How do you manage cravings?

I was recently asked where cravings come from, and how to "fix" them.I thought it was interesting to be asked to fix something that I don't think is broken.See, I don't think cravings are bad or that they make you wrong for having them.Rather, cravings are messages from your body about your true needs. We can learn to listen to our cravings and give our bodies exactly what we really need to be happy and have the life of our dreams...bold statement, right?

First, let me just say that we all have cravings - cravings make us human! Without cravings, desire, wants, and needs, we wouldn't eat enough to thrive as babies, we wouldn't feel the passions that carry on our genetic DNA, and we wouldn't feel the inspiration to create great works of art.

So, I believe that cravings are divine!

That being said, our modern food landscape has changed so drastically in the last 80 years, that we now have cheap and easy access to highly addictive foods that our bodies naturally crave.

Until recently, fat, salt and sugar weren't easy to come by, but they are very important to the health of our brains and bodies, so the way our bodies evolved was to make us happy when we eat those foods!

Our brains actually light up when we eat sugar, fat and salt - a release of dopamine, a pleasure chemical, follows every bite of fatty, salty or sugary foods. So we keep eating them, especially when we feel stressed or otherwise unwell.

So cravings for food are not "wrong" and don't make you bad, or "weak-willed."

You are simply responding to a positive feedback loop.

I believe our cravings for foods are rooted in three areas: nutritional, physical, and emotional imbalances.

Basically, a craving is a request from your body to balance something.

In that way, and so many others, our bodies are so brilliant!

Our bodies are either craving missing nutrients like minerals, which can cause salt cravings, or our blood sugar (AKA "brain sugar") is low, and our brain needs glucose to operate, so it craves sugar.

Physical imbalances can be a need for better sleep or more exercise. We feel tired, so we hear the craving for energy and hear "caffeine!" In reality we need to move and rest more.

Then there is the world of emotional imbalances, which almost always overlap with the nutritional and physical needs. Stress, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, and anger set off a stream of chemical reactions in the body, like a release of adrenaline or coritsol. Over time, this makes our bodies uncomfortable, and we crave something to calm us down and feel "good" again.

Our bodies, in their wisdom, know that sugar or fat or salt will make us feel physically better, release the happy hormones in our brain, so we eat something that isn't necessarily best for us long-term.

In order to manage our cravings, and have them work for us as our best allies, we need to take in the whole picture of our cravings and lifestyle so we can give our bodies what they truly need: real nutrition, rest, movement, physical fun, and joy.

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