![]() Sugar can cause our brains to release serotonin - a chemical which makes us feel relaxed and plays a role in regulating mood. What You're Actually Craving: Happiness, energy What You're Craving: Cookies, chocolate, cake ![]() Here's what five different common food cravings are really about. But typically, there's more to it than that - our cravings provide a window into our mood patterns and emotional struggles, in addition to an excuse to declare nine snack-sized bags of pretzels "dinner." Sometimes, when we crave a certain food, it may potentially have to do with a certain mineral or vitamin deficiency, or an illness. That said, there are some physical factors at work, too. We typically crave foods because they stimulate the release of certain brain chemicals that change or balance our moods when we're feeling sad, stressed, or tired. ![]() So if your body isn't experiencing a critical cupcake deficiency, what's the actual cause of food cravings? Recent research on the subject proposes that food cravings are often less about what is going on inside your body than what is going on inside your brain. The fact that we all want high carb, high fat comfort foods, along with the research, is a pretty good indicator that cravings aren't related to deficiencies." As Karen Ansel, MS, RD, CDN, told Huffington Post, "If cravings were an indicator of nutritional deficiency, we'd all crave fruits and vegetables. If your body craved the nutrients it requires to run properly, why do we fiend for sugar so badly that we'll fish a half-eaten donut out of the trash? Research backs this up. However, if you think about it for a minute, that idea that you crave what you need doesn't really hold up. I am personally bedeviled by near-constant cravings, so I was long convinced that I must be so vitamin-deficient that my body was probably on the verge of shutting down (possibly in protest of my truly alarming processed cheese cracker consumption habits). Like many of us, I grew up believing that when I experienced food cravings, it meant that I was deficient in certain vitamins. ![]()
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