Today 75% of women suffer from food cravings.
So, I’m going to talk about different crucial and essential dimensions to get out of this state.
Stay until the end because the final solution may be the one that allows you to get out of it.
Food cravings on the psychological level
There are two essential dimensions that generate these impulses:
You have the food axis ie that you manage your diet according to food rules, your beliefs, and not taking into account your food sensations. It is called cognitive restriction
So, you need a balanced diet plan that fills you both physically and emotionally.
Which means that your body is starving, there are foods it needs that you are not providing. This, therefore translates into food cravings. Your body is hungry and absolutely has to compensate.
There are other reasons that i will explain later in this article.
And the food craving on emotional level
The emotional axis means that youhave difficulty managing or tolerating your emotions or states : stress, boredom, sadness, …
We chose comfort foods, often high in sugar or fat, that are commonly sought to provide a temporary mood boost or distraction from negative emotions.
Hormones play a significant role in regulating appetite and cravings. Ghrelin, often referred to as the “hunger hormone,” increases appetite and can trigger cravings.
Similarly, leptin, known as the “satiety hormone,” helps regulate hunger and cravings. But any imbalances in these hormones, which can occur due to factors like stress, sleep deprivation, or certain medical conditions, can lead to increased cravings.
Some other important dimensions that can develop those pathologies are:
- What perception of your body image do you have?
- Do you have low self-esteem?
- Do you have a lack of assertiveness?
- Are you a perfectionist?
- Is it coming each time your menstruation starts?
You know very well that all this has consequences on your mental and physical health.
The Somatic (physical) and psychobiological consequences.
These cravings have many consequences such as:
- Weight gain,
- Gastrointestinal imbalances
- Digestion problem
- Muscle weakness,
- Edema,
- Hyperglycemia,
- Menstrual disorders (amenorrhea (loss of periods), dysmenorrhea (irregular periods),
- Osteoporosis,
- Visual disturbances,
You have to keep in mind that food cravings can evolve in bigger imbalances on eating disorders such as hyperphagia, anorexia or even more serious emetic bulimia for example, nutrients deficiency…
The psychobiological consequences of food cravings:
- Increased hunger,
- Binge eating
- Decreased libido,
- Insomnia,
- Apathy (loss/lack of motivation)
- Concentration and memory problems,
- Disorders of your body image,
- Anxiety
- Depressed by dissatisfaction
- Irritability and anger,
You can enter in a vicious circle that leads to a drop in your self-esteem.
What to do?
Take care of your nutrition
To reduce the frequency of your crises. The most important thing is to remain regular in your accessible and achievable efforts. And to stay regular, you need to prepare balanced, freshly cooked and delicious meals.
The more you restrict yourself, the more you increase your drives, your weight gain and your dissatisfaction.
Learn what nutrients your body needs and how to compose your meal.
Ayurveda helps us to know our constitution and what food we need to eat to stay balanced and without deficiencies. You can have a look here in my program if you want to learn to live a healthy long life.
Here in this board you can find some explanations concerning your craving. These are just indications which need to be confirm by a health professionnal.
Refocus on your body and reconnect to it
You can regularly take care of yourself by giving yourself little moments of relaxation, reconnecting to your body and also learning to manage your emotions.
Yoga and pranayama are one of the best tools to change and balance your psychological and lifestyle habits. They act on emotions, hormones, and the nervous system. You will bring back your homeostasis, you will manage your emotions, and learn how your mind works, and develop sensitivity.
Why is reconnecting to the body important?
Because you will learn how to hear your body’s messages and thus be able to give it the right answers, what it needs. For example, one day you may be attracted to a particular type of food, another day it will be another food. It’s not a coincidence, it’s because your body needs it.
Hormones, neurotransmitters, and brain chemistry have a huge role in driving our desire for certain foods.
For example, the other day, while going to the market, my gaze stopped on some beets. Yet I do not necessarily like beets but that day it made me want because my body needed the nutrients that constitute beets.
To relearn your body and manage your emotions, you can practice Yoga or/and treat yourself to Ayurvedic massages which are excellent for the nervous system, lymph and blood circulation. You can also learn to meditate to increase your awareness, increase your concentration, self-control and your chemistry. There is active or passive meditation, targeted meditation to treat your specific state. Do you need to handle your stress, your anger, your sadness, depression…? It will really help you to heal.
Identify your triggers
Emotions?
A strong emotion in general can trigger your seizures
Learn to identify those emotions that push you to act as well as the times and places where it is strongest. The goal is to implement preventive strategies.
Conditioning and associations?
Cravings can develop through conditioning and associations formed between certain foods and pleasurable experiences. For example, if you frequently eat popcorn while watching movies, you may develop a craving for popcorn whenever you sit down to watch a film. These learned associations can trigger cravings even without a physiological need for the specific food.
Social and Environmental Influences?
Environmental cues, such as food advertisements, go often in supermarkets, the presence of food smells, or the sight of appetizing foods, can stimulate cravings. Additionally, social factors, such as social gatherings or seeing others enjoying certain foods, can trigger cravings as well.
Write these moments of impulses in a small notebook, it will help you to raise awareness of your behavior and remedy it in a more psychological way.
Talk about your feelings
Trying to talk about what hurts you is extremely important. You can talk about your painful experiences, your failures, your difficulties…
The idea is to externalize your feelings and all your negative emotions. You should know that some eating disorders are psychological illnesses that can be treated very well. You will be able to find a healthy relationship with your body by talking about it too.
Does this topic speak to you? Do you suffer from it?
You have a choice, stay where you are in your suffering or move forward by taking your responsibilities.
Improve your nutrition, learn and manage your mind to change your habits and move on from your comfort zone.
Staying in your comfort zone is like stopping watering a plant, it eventually dies.
Change comes first from within and change is lifesaving.
Tell me in the comments if you are concerned by food urges and what do you put in place to remove them?
Om Shanti
Sources
The Psychology of Food Cravings: the Role of Food Deprivation
Regulating Food Craving: From Mechanisms to Interventions
Impact of insufficient sleep on total daily energy expenditure, food intake, and weight gain