of kilojoules with little to no nutrition. A more troubling fact: as our consumption of the white stuff rises, so do the numbers on the scale.

Now brace yourself for two more nasty news flashes: (1) Eating too much sugar can stoke your appetite rather than satisfy it, and (2) it can even become addictive – no surprise then that those of us who have a daily 3pm chocolate fix might be tempted to hurl an office chair at the vending machine if we ever ran out of change. But don’t despair, gummy-bear lovers: there’s light at the end of this candy-coated tunnel. With a little determination, you can train yourself to stop craving sugar.

READ MORE: How Much Sugar Is It Safe To Eat Per Week?

Pro tips for cracking down on the most seductive tabletop substance:

1. Eat breakfast

“Ninety percent of sugar addicts skip breakfast,” says Dr Kathleen DesMaisons, author of Potatoes Not Prozac. “They wait and get a big hit of sugar at 10am.” When you eat breakfast, you prevent the drop in blood sugar that makes you crave sugar later.

2. Cut out “overt” sugars

Tackle the worst offenders first: sucrose-laden treats like sweets, frappuccinos, ice cream and soft drinks. If you swig a fizzy drink every day, try having one every other day, then once a week, then not at all.

3. Pick fruit

Satisfy your sweet tooth with apples, bananas and berries, which temper natural sugar with fibre and loads of antioxidants.