What Your Food Cravings Really Mean
Ever had a craving you just can’t shake? Is there only one particular food that can always pull you out of an emotional rut? Have you ever wondered where the phrase“Eat your feelings” even comes from or what causes food cravings in the first place?
Of course, you have! You’re only human! Most people accept food cravings as a normal part of everyday life without really ever asking what these food cravings mean.” No two bodies are the same, and therefore no two reasons behind a specific food craving are the same. While some may be rooted in nutritional deficits – others may be a deeper signal from our Spirit echoing throughout our bodies.
Your mind, body, and Spirit communicate through an intricate language, which isn’t always easy to decipher. However, with a little effort, you can translate these signals and create the harmony needed for improved health.
For most, we’ve been taught to “overcome” our bodily cues with medicine or supplements. For example, when a person has a headache, they’re taught to reach for the Advil bottle rather than lying down and drinking lots of water. However, no matter how much you resent, ignore, or overlook your bodily cues – they’re not going to go away.
When looking at a type of food craving specifically, emotions are one of the most common causes of binge eating. Cravings that cause emotional eating tend to manifest themselves when we feel vulnerable. Rather than expressing fluctuations in our emotions, we tend to stuff them down with “comfort foods” that give our bodies a false sense of fulfillment. After a while, your body learns this routine, creating cravings that, when satiated, provide a short-term boost of chemical components. By deciphering the real meaning of your cravings, you can get insight as to what’s truly gnawing at you from within.
Gaining knowledge about what our cravings can mean, whether through personal research or consulting with a dietitian, may help us to reduce unhealthy habits and poor food choices that may lead to undesirable outcomes like weight gain and obesity. The following are the three most common food cravings and a starting point for you to decrypt what your mind, body, and Spirit are trying to tell you.
Craving Sweets
Physical
- Lack of sleep and energy
- Dehydration
- Blood Sugar imbalances
- Chromium or Magnesium deficiencies
- Fatty Acid deficiency
- Elevated cortisol and ghrelin (hunger hormone) levels
Emotional
- Sadness
- Stress
There have been several studies that show how sugar can affect the same brain regions as drugs and alcohol. This is because simple carbohydrates, such as sugar, are digested faster than complex carbs and give an immediate energy and dopamine boost. Chocolate specifically is also metabolized to serotonin, a mood-boosting hormone, so cravings can also be related to an emotional need. However, this momentary mood improvement is generally followed by a serious drop, which spurs people to reach for another sugary snack like ice cream, and forms an addictive cycle.
Balancers
- Fresh Fruit
- Healthy Cocoa or Dark Chocolate
- Water
- Getting a massage
- Talking with loved ones
- Long walks
- Getting enough sleep
- Any activity that makes you feel good
Instead of indulging in a chocolate craving and grabbing the closest chocolate bar, choose a piece of fruit when you’re craving sweet foods. Giving into unhealthy foods like cookies, cakes, soft drinks or other refined sweets will only make the problem worse, and cause a blood sugar roller coaster that leads to more cravings.
When you’re seeking to balance this, think about whether or not any other experiences could satiate your sugar craving, such as getting a massage or a bath, or sitting in the beauty of nature. Besides healthy cocoa or dark chocolate, reach for a loved one, friend, pet, or any activity that makes you feel good and ensure you’re getting enough sleep each night. The important thing is to remember that there is a difference between sweetness that heals and sweetness that temporarily bandages.
Craving Salts
Physical
- Low electrolyte levels
- Dehydration
- Chloride Deficiency
- Iodine deficiency
Emotional
- Stress
- Fatigue
When adding salty foods like fries to your meal seems too good to pass up – it may be time to re-evaluate your daily life. Excess and chronic stress can lead to adrenal exhaustion, and you might be pushing yourself further than your body can handle. Your body craves salt when your stress levels are intensely raised for a prolonged period and deplete your adrenal gland’s ability to create aldosterone, a hormone that helps to retain sodium.
With reduced levels of sodium, your body is unable to maintain proper hydration levels and can become dehydrated. A hankering for salt may be related to iodine nutrient deficiency as well, as it is the body’s way of calling out for natural sea-based minerals.
Salt cravings can indicate that you are trying to “solidify” yourself in your overwhelmed state. Subconsciously, you may be trying to fortify yourself with the hardness and strength of salt’s solid construct, to deal with your situation.
