A food craving is an intense desire to consume a particular food, as opposed to food in general. Food cravings are especially common in people following structured diet plans, and often interfere with the best of intentions to adhere to a particular style of eating. Foods with higher sugar glucose, such as chocolate, are often more craved than foods with lower sugar glucose, such as broccoli. Food cravings are also commonly seen in pregnant women. The craving of non-food items is called pica. What Causes Food Cravings?
The general consensus among most doctors and dietitians is that cravings stem from a complex combination of emotional, hormonal and biochemical factors. Blood sugar imbalance is seen as the foundation for most cravings, but emotional and hormonal factors are also contributory factors. A small number of cravings can be the result of a food allergy - we crave the very food to which we are allergic! - and a few people still believe that we crave certain foods because our body is "telling us" to remedy a specific nutritional deficiency, although in view of the fact that most of our cravings tend to be for less healthy high-sugar or high-fat foods, this view is now less popular.
For many women, powerful food cravings for certain foods come with the territory during pregnancy. You've probably heard tales of loved ones being dispatched at all hours to search for a certain brand of bacon double cheeseburger or rocky road ice cream to quell an expectant mom's desire. Perhaps you've felt an overwhelming urge to splurge firsthand.
Sugar cravings may be a habit, a kind of comfort food, or a very pleasant way to end a meal. Sugar cravings may also be due to low serotonin levels and depression. We may crave the taste of sweets or we may crave the effect of sugar on our brain.
Food cravings involve the recollection of taste and smell of food. Food craving is linked to happy memories, causing us to reach for foods our mothers used to make. Grandmother used to cook stews, mashed potatoes, and homemade chocolate cakes. Everyone had a warm and fuzzy memory associated with food. We all have different favourites when it comes to comfort foods. For some of us it is chocolate, for others it may be potato crisps, doughnuts, cheese, pizza, the list goes on.
Similarly, a craving for red meat seems like a transparent cry for protein. And the reader who consumed great quantities of peaches may have been responding to her body's need for beta carotene. Still, Somer doesn't see much of a link between a pregnant woman's cravings and what her body needs."People think their cravings are significant, but studies show no link between cravings and nutritional requirements," she says. "If people craved what the body needs, we would all eat more broccoli and less chocolate."
Food cravings are associated with three very distinct stages in life: menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. Although many women sail through their monthly menstrual cycle, many others do not. Among the symptoms often reported by menstruating women are food cravings. Other unpleasant and debilitating conditions reported during this time are pain, breast tenderness, fluid retention, feeling bloated, headache and fatigue.
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