The Science Behind Cravings

No matter how dedicated to a healthy diet, cravings will always happen. This can be frustrating, and even confusing. Why are our bodies telling us we need unhealthy foods, when we know that we don’t? There are some physiological reasons that explain this phenomenon. These studies investigated why cravings occur and how you can use their findings to your advantage.

1. Availability of (Un)healthy Foods

Food is abundant in our modern society, and the prevalence of fast food and other indulgent choices can make it a challenge to follow health goals. A study by Blechert et al. (2016) explains why we are so susceptible to these cravings. The study investigated whether or not availability of food made a difference in the activation of cravings. Before food was so readily available, there was an actual need to consume high-calorie, energy-dense foods. It makes sense that we still respond on a physiological level to these foods, even though there is no longer a dire need. The availability of foods activate the reward system, especially when the foods were higher in caloric content. Being around food will naturally make our bodies crave the present food because we are conditioned to do so. This response served a function before food became available on every street corner.

So, how can knowing this help? The study also found that low-calorie foods [also] gained significance and reward value when made available. The key finding here is how availability can influence our cravings. Since high-calorie foods are usually more available, it might just take some planning to make the low-calorie choices accessible. Packing low-calorie snacks in your bag, and lunches for work, can help combat the temptation of high-calorie foods.

1. Nostalgic Food Memories

You do not necessarily need to be hungry to crave food. A study by Chen et al. (2017) investigated cravings that one experiences when they are not physically in need of food. These types of cravings usually have a negative impact on dieting efforts, since they lead to unnecessary calorie consumption. People making an effort to regulate their diet often experience this kind of craving. This study found that these cravings for unneeded food was linked to neural activity. Specifically, women who had higher food craving scores showed increases in [activity] in brain regions associated with emotional memory and visual attention processing. This means that memories of enjoyable meals and snacks might be to blame for your cravings. Thinking about that great cake you had on your birthday might make you want more, even though you are not hungry and don’t want to make processed sugar a regular part of your diet.

Cravings can be confusing because typically listening to physical cues can be a good guide to properly fueling your body. Intuitive eating is a popular diet that supports listening to your body, rather than adhering to restrictive rules. Yet we crave things that will not nourish our bodies. This study can help make sense of these unclear cravings. The body is most likely not sending a signal that it needs cake, but rather that you are remembering the enjoyment you got from your birthday cake.

1. Manipulating Your Own Emotions

Something else that can provoke food cravings are emotions. Emotional eating is a difficult thing to overcome, and negative emotions can easily lead to behaviors such as binge eating. A study by Schmidt and Martin (2016) demonstrate that this kind of food consumption is done in an effort to regulate negative emotions. They set out to determine if facial expressions, being positive or negative, can impact cravings and actual emotions. Participants were shown desirable food cues, and some were instructed to make positive expressions (smiling) and the others to make negative expressions (frowning). The findings indicate that the positive expressions reduced cravings, while negative expressions increased cravings.

Does this mean that we can smile away our cravings? This study suggests so! Expressions mimicking happiness can impact our cravings and help dispel them. When feeling the need to emotionally eat, and craving unneeded food, try smiling and physically mimicking happiness. Even if you do not genuinely feel that way, it can send a signal to your body and weaken cravings and the urge to emotionally eat.

Your turn!

Let us know what you’re doing on a daily basis to curb unhealthy cravings in the comment section below. We’d love to hear about what works well for you in cultivating your own healthy eating habits.

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REFERENCES

Blechert, Jens, et al. “To Eat or Not to Eat: Effects of Food Availability on Reward System

Activity During Food Picture Viewing.” Appetite, vol. 99, Apr. 2016, pp. 254-261. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.appet.2016.01.006.

Chen, Shuaiyu, et al. "Trait-Based Food-Cravings Are Encoded by Regional Homogeneity in the

Parahippocampal Gyrus." Appetite, vol. 114, July 2017, pp. 155-160. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.appet.2017.03.033.

Schmidt, Jennifer and Alexandra Martin. "Smile Away Your Cravings" - Facial Feedback

Modulates Cue-Induced Food Cravings." Appetite, vol. 116, Sept. 2017, pp. 536-543. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.appet.2017.05.037.