This is handy! Top nutrition tips to curb your cravings...all you need to know

Not to be confused with hunger, food cravings are an intense desire for a specific food.

This desire can often seem uncontrollable and feel as though you can’t satisfy your hunger until that craving is met.

However, there can often be a deeper meaning behind these food cravings and whilst we may think it’s our body telling us to eat, it can often indicate something else.

Here, nutritionist Laurann O’Reilly and owner of Nutrition by Laurann, discusses some of the possible causes as well as some practical and nutritional strategies to curb those cravings.

Causes of Cravings

There are plenty of reasons you might find yourself craving certain foods. Here are some common ones. When you can establish where your cravings come from, it’s possible to respond to them in a healthy way.

- Nutritional Deficiencies: We can often crave certain foods not always because we want the food itself but because our body requires a nutrient that it contains.

- Stress: Stress is linked to a change in eating patterns. A 2015 study found that chronic stress was related to an increase in food cravings and a higher body mass index (BMI), your weight relative to your height. This is because stress results in higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, which causes us to crave foods high in sugar and fat.

- Exhaustion: A combination of a lack of sleep/rest and a poor diet can often lead to exhaustion. We all know that our cars won’t run on an empty fuel tank or a low battery and the same goes for our bodies. Similar to the stress response, our body can often crave high sugar foods and stimulants to get by in the short term. It’s important to check in with your body and make sure it’s getting the rest and nourishment it needs to heal and function.

- Emotions: Your body can often crave foods as a form of comfort and stimulation, particularly foods which trigger the reward centres of your brain such as sugar and chocolate. During emotional times, we instinctively want to move away from pain and towards pleasure and food can often be the easiest and most convenient pleasure to indulge in. It may be worth taking a deeper look or speaking with your GP if you feel your cravings are emotional so you can establish the root cause

- Bacterial: Neuroscientists have found that specific types of gut flora (bacteria) help us detect which nutrients are missing in food by sending certain chemicals to the brain. Other types of harmful gut bacteria thrive on sugar. When you have an imbalance of good bacteria to and bad bacteria, this can result in strong sugar cravings. Tip: Taking a course of probiotics for three months can be helpful at restoring your gut balance, your pharmacist can assist you in choosing the right one for you.

- Hormonal: Hormonal changes in our bodies can bring on cravings for sweets, carbohydrates, salt, chocolate and other foods. We’ve looked at stress and how it can impact our hormones and cravings but other hormonal factors can contribute to our cravings too. For instance, in women, premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is commonly associated with food cravings and an increased appetite. This can be due to an increase in the hormone progesterone, which is at its peak just before the period, as well as low iron and pain during it.
Common Food Cravings

- Cheese: One of those ‘moreish’ foods that many of us can crave or get great comfort from eating is cheese and it’s not just the taste. That’s because cheese contains casein, which has fragments called ‘casomorphins’. These fragments then pass into the brain, stimulating the ‘reward centre’, causing it to release dopamine, our pleasure and reward hormone. That explains why it’s hard to resist the cheese once you’ve had a bite. Tip: Remember a portion size of cheese is two of your thumbs together or 30g.

- Sugar: We all know that sugar can be highly addictive, that’s because it stimulates the opioid and dopamine (reward) receptors in the brain, similar to that of other addictive substances. High sugar foods also cause our blood sugar levels so spike and crash, resulting in increased cravings of high sugar foods. Tip: 1) Avoid added sugar, sweets, biscuits, high sugar drinks and white carbohydrates (breads/pasta/rice) 2) Choose brown/wholegrain carbohydrates, flaxseed, chia, nuts and seeds, 3) Add cinnamon to your cereal/yogurts or cooking to maintain healthy blood sugars, 4) Include a chromium supplement which helps to stabilise your blood sugar levels and improves insulin function, a good one is the Pharma Nord BioActive Chromium.

