The truth about where food cravings come from
Food cravings are often physiological, and frequently happen when you lack a specific nutrient. If you work out and suddenly crave pretzels, it’s because you lost salt while sweating. Your body wants more salt and communicates that to you by making you crave a salty food.
Unfortunately, food cravings are also psychological, rooted in something called classical conditioning. When you come to associate a feeling, activity or situation with a certain food, a food craving hits you nearly every time you see or smell it. If you usually eat pancakes on Saturday morning, you’re conditioned to crave them as soon as 11AM rolls around. If you eat popcorn in that sweet spot on the couch, you always want more.
How you can say no to cravings
One mistake dieters always make is depriving themselves of the food they want to stave off those cravings. If you crave ice cream, don’t skip eating. There’s a reason you’re craving sugar. It doesn’t help you in any way when your body wants carbs and you never give it what it needs.
You have to train yourself to replace a less healthy food like ice cream with something healthier like Greek yogurt.
Battling food cravings is all about substitution, not deprivation. Because cravings are both psychological and physiological, you still need to feed the craving. You just have to choose healthier options while doing so. You may want to look into the ketogenic diet, because it is known to help keep hunger cravings from occuring.
It might help to keep a journal and record your cravings: when you had them, why, and the food you ate to satisfy them. Keep an eye on how your patterns change, and reward yourself for making small yet positive ahttps://stock.adobe.com/stock-photo/smoothie-saft-smoothies-safte-mit-fruchte-fruchtsaft-in-einer/89503124djustments.
We know it’s hard. When you want ice cream, you want ice cream: very little is going to stop you from finding a way to get it. Yet you can change your habits to associate new foods with your Saturday morning breakfast or Monday run. Eventually, you’ll reach for a yogurt without even thinking about it. Work on it one day at a time.
Need some ideas on healthier alternatives? Check out these nutritionist-approved snacks.
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