What Causes Food Cravings?
Food cravings can be very powerful, and if you find yourself daydreaming about a bowl of popcorn during an afternoon lull, or craving a sweet dessert even though you're full from dinner, you may need to discover the real reasons behind your cravings.
Cravings may bombard your mind for many reasons, but hunger usually isn't one of them. Once you figure out why you're craving the foods you do, you can try to control your cravings, and hopefully, get through the day without gorging yourself.
what is a craving?Being hungry is one thing; you'll eat almost anything when you're hungry. A craving, on the other hand, is the desire for a specific food or taste, even if you aren't hungry. Most people experience food cravings at one time or another, but if your craving becomes an addiction, it's time to stop biting off more than you can chew and worry.
A food addiction is a type of eating disorder, and involves an uncontrollable urge to consume a specific food. This craving usually leads to recurrent binging on the desired food, and is often followed by feelings of guilt and depression.
Most cravings, however, are not signs of a food addiction, but have simple physiological or psychological causes, and can be easily controlled by eating a diet that emphasizes all foods in moderation.
5 common causes of cravings
1- DietingIf someone told you not to think about pink zebras, your mind would be filled with images of galloping pink zebras. The same goes for dieting — when you ban certain foods from your diet, you are going to crave the very foods you are trying to avoid, and may end up binging on these outlawed morsels. Which, of course, defeats the whole point of a diet.
Your body could be lacking something, or your mom may have caused your cravings...