- Chocolate: Contains the feel-good chemical ‘phenylethylamine’ (PEA), the same chemical that the brain creates when we’re in love as well as boosting the mood enhancing and reward hormones serotonin and dopamine. Chocolate also contains magnesium and ‘theobromine’, two compounds shown to reduce levels of stress hormones and promote muscle relaxation. As magnesium can be easily lost due to stress, it’s very common to have cravings for magnesium-rich foods such as chocolate. Tip: 1) Choose dark chocolate above 70%, raw cocoa powder or nibs (these are great for adding to cereal or yogurts), 2) Include alternative sources of magnesium such as leafy green vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains

- Salt: Not only is salt an addictive flavour, but it could also indicate other factors going on in the body. For instance, it could be a sign of dehydration due to not drinking enough water or for athletes it could result from not replacing your salts (sodium) lost through sweating after an intense workout. Stress can also influence our craving for salt, as our body produces the hormone cortisol which regulates sodium and blood pressure, during stressful periods this hormone can become less efficient at regulating sodium. Tip: 1) Ensure you are drinking enough water (a minimum of 1.5-2 Litres/day), 2) Taste your food before seasoning with salt or try different salt free seasoning as an alternative.

- Cola: Cola drinks not only contain sugar which we’ve found to be highly addictive but sugar aside, it also contains caffeine, another addictive substance. For those who consume full sugar colas there is a double addictive hook. Tip: Avoid cola or high sugar drinks and opt for fruit infused water or MiWadi sweetened with ‘stevia’ instead.

- Oily/Fatty Foods: Not only can stress increase our craving for fatty foods due to fat being high in energy, but it can also indicate a deficiency in your essential fatty acids, omega 3 and omega 6. Tip: To ensure you meet these requirements be sure to include plenty of oily fish (such as salmon and mackerel), nuts and seeds (such as chia, flaxseed and walnuts) and plant oils such as extra virgin olive oil.

- Red Meat: This could be an indication that you’re low in iron, zinc, or amino acids (building blocks of proteins). If you regularly consume red meat such as steaks or beef and you still have cravings, it could also mean that you’re not digesting it properly. Red meat is also a valuable food source of vitamin B12 so it could also indicate a deficiency of this vitamin. Tip: 1) It may be worth getting your iron levels checked with your GP (please do so before taking an iron supplement), 2) Purchase a zinc supplement which is available in most health stores or pharmacies, 3) You can purchase digestive enzymes to help you break down your food 4) If you’re vegetarian, vegan or you don’t eat a lot of red meat you can purchase ‘nutritional yeast’ which is rich in vitamin B12 in most health stores.
- Crunching Ice – This falls under the term ‘pica’ which is the craving and chewing of substances that have no nutritional value such as ice, clay, or paper. Craving ice or ‘pagophagia’ can sometimes be associated with an iron deficiency so it may be worth getting your iron levels checked with your GP.

Discovering The Meaning of Your Food Cravings

Keep a Diary – It can be extremely helpful to write down what you’re feeling when the craving strikes – it may be one thing or several and ask yourself if it’s thirst, hunger or a genuine craving that you have.

Trace The Trigger - Try to trace back to when what caused the feeling, whether it’s being stressed with work, an argument, or something else. Remember, Cravings may not always signal a specific deficiency, so pay attention to cravings and try your best to interpret what your body is trying to tell you. Take a trip to your doctor if you are in any doubt.

Treat The Trigger - Find a healthy alternative, which could be something small like going for a long walk or run, doing an online exercise class, calling a friend, reading a book, drinking plenty of water – as these can sometimes help your craving subside.

Extra Curb The Crave Tips

- Eat Enough Protein - High-protein foods keep you feeling full for longer periods of time, so make a point of including these foods in every meal. For instance, opt for a lunchtime salad topped with a chicken breast or hard-boiled egg to ensure you’re getting a balanced meal. If you continue to experience food cravings, eat a handful of almonds or carrot sticks with a side of peanut butter.

- Get Enough Sleep - Sleep deprivation can cause your body to produce higher amounts of the stress hormone cortisol which can have an impact on other hormones. Studies have shown that even a single night of sleep deprivation can affect your hunger and appetite hormones, leading to increased hunger the next day. These include two hormones which regulate hunger and appetite. The first is ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, and the second is leptin, which decreases it. When the body is sleep-deprived, the level of ghrelin spikes while the level of leptin falls – sending signals to your brain telling it you’re hungry. Tip: Aim for a minimum of 6-9 hours of sleep each night.

For further information contact Laurann at info@nutritionbylaurann.ie or see www.nutritionbylaurann.ie