Filed under Los Angeles Living on April 15th, 2008:
What your Cravings Say About You
When you notice that rumbling in your stomach it can be so easy to satisfy your hunger with whatever happens to be near you. Junk food, fast food, unhealthy food, whatever our poison is, always seems to be right around us when we get hungry. Then, later when we do get a craving for something specific, it always seems to be for some type of comfort food that most often lacks any and all nutritional value.
Forbes magazine featured an article on their website that has to do with just this issue – Food Cravings and what they mean to you. There is a lot of great information on the site from experts involved in the psychological and scientific areas of food research. After all, to chalk up your cravings for junk food to just a normal physiological response to hunger would seem to be an all too simple approach to the problem.
If you’re Craving…
Chocolate
Your body may be lacking magnesium and to relpenish your body’s empty stores, try snacking on raw nuts and include some spinach in your next meal.
Chips
Craving salty foods like chips may be an indication of stress. Adrenal glands in your body have a hard time balancing sodium levels when you’re under lots of pressure or worrying for long periods of time. The best way to fix this is to reduce stress levels and relax more. Popcorn is a great, filling snack that is also low in fat and calories.
Hot Wings
Spicy food cravings could be attributed to a zinc deficiency because low zinc levels affect your taste buds. Spicy foods provide a large dose of unmistakable flavor. Whole grains and seafood could be a healthy alternative to 10 wings from the local sports bar
If our body were telling us it needs food, why wouldn’t they be telling us that it needs healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables and not unhealthy foods such as Big Macs and Nachos Bell Grande. Taking this into consideration, it seems like there may be an underlying psychological aspect to our hunger that we may not always be taking into account. Some researchers theorize that we seek out high calorie foods to give us enough sustenance and energy to survive. Where as in the past this very innate instinct could have saved a person’s life, today, those of us in cubicles really don’t need the large amounts of calories to get us through the days.
But armed with a bit more knowledge you can hopefully begin to see your cravings as just that, cravings, which by definition means a powerful desire. Keep that in mind – your cravings are desires and not necessities. Comfort food is comfortable and not necessity. Good things take time, fast food doesn’t. Understand and examine both the psychological and the physiological aspects of your diet and you will be better armed against all of the unhealthy foods that surround us everyday.