Balancers
- Vitamin B-rich foods (Nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables)
- Water
- Exercise
- Meditation
- Yoga
Find strength in trust and flexibility rather than fortifying and enforcing the walls around you. The hardness you wish to develop through salts only creates resistance, not healing. Instead of reaching for a salty snack like potato chips – try distressing in more healthy and productive ways. Eat foods rich in vitamin B such as oats or wild salmon to increase adrenal support. While exercise is a sure-fire way to balance your body and expel negative stress from the body, meditation, and mindful relaxation are also great mood balancers, as well.
Craving Fats
Physical
- Calcium Deficiency
- Fatty Acid Deficiency
- Elevated ghrelin levels
Emotional
- Hurt
- Loss
- Depleted Self-Worth
While all foods in moderation are quite normal – if you constantly over-indulge in calorie-dense fatty foods, you know your body is out of balance. Cravings for peanut butter, oils, or fried foods often relate to a calcium deficiency, as saturated fats are necessary to help maintain calcium in the body and build bone density. However, the wrong fatty foods often have enough calories to leave you bloated, perpetuating your body’s intense desire to sink into lethargy and despair.
On a spiritual level, you may be craving foods that are high-fat because you have yet to accept your own importance and feel the need to keep the full reality of your power squashed down by physical discomfort. In this instance, your cravings are probably coming from a wounded ego, looking to perpetuate old hurts and a reduced sense of self-worth.
Balancers
- Omega 3’s (EPA and DHA) – Flax oil, ground flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts
- Sesame seeds
- Broccoli
- Kale
- Legumes
- Mustard
What Food Cravings Mean in the Journey Towards Self-Understanding
Taking the time to explore the meaning behind food cravings can offer significantly valuable insights into not only the physical aspects of our lives but also our emotional landscape. Understanding why we crave certain foods can reveal underlying emotions or unmet needs, guiding us toward healthier coping mechanisms and ultimately fostering a greater sense of self-awareness and empowerment.
Accepting our own authenticity and importance frees our power and allows us to go against social norms that cultivate insecurity. Through articulating our experience and understanding ourselves better, it’s possible to see how beautiful we truly are, and how much we have to give the world. This releases restrictions on our sense of personal power and allows a stronger mind to take back control. Consider practicing core exercises to cultivate your third chakra, which is the center of your self-esteem and willpower.
About the Author
Crush Your Cravings For Good
If you’re alive, then chances are you’ve craved. Late night cravings are the biggest saboteur I see among my clients. At the end of the day, we are tired, run down, and want that sinfully cold and creamy or obnoxiously loud and crunchy treat. Mid-afternoon snack attacks are also a red-hot danger zone for many of my clients who end up hitting the vending machine at work to make it through the rest of the afternoon and an impossible to-do list. Others suffer from “weekenditis” where they eat to reward themselves for the hard week they just toiled through. Sound familiar?
The child that still lives within each of us whines and begs and it’s often just easier to cave in and indulge in that second glass of wine, ice cream, or several handfuls of tortilla chips. “I have no willpower,” my clients lament. But I disagree. Cravings reside at the three-way intersection between biology, desire and insanity and they surface not because we lack willpower, but because we haven’t planned well in advance or because there are very real needs that are not being met. To truly deconstruct your cravings, I urge you to take a mind-body-spirit approach: educate yourself on the causes of your cravings, address any physiological issues (low blood sugar, cortisol dysregulation, lack of sleep, food intolerances), and look at the emotional root of your trigger foods.
The biggest source of food cravings I see are improper food choices earlier in the day and a build-up of stress that leads to succumbing to temptations in the evening. For starters, evaluate the following areas to nip your cravings in the bud:
-
Look at your diet: are you eating regularly or are you going more than 3 hours between meals or snacks? Having low blood sugar earlier in the day can set you up to compensate by rummaging in the pantry after dinner. Also consider the possibility the foods you are choosing – whether or not they are healthy – may not be the right foods for you.
-
Look for patterns of stressors and rewards. Often we deprive and deny ourselves during the day – both with food choices AND with saying ‘Yes’ to too many people, or by taking on too much. If you give and give and give all day, you are going to want to receive at the end to restore yourself. After all, life is all about that reciprocal dance of giving and receiving, right? Often the cycle is to emotionally shut down in front of the TV or internet and reward oneself with wine or sweets. Where can you adjust your choices during the day so you are not so depleted at the end of it? What can you do (or not do) to increase your joy?
-
If there really WAS a little boy or girl living inside of you, what would s/he need? Is there an alternative to what you are choosing that is healthier and just as satisfying, or even more so? Watch your inner dialogue as well. Always aim to have the same dialogue with yourself that you would want to hear from your best friend.
