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However, people do have them. While an exact cause of a craving is not fully understood, there are several theories attributed to why they may happen:
- Deprivation Theory- Cravings are caused by restricting or limiting foods in your diet. You tend to crave what you can’t have! Studies have shown that food denial may lead to overeating. Overeating leads to guilty feelings which in turn, leads to overeating and more guilt. It then becomes a viscous cycle. Sometimes eating a reasonable portion of a forbidden food will help break the cycle and prevent cravings.
- Hormone Theory- Hormonal changes may be involved. Levels of neurochemical serotonin may fall leading to depression, irritability and a craving for high carbohydrate foods (i.e. candies, etc). After eating carbohydrates, the serotonin starts to rise, causing you to feel calm and relaxed.
- Brain Chemical Theory- Two specific brain chemicals, neuropeptide (NPY) and galanin, may affect cravings. NPY peaks in the morning and during dieting and stress. NPY increases carbohydrate cravings. Galanin peaks more at night. It increases fat intake. Eating a variety of foods at all meals may prevent cravings.
- Stress Response Theory- This theory causes the increased desire for carbohydrate-type foods for quick energy in the ‘fight or flight’ response. Did you know that ‘stressed’ is ‘desserts’ spelled backwards????
Women report more food cravings than men do. Elderly people report fewer cravings than younger people do. Women also crave more sugar/fat-type foods like cake, cookies, chocolate candy and ice cream. Men crave more protein/fat-type foods like pizza, nuts, burgers and potato chips.
Here is the link to a site that I think you'll find very informative (I did!)
http://www.henrico.k12.va.us/HS/Godwin/info/food/cravings.html
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Sources: http://www.henrico.k12.va.us/HS/Godwin/info/food/cravings.html
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curiouskitty's Recommendations
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Unfortunately, in our modern world, food cravings are not a reliable indicator of what you need. We evolved in a world where we kind of took what we found, which is how we became omnivores.
If you're getting a craving for healthy foods, definitely give into that. You may be better attuned to what your body is desiring than most people. Or maybe you just have random cravings, the same sort of things that cause "pica" in others (cravings for really unnatural foods). But really, it's almost impossible for you to eat too much broccoli or carrots unless you're eating almost nothing else, so give in to those cravings.
Unfortunately, people aren't often very good at it. I just read an account of early settlers in Australia refusing to eat the local Vitamin C sources even while dying of scurvy. They preferred comforting, bland foods that were also killing them.
Nearly all people have a craving for high-density calorie sources, like fats and sugar, which our bodies don't really require in this modern world but come from an age when those things were rare finds. We desire them greatly, as protection against starvation, but we don't see much starvation in the Western world these days. The cravings nonetheless remain.
Pregnant women often get strange cravings, studies have shown that they rarely connect to nutrients they need. More likely, it's just an evolutionary response to make sure she gets enough calories from whatever is around, or seeking a comforting food (distorted by the hormones) in a very stressful time.
If you generally eat healthy, the odds are that you're not really seriously deprived of any of the vitamins provided by those foods, and probably don't crave them. The odds are good that it's something else coming to the surface, and you think of those as comfort foods. People often crave things with no nutritional value in an attempt to relieve stress. You're very lucky that your comfort foods also happen to be healthy. Congratulations.
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The phenomenon you’re referring to is called "Wisdom of the Body." It does seem like a bit of conventional wisdom that just might be true, since many of us have experienced it ourselves. However, I have also read that if it were true, most woman would crave cottage cheese and liver constantly, since most women don’t get enough calcium and iron in their diets. I don’t know about you, but it’s been a long time since I craved liver! Plus, when you crave a quart of Ben & Jerry's, it's not likely your body is deficient in Chunky Monkey.
The article referenced below has a lot of good information on the source of cravings. According to it, the more likely reasons are over-dieting, pleasant food associations, hormones, blood sugar crashes, stress, anger, or boredom.
So your body is probably telling you something, but it's likely something other than that you have a nutritional deficiency.
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Sources: http://www.canadianliving.com/health/nutrition/why_we_crave.php
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SharonW's Recommendations
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And by way of an anecdotal answer, my boss's son has been fighting a recurring cancer in his body which started in his appendix, later spreading to his kidney. He's been through chemo and radiation and who knows what else. After the final round, and as soon as he felt able to eat, he had amazing cravings and was eating large amounts of food. She said he ate 12 bananas at one sitting, remarking all the time how good they tasted. Then moved on to chicken, apples, vegetables and so on. When she approached his doctor about it, being a concerned mother she had to find out, the doctor said it was his body's way of replenishing lost vitamins and minerals and not to worry. The doctor also said not to get upset when he started craving anchovies and the like. Wow. So I hope that helps a bit.
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It is very possible that your body needs the nutrients of those foods. You are truely what you eat and if you are used to eating healthy food, that's what your body craves, just as if you eat unhealthy food, like me, that's also what your body craves. It is really hard to break the unhealthy foods, but they say if you quit for a week or two then you are much more able to stay away from them as you have started giving your body healthy food.
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