Contents:
- Medical Video: What Causes Food Cravings?
- What is the connection between cravings and lack of nutrients?
- Cravings are not necessarily related to nutritional deficiencies
- Many things can cause food cravings
Medical Video: What Causes Food Cravings?
Cravings are a very strong and urgent desire or longing. Discussing about food cravings must have been imagined, right? Yes, it feels like wanting to eat the food that is being coveted. Well, many believe that cravings are not just by desire. Cravings are believed to arise due to a lack of certain nutrients in the body. Cravings are the body's way of asking you what nutrients have not been fulfilled. Is this true? Come on, see the review below.
What is the connection between cravings and lack of nutrients?
Some people argue that cravings for food are a subconscious way to "collect" the body to meet unmet nutritional needs.
For example, cravings for eating meat are a sign of very low levels of iron or calcium in the body.
In order to be fulfilled, the subconscious also gives rise to the urge of cravings so that you feel very eager to eat meat and iron can be fulfilled.
Cravings are not necessarily related to nutritional deficiencies
Reported on the Healthline page, it turns out there is other evidence that cravings do not always occur due to lack of nutrients. In fact, most people during cravings will crave foods that are high in carbohydrates and fats, instead of nutritious foods.
If this happens, the craved food is often not a good source of nutrients for the body.
For example, pregnant women are a group of people who are in need of nutrients in large quantities. Allegedly every pregnant woman should crave foods that are high in nutrients while pregnant.
However, research reports that pregnant women tend to crave high-carbohydrate, high-fat, and fast-food foods rather than craving foods that are high in essential nutrients.
In addition, cravings are usually very specific and cannot be replaced with other foods. For example, cheese cravings may be associated with calcium deficiency. Then if you really lack calcium, what if you are given tofu, anchovies or milk? All three are also high in calcium.
In fact, people who have cravings must still want cheese even though they have eaten anchovy rice. Even if you lack calcium, you should eat tofu, drink milk, or eat anchovies can also help meet calcium needs. Even the calcium content in the food source can be larger than in cheese.
Well, this means, cravings are not necessarily due to a lack of certain nutrients. Another example can be seen in the case of pica. Pica is a condition when someone craves non-food substances such as cigarette butts, dirt, ice cubes, soil, sand, and others.
Pica is thought to arise due to a lack of certain nutrients, especially lack of iron, zinc, or calcium.
However, when people with pica have been given supplements of these substances, their cravings remain. There is no effect when the nutrition has been fulfilled with cravings. They will still crave to eat cigarette butts or soil.
Many things can cause food cravings
- Severe stress. People who are depressed often crave certain foods than people who are not stressed
- Lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation can also interfere with hormone levels which can increase the likelihood of cravings
- The lack of protein and fiber. Protein and fiber make you full longer as a result you are not easily hungry. When both are lacking, then hunger and cravings actually appear easy.
- Have dietary restrictions. For people who have certain dietary restrictions, for example because they have a disease, what happens is that you are more than eager to eat these taboos. The more prohibited, the appetite to eat food that must be avoided is even higher.
