May 15, 2018
The Origin of Cravings
A craving can crop up seemingly out of nowhere – an overwhelming urge for ice cream, or potato chips. You may have assumed that there’s nothing more to it than wanting something sweet, salty, or cozy, but there are often physical and psychological reasons as to why you crave what you crave.
Cravings are signals our bodies send us and there’s often a message behind them. By looking at the message, you can create awareness around what may be missing—in your diet or even in your life. For instance, emotional eating often results from a lack of nourishment in other areas of our lives—in our work, relationships, spirituality, or physical movement. It can lead to reaching for food in order to fill a void.
Deconstruct the craving and you may be able to diffuse it. Ask what does my body want and why? To do that it first helps to gain some insight into how your body may be speaking to you and whether you could be suffering from a dietary deficiency or merely a case of nostalgia.
Chocolate
If you’re regularly craving a specific sweet like chocolate, you may have magnesium deficiency as chocolate happens to be high in magnesium.
The Solution
Try adding magnesium-rich leafy greens, nuts, and avocado to your diet. Cravings for sweets are often tied to wanting love and the result of an overall environment that isn’t nourishing; you can also to quench the feeling by doing something other than eating like spending time with a friend.
Salty Foods
Salt cravings indicate that you’re low in overall mineral levels.
The Solution
Try snacking on seaweed chips or consider a multi-mineral supplement. Salty, crunchy foods also create heat in the body so if you work in a cold environment and regularly have these cravings, you may simply need to bundle up more or sip on hot lemon water or tea.
Caffeine
If you eat a highly processed diet, you tend to crave more caffeinated beverages. Junk food can also leave you constantly hungry because there’s no nutritional value. You’re craving caffeine to provide your body with energy it needs.
The Solution
Add colorful whole foods into your diet for healthy energy.
Late-in-the-day munchies
A common craving influenced by a hormonal imbalance is when your cortisol levels are elevated. You’ll crave foods late in the day or evening because you’re intuitively trying to relieve stress.
The Solution
See if a stress-relieving activity like a yoga class or an Epsom salt bath diffuses it.
Carb-laden foods
This can mean that your gut flora is imbalanced. The majority of your serotonin is produced in your gut so you may instinctively be reaching for carbs that aid in the production of it. The problem is that this negatively impacts your flora further, setting you up for a vicious cycle.
The Solution
Eating Greek yogurt, kefir, kimchi or supplementing with a probiotic can help.
You might also like
Cat Came in with a big goal, she set her bar high and did not let anything stop her from making progress. Since the start what truly stood out about Cat is her consistency and honesty. She’s lost 18 lbs/8.4% of Body Fat mass in just 4 months while increasing muscle mass by 3lbs and is only 3lbs away from her long term goal! In the workouts she is always pushing herself and regardless of if it is a good or bad day, you will find her trying to go up in weight and going all out in the workout finishers.
Within 6 consistent months at IPT’s Semi Private Program, Diana is down 17.9 lbs and 8.8% body fat! The greatest thing about Diana is she always steps up to the challenge in front of her. From the beginning, she set a big goal and didn’t let anything hold her back from getting there. She quickly implements feedback to progress forward. Her consistency in and outside the gym has been incredible
Within 5 consecutive months in IPT’s 1:1 Program, Simon has lost 23.3 lbs of BFM, 29.9 lbs of total weight! Simon always comes in with high energy and a positive attitude. He made big progress in dropping body fat and getting stronger!