Have you ever felt the urge to eat something sweet? What if I told you that there are people who are obsessed with trivial foods, like beans? Some people's food cravings go in strange directions: dirt, bricks, chalk and many others. No, it's not just a pregnant woman's thing.

You may find yourself craving foods that you used to hate. There are many reasons:

• Lack of nutrients
• Hormonal variation
• Cultural factors

Cravings for specific foods can also indicate nutritional deficiencies, as we will show.

What are food cravings?

Food cravings have more to do with our desires than with the need to satisfy our hunger. When the desire is excessive, it is classified as binge eating. To understand the concept and how it can affect your health, it is necessary to understand it. It is also necessary to familiarize yourself with the definitions of emotional and biological hunger.

Emotional hunger vs. biological hunger

When eating becomes a coping mechanism for our feelings, we have what we call emotional hunger. It is not only triggered by negative feelings, such as sadness and anguish, but can also appear as a way of coping with joy and happiness. It becomes a problem when it occurs frequently and leads us to make unhealthy food choices.

Therefore, be aware of the occurrence of emotional hunger. If food is a way of dealing with psychological issues, seek help from specialists.

Biological hunger is the body's physiological need for food, both to obtain energy and to nourish itself with the substances necessary for good health.

Crash diets and binge eating

Excessive, uncontrolled desire is the definition of binge eating. In addition to hormonal issues and some diseases, radical diets can be the trigger for this lack of control over food. Remember that there are no good or bad guys when it comes to eating; it's all about balance. A truly healthy and surreal life allows you to eat any type of food, as long as you do it consciously.

We still need to give preference to varied dishes with a predominance of so-called real foods, less industrialized.

Food cravings during pregnancy

Pregnant women may crave unusual foods and even foods they didn't like before. The culprits are hormones, prolactin and progesterone, in addition to the demands of the body of someone who is creating a new life. As we will see later, the body has a greater need for iron.

The emotional factor also plays a role in the future mother's food cravings. With a little push from hormones, emotions are on edge. Since they have the right to make strange requests, counting on their husband or loved ones to satisfy a thousand and one desires soothes the neediness.

Furthermore, expecting a child brings with it concerns about the child's future and anxiety, which can trigger emotional hunger. The belief that pregnant women eat for two can also contribute to awakening cravings. But be careful with the influence of all this hormonal and lifestyle changes.

The ideal is to take care of what you eat and your mental health. If necessary, seek out a nutritionist and psychologist to provide support during this special period.

Cultural factors and food desires

Many studies argue that customs are the main reason for our desires. In the East, for example, chocolate is not as desired as in the West for cultural reasons.

John Apolzan, professor of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in the United States, supports this view, as he stated in a BBC report.

“If you always eat popcorn when you watch your favorite TV show, your appetite for popcorn will increase when you do that,” says Apolzan.

Advertising, which always highlights more palatable foods, also awakens people's desire, according to scholars who analyze the cultural factor as the main factor in awakening desire.

“We know from clinical studies and observations that negative emotion can trigger increased food cravings and, for some, can become a compulsion. This pattern has little to do with biological need or physiological hunger and more to do with the rules we set for ourselves around eating and the consequences of breaking them,” says Hill, who heads food studies at the University of Albany in the United States.

Cravings for certain foods may indicate mineral deficiency

Nutritionists and several scientists already argue that certain food cravings indicate nutritional deficiencies. The body would have the intelligence to awaken the individual's desire for exactly what it needs.

“It’s the body’s way of preserving itself. It starts to signal in different ways, one of which is the desire for certain foods. It’s like Chinese medicine says, the body speaks and we should pay attention to these signals.” (Adriana Stravo, nutritionist, to the newspaper Correio Brasiliense).

Most common desires and what they may indicate

In the list of most desired foods, you will notice that there are favorites and other more unusual foods, as we will show.

Chocolate and hormonal factor

Who has never heard a woman say that she will eat chocolate to alleviate PMS symptoms? This food craving is easy to understand due to its taste and also because of the fluctuation of hormones during the premenstrual period. Serotonin production drops and feelings of sadness can appear as a result.

Chocolate contains substances that help you feel instantly well, which is why you crave this wonderful treat during PMS.

A greater desire to eat chocolate is also common in people who have a magnesium deficiency.

As we showed in another article, chocolate is beneficial, as long as we eat it in a balanced way and choose good types of chocolate.

Ice

Pagophagia, an addiction to chewing ice, is more common than you might think. It is a form of allotriogeustia, the desire to eat something non-nutritive. According to experts, this desire is related to some nutritional deficiency. In the case of ice, it indicates a lack of iron in the body. People with anemia have this unusual desire to chew ice.

Strange?

The explanation is that patients with anemia experience altered taste, dry mouth and sores on the tongue. Ice alleviates the discomfort caused by these symptoms.

Candy

Hormonal fluctuations, such as pregnancy and premenstrual tension, cause a drop in tryptophan. This is one of the reasons why women seek out sweets during these periods.

A drop in blood glucose also triggers a craving for sugar. The body tends to seek out foods that increase it more quickly. In this process, it also releases ghrelin, which is responsible for sharpening the desire for foods with more glucose.

Milk and cheese

Cheese is delicious, milk is present in many dishes and can be eaten on its own. It's okay to eat it in moderation, but if your craving is higher than normal, be on the lookout. You may have low levels of calcium in your body.

Tomato

Have you ever seen someone who is crazy about tomatoes? Well, there are people who can't control themselves when they're around them, even for a short period of time. Excessive consumption of this food can indicate a potassium deficiency in the body. How crazy, right?

Beans (ground and even brick, yes)

Iron deficiency is very common during pregnancy and childhood. Pregnancy demands a lot of this nutrient. Therefore, even women who have never liked beans may have a sudden and exaggerated desire to eat them. Children, on the other hand, may be deficient in the nutrient due to a deficiency in their diet. Another factor is the body's need for the substance during certain periods of growth.

Have you ever heard of pregnant women or children eating dirt? The scientific explanation is convincing. In dirt and its derivatives, such as bricks, there is an abundance of iron. Since the body is intelligent, the organism awakens the desire for these unusual “foods”.

Citrus fruits

If your unexplained craving is for citrus fruits, pay attention to your stomach health. They facilitate digestion and may indicate a problem in this part of the body. If you experience other symptoms, then there is even more reason to get tested and see how your digestive health is doing.

How to deal with food cravings

Craving something every now and then or having a favorite food is normal. It makes life more enjoyable. However, if your craving appears suddenly and is persistent, seek medical help to check if you have a nutritional, hormonal or psychological deficiency.

Having healthier versions of some foods, such as chocolate, is also a good strategy to avoid giving up something you like. After all, as we have shown, dietary restrictions can trigger binge eating. Varying your preparations, avoiding monotonous eating, also helps.

Having a varied diet helps to keep nutrients balanced and avoid the effects of restrictions.

Follow Bold Snacks' recipes and tips for a surreal life!