I’m not one to white-knuckle my way through a massive craving, and I don’t believe you should either. That’s no way to live life. And in my practice, I often work with my clients to deconstruct what their cravings really mean and while that can be a complex process, here’s a breakdown of three of the most popular cravings:
1. Sugar Cravings
Cravings for sweets could be the result of low blood sugar or cortisol (stress hormone) dysregulation as there’s a close relationship between the two. Sugar is the quintessential “yin” food, i.e. expansive food that makes us feel lighter, so after a really stressful day, we turn to a sweet cocktail or chocolate to diffuse the stress and anxiety that has been building up.
But too much yin, sparks cravings for heavier, contractive “yang” foods such as salt, meat and cheese. That is why you wake up the next morning with a hankering for eggs or steak. Do you see how we create this vicious cycle where we ricochet uncontrollably from sweet processed foods to animal food?
Solution: Instead of going for refined/processed sweets, experiment with sweet veggies, such as yams, carrots, beets, corn and onions. Roast some slices or chunks of sweet potatoes rubbed with coconut oil, Himalayan pink crystal salt and cinnamon for a yummy sweet treat sans any refined sugar that will naturally quell your sugar cravings. I often instruct my clients to keep a small jar of organic coconut oil at their desks and to just take a teaspoon or tablespoon straight up before they feel that 3 pm crash coming on as it will provide instant energy. Coconut oil is nature’s richest source of healthy medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs), which your body sends directly to your liver to use as energy. Numerous studies have shown that MCFAs promote weight loss and helps improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.
Sometimes we crave sweets when we’re lacking sweetness in our lives. At the end of a long day, we’re often just looking for a hug or someone to hear us out, but instead we seek to anesthetize those emotions with food. So, instead of trying to find comfort at the bottom of Ben and Jerrys Cherry Garcia, can you perhaps talk to a sweet friend, smell a sweet flower or relax with the sweet aroma of an essential oil? What can you do to nourish your life and add sweetness from non-food sources?
2. Salt Cravings
Eating too many processed foods or foods grown in our mineral-depleted soil can result in a mineral deficiency that sparks cravings for salty foods. Sometimes people who take a lot of medications or supplements can crave salt to balance out what they are already taking in. Cravings for crunchy foods might stem from the desire to crunch out and not hear something (such as your gossipy co-workers or an irate boss). No wonder so many office vending machines have crunchy salty snack foods.
Solution: Satiate your craving for salt by loading up on sea vegetables like kelp, nori, arame, hijike, and wakame. Simply sprinkle some dulse flakes on your salad or an avocado, and contrary to what you may think it doesn’t taste seaweed-y at all; in fact, you won’t even notice it. You can also add seaweed to your soups and stews or sprinkle it on popcorn (in place of table salt) for a rich salty and mineral flavor. Or try some cultured veggies on top of blue corn chips which offers that crunch in a really nutritious way. You can find cultured veggies already made from Rejuvenative Foods, Farmhouse Kulture or Bubbies at Whole Foods, Sprouts or your local health food store.
3. Alcohol Cravings
Alcoholic beverages can help the body digest heavy fatty foods, hence the classic paring of wine with cheese. But often we crave alcohol, just as we do sugar, to make us feel lighter and less stressed out.
Solution: Try Kombucha, which is a fermented tea drink make with only 0.5% alcohol. Kombucha is packed with B-vitamins and immune boosting probiotics. Also, other fermented foods like sauerkraut, and kimchi can combat cravings for alcohol and help digestion without the hangover. Probiotics not only stop cravings for alcohol and sugar, thereby helping you lose weight but they also serve as anti-depressants by secreting feel-good neurochemicals that make us happy. And a big beauty bonus is that they help with any type of inflammatory skin condition, such as acne, eczema and psoriasis, and make the skin poreless.
Bottom line
Most cravings stem from emotional eating, so remember to differentiate between physical versus emotional hunger and be aware of our culture’s obsession with sugar, reward and holidays.
Oprah offers one of the best definitions of forgiveness I’ve ever come across: “Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could’ve been any different.” You can release your past hurt, anger and resentment without condoning what happened and this act of letting go will release you from your habitual pattern of emotional eating and binging. Try it…it’s a game changer!
Now, I’d like to hear from you. What has been your experience with cravings and emotional eating? Do you have a transformational story or are cravings still ruling your life and you’d like to flip that equation, so that you rule your cravings (and not the other way around)?
