Chocolate, donuts with butter cream icing, a slice of cheesy pizza, vanilla ice cream, a moist slice of cake - is your mouth watering? Then you are a food craving victim. You do not have to worry about this, as almost everyone has food cravings at some point in life.
When people tell you that it is all in your head, they might not know they are saying the truth. Three regions in the brain are responsible for this uncontrollable urge to eat something sweet or salty with no obvious reason. It has been discovered that food cravings also have something to do with desire and emotions.
Food cravings appear when you need to satisfy some emotional needs, such as reducing anxiety, calming stress or coping with depression. This happens because the carbohydrates you eat boost the level of serotonin, a hormone that has a calming effect. Even the combination of sugar and fat appears to calm people, no matter how unbelievable this might sound.
But food cravings also mean something else. Through them, your body asks for the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that it needs. For example, if you body needs potassium, your brain will make you crave salty foods. If you crave sweets, your body needs carbon, chromium, sulfur, phosphorus and tryptophan. This means that you should not ignore your cravings, but rather learn to satisfy them with healthy foods.
Stopping cravings by Eating Healthy Foods Now
Ignoring cravings often means ignoring the signals sent by your body? If you crave for sweet, salty or sour foods, this means that you need certain ingredients those foods have in common. You need to find healthier foods that contain those ingredients and replace the unhealthy foods you are craving for with them.
For example, you can replace:
Chocolate with fruits, vegetables and raw seeds and nuts;
- Sweets with dried beans, chicken, grapes, broccoli, cheese, calves liver, fresh fruits, nuts, grains, cabbage, cranberries, sweet potatoes;
- Bread with fish, beans, meat, nuts;
- Fatty foods and oily snacks with broccoli, legumes, cheese, sesame, mustard, kale, sesame seeds;
- Tea or coffee with eggs, fish, liver, chicken, nuts, dairy, onion, red peppers, garlic, black cherries, sea salt;
- Alcohol with seafood, nuts, meat, dairy, oatmeal, granola, raw cabbage juice, black olives, bitter greens;
- Fizzy drinks with broccoli, cheese, mustard, sesame seeds, turnip greens;
- Salty foods with unrefined sea salt, fish, raw goat milk;
- Acid foods with fruits, vegetables, raw seeds and nuts;
- Tobacco with seeds and nuts.
Depending on your usual food cravings, you can always have the healthy alternative prepared: a bowl of fruits, a big glass of water, a teaspoon of honey, etc. It might seem difficult to do this, but you can at least try and avoid the negative effects of food cravings, such as weight gain. Do not keep sweet foods all around in your house if you know you have a sweet tooth, but stuff your kitchen and fridge with healthy alternatives.