Food Cravings and What They Mean

Have Cravings? Don’t worry, there’s nothing unusual about that. Almost everyone experiences food cravings of one kind or another.

Many people experience cravings for pizza. What do you crave from time to time?

If we look at just the word craving, the dictionary might describe it as “a consuming desire or yearning.” More specifically, a food craving has been defined as an “intense desire to eat a specific food.” Although normal, food cravings need to be handled carefully or they can wreak havoc on healthy eating and weight loss.

Cravings can seemingly pop up out of nowhere. For example, a craving might be “triggered” by an emotion or situation. Boredom or stress might be emotional triggers. Holiday celebrations and social events might be examples of situational triggers. Food triggers are common yet it seems to me that not all of these triggers result in cravings.

You might experience a food trigger that causes you to seek out a specific food. Whereas another food trigger might cause you to simply overeat the available food. Only the first example results in a craving or an intense desire for a SPECIFIC food or type of food. This differs from simply overeating because you can.

Brian Wansink, PhD, the Director of Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab has spent a lifetime studying food and behavior. He’s found cravings to fall into two basic categories: snacks and meal foods.

Snacks include such foods as potato chips, ice cream, cookies, and chocolate. Meal foods include pizza, pasta, burgers, and casseroles. To learn more about Dr. Wansink’s work and why we eat what we do, you might want to read his book titled “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More than We Think.”

If food triggers are not the only source of cravings, what else might bring on a craving for a certain food? Some think it is the result of hormonal fluctuations. Others believe it results from your body’s attempt to satisfy a need for certain nutrients or to simply get more calories.

We do know that the food you crave is often influenced by your age and gender. Women have a tendency to crave sweet food and men tend to crave salty food. We also know that premenstrual cravings can be particularly intense and difficult to ignore.

Cravings have long been attributed to a specific desire for carbohydrates. However, the results from a number of studies over the past 20-30 years suggest that may not be true.

Researchers have learned more about cravings by studying the kinds of foods people choose when they binge and also from reviewing detailed food records as found in the food diaries of people participating in weight loss programs.

Studies about bingeing episodes revealed an increased intake of calories from fat, a reduced intake of calories from protein, while surprisingly carbohydrate intake actually remained the same (with respect, I believe, to the percentage of total daily caloric intake). (Sugar and Fat: Cravings and Aversions, J. of Nutrition, 2003) In more recent studies on weight loss and cravings, the individuals who lost the most weight (by percentage) were those who craved foods with a high caloric density (as opposed to low calorie foods). These study results suggest cravings are more likely to be influenced by a perceived need for calories and not carbohydrates.

The foods commonly craved such as chocolate, salty snacks, chips, French Fries, pizza, and pasta tend to have a high caloric density and are typically high in fat, sugar, and/or salt. That anyone on a low calorie or overly restricted diet struggles with cravings is not surprising!

What may be less well known is that those individuals who accept cravings as normal and who choose to satisfy their need for high calorie less than healthy foods from time to time are actually more successful with weight loss and maintenance than those who fight the desire. The secret seems to be learning how to strike a balance between following up on a craving vs. knowing when to ignore one. The alternative of attempting to NEVER indulge may be a recipe for disaster.

Another less well known fact is that food cravings may not decrease in frequency over time. Thus learning to control how often you give in and indulge is a skill worth learning. In the next article I’ll share with you a number of tips to sharpen your ability.

Tagged as: cravings, diet, food cravings, overeating, reasons for food cravings, weight loss, what they mean