Cravings and their causes

Cravings are one of the most common sources of diet woes we face when trying to eat healthy. Your intentions may be good, but the conflict between unhealthy cravings and your plans is oftentimes the reason we ditch diets and the mere idea of restricting our intake.

However, cravings are your body’s way to signal that something is out of balance; they tend to result from a combination of psychological and physical needs that are being unmet. As such, they can help identify what you’re lacking in your lifestyle and what you need to get back on track.

Stress and lack of sleep, for example, trigger the secretion of leptin, a hormone that makes you hungry, without an actual physiological need for more food. It usually drives us to eat large amounts of refined carbohydrates and saturated fats, which triggers the production of opioids (the same substances found in drugs), essentially altering the brain’s reward system and creating a “high” that doesn’t last much and requires you consume those foods again to recapture the feeling.

Due to their effects, they become comfort foods that soothe you when you’re under stress or emotionally unwell, which oftentimes creates a vicious cycle when your health is a source of worry. This is why, paradoxically, banning certain foods from your diet actually increases the likelihood of binging on them. Given this, reducing stress and targeting any underlying emotional issues is of great help when it comes to getting rid of these cravings.

Of course, consuming an excess of high-sugar foods also upsets your digestion, leading to deficiencies in carbon, nitrogen, chromium, phosphorus, tryptophan and sulfur, which are tied to normal cell metabolism[1] so you need to make a conscious effort to include fruits and vegetables that provide you with these nutrients in your diet.

In fact, the type of cravings you have offers a clue to which nutrient(s) you’re missing. For example, craving chocolate or acidic foods is a common sign of magnesium deficiency. Craving high-fat foods or carbonated drinks may be signs of calcium deficiency or essential fatty acids deficiency, craving red meat or ice points to an iron deficiency, and craving salty foods is usually caused by a lack of chloride.

Diets that are very low in calories or that eliminate food groups, such as vegetarian plans, can also cause nutritional deficiencies and therefore need to be carefully elaborated to ensure that appropriate substitutions have been made. Smoking, or drinking an excess of alcohol or caffeine, could also reduce the absorption of essential nutrients. Likewise, some medications may impair the absorption of certain vitamins or minerals, depending on their mechanism of action.

So, next time you get a craving, don’t give in to it immediately – take a moment to think about the possible causes, and act accordingly: follow psychological self-care strategies, cut down on drinking/smoking, eat nutrient-rich foods and supplement your vitamin and mineral intake if needed. It is completely possible to follow a healthy meal plan without suffering from intense cravings, and in fact it’s one of the results of eating a balanced diet.

[1] http://diabeteslibrary.org/mineral-deficiencies-and-food-cravings/