The Creature that is Food Cravings

You’re sitting, minding your own business, when all of a sudden it hits. The craving. You can’t concentrate on anything but this desire, this need for food. You’re powerless to stop it, powerless to do anything but fall victim to another snack consumed or another moment wasted debating on whether to eat or not. We’ve all been there. But when struggling to maintain a healthy lifestyle or reduce the hours spent snacking, cravings can feel a little bit like the end of the world.
Often, different cravings can mean a variety of things that your body is lacking, and tracing the origin of your food craving can help you understand what you can do to work against them in the future. Understanding your cravings can give you insight on how to find alternatives to the candies and crisps other than chomping a night away.

Midnight Snacking
Do you ever find yourself munching on this or that as the clock ticks closer toward a new day, often without your conscious decision to do so? A cookie here, a tiny morsel of chocolate there, a handful of chips to even out the sweetness, is what you tell yourself. It could be another late night grind, trying to pack in as much as possible into these short 24 hours, or telling yourself one more episode for the next 3 or so. Whatever the reason, the snacks start calling.
A study found that a lack of sleep is directly linked to a higher consumption of post-dinner snacks. The less sleep you get, the more energy you need to keep on going. Hence the excessive amounts of caffeine needed to power through an all-nighter, and the urge to consume anything and everything. People who are lacking in sleep tend to have lighter breakfasts and then crave high-calorie snacks after dinner. Your body is telling you it’s craving energy, something to keep it going and keep it awake while you refuse to let it rest.
Furthermore, the less sleep you get, the more differently your brain works. Rather than keeping your activities in check with the frontal lobe and its decision-making center, the reward center in the brain rears its ugly head and takes control. This leads to your body acting as a vessel for anything that feels like a reward to your brain, from fast food to a cookie or three to half a family size bag of chips. Only your own inhibitions prevent a snack rampage, and when your drowsy self is powerless to uphold its resolutions, there’s no safe place for any nearby food.
So, instead of snacking the night away, take a nap. Your body will thank you.

Sugar
Chocolate, cookies, candies, and copious amounts of sugar. Once the sugar craving hits, there’s nothing you can do but treat yourself. And the reason for this sugar craving? Stress. The more stressed you are, the more likely you are to crave sugar and saturated fats. This is due to the fact that sweet foods stimulate the reward center in the brain, and when your world feels like it’s falling apart around you, all the brain wants is to feel something good. And the more sweets you eat, the more you need to eat in the future to make your brain feel the same reward it felt the first time.
This stress-response craving tends to present itself more in women than men. When not stressed, women tend to eat more healthily and make better food choices, while men are the opposite and eat unhealthy food when not stressed as a reward. A student at the University of Kentucky agreed that her stress levels and her sweet intake seem to rise together. “As the semester has been going along I’ve been eating more deserts and I’ve been more stressed and sleep deprived,” she said, in the middle of eating a cup of chocolate ice cream.
So instead of gorging yourself on chocolate and candies in the midst of a stressed haze, listen to some music, take a walk, or do whatever works for you to keep your stress levels at a minimum.

Salt
A cool glass of water, or a crispy bag of chips? That is the question, especially when you’re hinging on dehydration. Research has shown that alongside increased thirst, the desire for sodium and salty foods rises when you’re thirsty. This is due to the body’s need to conserve water. Just because you’re drinking less water doesn’t mean your body needs it any less. So your body goes on lock-down mode, conserving water for necessary bodily functions and trying its best to halt the flow of water out of the body.
Without sodium, a body would have much more trouble keeping water in it. This article highlights the important role sodium plays in the body. When your body is dehydrated, salt feels like a fine addition to water. So the cravings begin, driving you through just one more chip bag. And though salt is necessary to keep everything running smoothly, too much can drive up blood pressure and cause a whole mess of problems.
And then there’s the crunch factor. Who doesn’t love a crispy, crunchy snack? Surprisingly, there’s science to back this need for crunch. The crunchier a food is, the more convinced your brain is that it’s fresh. Historically, fresh has meant safe and good to eat, so it’s no surprise that you’ll find yourself craving something that’ll produce that satisfying chomp that drowns the world out. Additionally, there’s something almost therapeutic and utterly satisfying with a good crunch. It may help release any pent-up aggressions you’re still holding onto after all those years in a relatively harmless way.
Rather than dig into the first crinkly bag you can get your hands on, take a (probably much needed) sip of water. It’d be a feat to drink too much water, so play it safe and stay hydrated.

Ice
Craving ice? You’re not alone. An ice craving seems to originate for a multitude of reasons. There’s of course a reiteration of the crunch factor, and it’s hard to beat the crunch an ice cube provides. Chewing on something can also help keep you awake if you’re on the late-night grind and wanting something light, albeit loud. One source suggests a correlation between craving ice and iron deficiency. An increased awakeness provided by chewing on something so cold and so loud within your own head can provide a much-needed boost for the sluggishness iron deficiency produces.
Of course, just because you’re experiencing an ice craving doesn’t immediately mean you’re deficient in iron. However, if you happen to be iron deficient and find yourself craving ice now and again, now you know why.

Deep Thoughts
Surprise, surprise — the more you think about snacks, the more you crave them. Who would have thought. In a world where dieting fads are all the craze and where everyone has a suggestion for a new food lifestyle to follow, be it vegetarian or vegan or pescetarian, thinking about food is a part of society as we know it. Studies (like this one) have shown that cravings are a response to repeated thoughts about something you really want.
The desires you may experience are typically based on what you’re used to. If you’ve been a meat eater your entire life and all of a sudden you’ve switched to a plant-based diet, you’re probably going to crave the meat you’re missing most. Similarly, if you’re dieting by trying to consume less, you’re already thinking about food and so the next logical thought is to think about everything you’re stopping yourself from eating, which leads to cravings about those said things. Overall, it’s a vicious cycle.
Hand in hand with thinking about food leading to cravings is the absence of thought leading to empty eating. Boredom is the typical culprit of eating for the sake of something to do. When faced with nothing to occupy your senses, everything starts to seem appealing.

Cravings can be a nuisance to deal with, and deciding on whether their origin lies in actual hunger or your brain trying to trick you into doing its bidding (and thereby activating that ever-important reward center) can be quite the puzzler. Often times, cravings pass once you give them time to run their course. Though it may be extremely tempting to treat yourself with a piece of chocolate or a bag of chips, prevent yourself from establishing a pattern of snacking that’ll only spiral into uncontrollable cravings by letting some time pass and trying to assess whether your body is actually in need of something.
