Welcome! Thank you for reading my Blog and I am glad you are here to learn and grow your knowledge to live a happier, healthier life. Today’s topic is on food cravings!! Yes we have all been there done that and got our t-shirts stained. But I am here to help with those cravings and try to give you some tips on how to avoid them or maybe just manage them a little better. Let’s get started.
So, if you sometimes experience food cravings or an irresistible desire to eat specific foods, you can rest assure that you’re not alone. In fact, research has estimated that over 90% of the world’s population gets food cravings. WOW! That’s a lot of people.
The worst part is that some of these cravings can be hard to ignore, potentially leading you to consume excessive amounts of calorie-dense, nutrient-poor, and highly palatable foods like chocolate, cake, ice cream, and pizza. Unfortunately, these excess calories and processed foods can harm your health. If you’re worried that you are experiencing more food cravings than others or that your cravings bother you, there could be several reasons that can explain why, and there are several ways to combat them. Let’s talk about a few of them below.
Eating enough calories:
It’s important to remember to fuel your body properly to keep it healthy and functioning at its best. Without enough calories and nutrients, it’s your body signals telling you to eat, which can cause strong cravings for certain foods i.e. cake, candy, pizza. While the relationship between calorie intake and food cravings is a very complex process, some research suggests that calorie restriction — at least in the short term — can increase those cravings. On the other hand, long-term calorie restriction (fasting) may be associated with less overall and specific food cravings. Regardless, consistently fueling your body with healthy, filling foods and making sure you’re not restricting calories may help decrease food cravings.
Avoid Restrictive Diets:
Picture this! You’re kicking off a new diet, feeling ready to change your eating patterns and reach new health goals (start humming Superman theme song), unfortunately, just days later, you get stronger and stronger cravings for all the foods you cannot eat or don’t eat anymore. (Ok, stop humming, your bubble has just popped!).
Does this sound familiar? That is completely normal. Yes, don’t be discouraged! Many diets are overly restrictive, and this can lead to increased food cravings as mentioned above. In fact, some studies suggest that people on diets are more likely to experience frequent food cravings than people who aren’t on restrictive diets. Lay off the fad diets!
For example, a 2012 study including 129 women found that those who were dieting to lose weight experienced significantly more food cravings than women who weren’t dieting. Plus, their food cravings were more intense ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22306437/). In fact, it’s believed that restrained eating and perceived deprivation play a large role in food cravings.
Another 2020 review of 8 studies on food deprivation found that in 7 of the studies, food deprivation increased cravings for foods that were perceived as “off-limits” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7399671/)
So, as you can see, while losing excess body fat by cutting calories may improve your overall health, it’s important to remember to avoid overly restrictive diets to keep food cravings under control. Instead, focus on developing an eating pattern that properly nourishes your body and lets you enjoy your favorite foods every once in a while.
Don’t Get Hangry:
Although hunger is a natural body cue that shouldn’t be feared or ignored, letting yourself get too hungry (hangry) might increase the risk of strong food cravings. When you’re feeling insatiably hungry, it’s likely that you haven’t fueled your body for a long time. Your blood sugar levels may be low, and your body will direct you to consume high energy foods to get those levels back up into the normal range. This is the cravings people get for pizza, cookies, cakes, fried foods etc. On the other hand, when your blood sugar levels are stable, you’re less likely to have strong food cravings. Luckily, you don’t have to stringently eat every couple of hours to keep your blood sugar levels steady. You just simply pay attention to your hunger and fullness cues and feed your body when it needs fuel. Keep in mind you need to eat healthy snacks or make healthier choices.
Stop Obsessing Over Calories:
Besides taking up time, effort, and mental energy, being so preoccupied with calories and obsessing over them can cause you to severely restrict your overall energy intake and avoid foods that you enjoy. While tracking food intake can be helpful for some people on a short-term basis, consistently obsessing about it can harm your relationship with food and cause unnecessary stress, which in turn makes you gain weight! Counteractively, by overly restricting certain foods or limiting your food intake to reach a certain goal, you can actually end up feeling stronger food cravings and overeat.
If you’re struggling with obsessive calorie counting, overly restricting food intake, or food cravings, contact me and I can help you make a plan and get on track to live a happier, healthier life. I’m not trying to have you live your best life, I’m trying to have you live a healthier one. So I hope this topic for today has helped you figure out your cravings and how to at least recognize them and maybe manage them a little better.
Until next time, take care and remember ……….You Only Get One Body…………Make the Change!
Darren
Harmony Shift 