Food Cravings

Why do food cravings occur?

Food cravings occur for different reasons. Your energy, sleep, stress, hormones, and nutrition can all lead to food cravings. Food cravings tend to have a biochemical explanation behind them.

Are you tired and running on little sleep? A lack of sleep actually increases your hunger hormone (ghrelin) which tells you to eat more. When you aren’t getting enough sleep, your body is fatigued and the best way to get energy is through food so your body actually increases its release of ghrelin. Insomnia and fatigue are a huge source of food cravings, especially those carbohydrate and nighttime food cravings. Fatigue increases cravings for high carbohydrate foods more because they are a quick source of energy.
Are you under stress? Chronic stress is one of the largest contributors to food cravings. When your body is under stress, your body releases cortisol. Cortisol increases blood sugar to provide your body with energy, diverts attention away from your digestion, and affects carbohydrate metabolism. Under short term stress, this makes total sense as you need an increase in energy to deal with the stress you are encountering. However, under long term and chronic stress, these effects can be detrimental to your health. The increased blood sugar and changes in carbohydrate metabolism lead to carbohydrate cravings as your body’s attempt at increasing its energy sources to combat the stress. This can lead to insulin resistance and increased fat storage leading to type II diabetes and weight gain.
Are you lacking certain nutrients that your body is trying to replenish? Your food cravings are often an indication of nutrients that you aren’t getting through your diet. Your body is smart and will find ways to obtain these nutrients, one of which is through food cravings. If you are not eating a well-balanced diet or if you are eating the same few foods all of the time, you may not be getting enough of all the vitamins and minerals your body requires to function.

If you are craving:

Chocolate: Your body may be looking for sources of magnesium. Dark chocolate contains about 64mg of magnesium per serving, which is the amount of magnesium in 2 medium bananas. Nuts also contain high amounts of magnesium. Other food sources of magnesium include avocado, dark leafy greens such as spinach and swiss chard, and beans.
Sugar: If your body is under stress, sugar cravings can increase due to the altered carbohydrate metabolism from increased cortisol. Food cravings can also be a learned pleasure response and so you may crave those foods that you have had a positive response to in the past. Sugar is the quickest form of energy available to your body so if you are fatigued, whether that is from a lack of sleep, high stress, or hormone imbalances, you may notice increased sugar cravings as a result. Sugar cravings also occur from imbalanced blood sugar. If you not eating regularly, skipping meals or eating meals with a high carbohydrate content (and low in healthy fats and protein), your blood sugar may be suffering. A great way to combat sugar cravings is to reach for a snack of protein and healthy fats instead – this will feed your body and provide it with healthy nutrients and help keep you feeling full, while helping stabilize your blood sugar to stave off those sugar cravings. Sugar cravings can also be a sign of yeast overgrowth in your gut. Yeast like to feed off of sugar, so they tell you to eat more sugar to benefit themselves. If you notice you’re bloated, and it’s worse after sugar, this could mean you’re feeding the yeast in your gut. Cut the sugar out to starve the yeast.
High carbohydrate snacks, especially at bedtime: These are really energy (and sleep) cravings. High carbohydrate food cravings, especially those in the evening, tend to be a result of fatigue. Your body wants energy when you are fatigued and high carbohydrate snacks are a quick and easy way to get it, so cue those carby late night food cravings.
Salt: cravings for salty foods and snacks is often a sign of adrenal fatigue. Your adrenal glands control your stress response and help regulate your blood pressure as a result. When they start to burnout, your cortisol drops which means your blood pressure too, signaling to your body that it needs more salt which presents itself in the form of salty food cravings.
Nuts: Nuts are a great source of fat and vitamin E (and magnesium). If you’re not getting enough healthy fats in your diet, you may notice your desire for nuts increasing. Healthy fats are essential for your brain, your skin, your blood sugar, and even your eye health. Add fish, avocados, olive oil and olives, and eggs into your diet to increase your healthy fats and decrease those fatty food cravings. Vitamin E is great for your brain and cognitive health, skin, and also your reproductive system and hormones. Olive oil is high in vitamin E, as are tomatoes, spinach, avocados, swiss chard and broccoli. Vitamin E requires fat for proper absorption and transportation so make sure you are getting enough fat as well. While nuts will provide you with vitamin E and healthy fats, too many nuts can irritate your digestive tract and so a variety of foods to get these nutrients is essential.

What you can do about it:

Improve your sleep. Whether you are having trouble falling asleep at night or staying asleep, a good night’s sleep is essential for your health and to eliminate your food cravings.
Balance your stress and support your body’s stress response. Both short-term and long-term stress affect our adrenal glands and the way our body responds to stress. By eliminating stress where you can, and supporting your body to be able to handle the stress you can’t eliminate, you can help decrease stress-induced food cravings.
Eat a well-balanced diet with a variety of foods to ensure you are getting all of the vitamins and minerals you need. If you are lacking certain nutrients, your body will let you know. Don’t wait until food cravings are telling you what nutrients you’re lacking, get them in your diet now.
Food cravings during pregnancy are often due to the increased need of nutrients that your body needs during pregnancy. The reason we so commonly hear about pickle and potato chip and other salty food cravings is likely due to the increased need for water resulting from an increase in your blood volume. Your blood volume almost doubles when you are pregnant, which means you need extra water to support the increase, and extra electrolytes, such as salt, to help balance the increased fluid in your body. Drinking enough water and taking a high-quality prenatal vitamin can help curb some of your pregnancy cravings. The sugar cravings are likely due to insomnia and fatigue. Make sure you are resting when you can and taking extra care of yourself during pregnancy.
Drink plenty of water. Water helps your body detoxify, supports your digestive tract and improves brain function. Dehydration signals are often misread as hunger signals and so if you’re getting food cravings, your body may actually be asking for more water. Stay hydrated to curb food cravings before they begin.

Contact us today to get to the root cause of your food cravings and get an individualized treatment plan based on your specific health history.

Dr. Christina Sahni is a board certified Naturopathic Physician with an integrative functional medicine clinic in Portland, OR. She is a second generation naturopathic doctor with an emphasis on diet and nutrition, physical medicine, stress management, and lifestyle modifications to help people reach their optimal health.

Christina SahniJuly 3, 2019