Why we give in to cravings about food

Chocolate is the most commonly craved food in the Western World, especially for women. It’s not the same everywhere. In Egypt its vegetables. Things would be so simple if we could just choose the object of our craving, but unfortunately this is not how it works. We all have that particular thing that ‘does it’ for us.

Food cravings are different to everyday hunger or daily choices of what to eat. Strong cravings make us act against our own best interests. The feelings can be so intense that they can ‘crowd out’ all other goals. We get tunnel vision — all our attention gets drawn into finding the source of our craving. In our kitchens we open cupboard doors, even though we know there is none there, in the fruitless hope that some has magically appeared. We berate ourselves for not having bought some earlier. In the extreme, we battle the elements to the local shop to satisfy our craving. And if we get to this stage, we are in danger of eating four mars bars rather than just one.

Food cravings can have a negative impact on our happiness. Frequently, we blame ourselves or feel guilty post-crave. All these negative thoughts and emotions impact our self-esteem. Often this is hidden; a conversation we have in our head in those quiet moments before we go to sleep. Outwardly we pretend everything is ok, whilst secretly the craving behaviour chips away at our view of our self.

When we are not gripped by the craving it is hard to understand how or why we gave in to the impulse. And the only rational reason that we can muster is that its down to us — our lack of willpower, our lack of focus, our inability to follow through. But this might not be the case. We could be blaming ourselves for things that are outside of our control.

Research into the origins of craving has shown that there are biological, emotional and cognitive triggers, over which we have varying degrees of control.

From early philosophers to the present day, the conventional wisdom is that we have a dual process model influencing our behaviour. The interplay between deliberate and emotional states are the mechanisms which enable goal motivation and self-control. Metcalfe and Mischel (1999) proposed a dual process of a hot and cool system.

There is a hot system, the ‘go’ system –its tagline would be ‘Just Do It’. Its driven by emotions. It’s simple, fast and reflexive. It’s responsible for impulsive behaviour. Then there’s a cool system, the ‘know’ system — it’s tagline would be ‘Let’s think it through’. It’s driven by thoughts. It’s complex, slow and reflective. And it’s responsible for deliberative behaviour.

Like a sister with an older brother, these systems can act in perfect harmony, making choices, judgments and decisions in our best interests. But sometimes, like siblings, they compete. And sometimes, this gets out of control and they fight.

Lots of things can trigger a hot state which creates a craving situation. It could be the smell of a cookie. Or it could be an emotion, like anger or happiness. Or it could be a biological drive like hunger. Sometimes it can just be the thought of our craved item. Perhaps a more surprising trigger, for all the women out there, is that is can be menstrual related changes.

When a craving starts to take hold, the more vivid the image, thought or feeling the stronger the impulse. And once it takes hold, the hot system is in the supremacy. It has the cool system pinned down in a neck lock. We get tunnel vision and we are unable to delay gratification. We need it now and can’t move on until our craving has been satiated.

When we are in the hot state, we won’t respond to reason so there’s no point your friend or your partner telling you to just stop. It won’t do anything. And then post-crave, we fail to understand why we behaved in that way and tend to underestimate the likelihood of behaving in that way in the future.

So, what are our options for conquering our craving and allowing the younger sister to turn the tables on the older brother, and get him in a head lock for once?

Firstly, we can just accept it. If Mars Bars are our thing, accept that we will have moments when nothing else will do. Eat the mars bar and savour it. Just make sure we don’t buy multi-packs.

Secondly, try and kick the cool system into play. Before we eat our Mars Bar, say out loud “I’m going to eat this mars bar even though I’m not hungry”. It might be enough to get our rational brain working.

Thirdly, we could try distraction. Put all our energy into something different. When the crave begins to take hold, stop whatever we are doing and go for a walk round the block or begin to clean the house. Allow no room for the craving to grow in strength.

Whatever we do, we need to be kinder to ourselves. Don’t blame. Don’t judge. Forgive. It might just be out of our control.

Ref: Metcalfe j, Mischel W (1999) A hot/cool system analysis of delay of gratification: dynamics of willpower. Psychological Review, 106, 3–19.