Introduction
How You Can Maintain Healthy Living Through Control.
Learn how to control your food cravings, the causes of your food cravings and healthier alternatives for common food cravings.
With a strong desire for food that often leads to unhealthy eating to maintain happiness, feel satisfied or less bored, craving can be linked to so many factors that contribute to health risks such as weight gain, lack of serotonin, (which leads to emotional eating) and other long term risks.
A craving can be hormonal or caused by stress, boredom or lack of sleep, but it is normal to indulge in food by creating a healthy relationship with it.
Giving in to your cravings causes health problems like diabetes due to high levels of sugar in the blood, heart and coronary diseases, high blood pressure and weight gain caused by high storage of fats.
These health risks can be long term and quite destructive to the body.
How To Know If You Are Craving For Unhealthy Foods
Sometimes you may confuse hunger with emotional hunger. There is a huge difference between eating to be healthy and full and suppressing the urge you have to eat something. Here are a few ways to find out if you’re hungry or merely craving for a particular food.
● Most times, your cravings are particular. You may crave specifically for a brownie, but hunger can’t make you crave for a particular food. You might want to eat anything given to you, as far as it’s filling and tasty. But cravings will make you want a specific food and nothing else.
● You tend to reach out for sugary or salty foods instead of a filling, balanced diet.
● You feel guilty after indulging in your snacks, which is a sign of an unhealthy relationship with food.
● You tend to go back for more servings till you are satisfied.
These are ways to figure out if you are having a craving. The problem is not about giving in to your cravings, it’s the behaviour you have for food and how it affects your mental and physical health.
Ways To Control Food Cravings
Cravings can be controlled or limited by following simplified routines that tackle the incessant urge for food. This routine could take a while to adjust to, but a set mind and consistency is what you need to actively control your route to the fridge for a quick fix. This is for people who want to create a balance between food and life and also control the way food is consumed due to personal reasons.
They are;
● Managing Stress. Do you know that stress is the most common cause of incessant cravings? Stress on the body produces a hormone called cortisol, which leads to craving for unhealthy foods. Overproduction of cortisol also leads to weight gain, especially around the upper back and facial area. These are the one of the hardest places to lose weight as reported by so many beauty experts. Managing stress is one of the ways to
control your hunger for specific foods that could cause harm to your body if consumed in excess.
● Drinking More Water. Most times you will feel hungry and the first thing that comes to your mind is a large portion of fries, popcorn or burger. You continue to consume so much of these salty foods, and your cue for hunger increases. You do not feel satisfied in the long run and you start to feel dizzy. The solution to your problem is not food, it is actually water. Water fills you up while combating dehydration and the urge for both salty and sugary foods. Drinking water suppresses the need to eat when you feel a slight twinge of hunger.
● Eating More Filling Foods. Foods high in protein and fiber are known to fill you up while providing nutritional value to your body. As most people tend to crave for food when hungry, eating more filling foods decreases the chance to have have more food.
● Occupy Your Mind. Most people eat because they feel bored. Boredom causes a state of mind where your body looks for something to engage itself in. Most people result to eating as it engages their mind and that is a wrong habit. “My mind creates the most delicious representation of food when I’m less active, which makes me crave the food almost immediately,” Marie reports. This is one of the causes of craving. To limit your craving cue, opt for more activity or hobbies like swimming, hiking, painting or anything that keeps your mind busy.
● Avoiding Strict Dieting. Strict dieting can lead to an overwhelming urge for food as you stop eating certain foods completely. Your brain might send signals for the need of the foods you avoided completely, making people to crave for more food than people who indulge in all types of food choices in moderation. Another way to avoid craving is to have a healthy and balanced relationship with food.
These steps are effective for people who have an uncontrolled urge to always indulge in food, whether considered healthy or not. Overeating is a gateway to indigestion, unhealthy weight gain, kidney dysfunction, spiked sugar levels and heart problems.
Causes Of Cravings
Like it is said earlier, cravings can be caused by hormonal changes, a feeling of hunger and a lot of reasons. These reasons can be easily reversed to control how you crave for food. Making these routines that limits your hunger cueva priority can lessen your risk of contracting diseases later in life.
Some of the causes of food cravings include;
● Stress as it releases hormones that incites the need for unhealthy food.
● Hormonal changes like pregnancy, ovulation and PMS
● Nutritional deficiency like sodium and iron. This involves craving non food items like chalk, ice or overly salty foods.
● Dehydration
● Lack of sleep
● Improper eating habits.
These factors trigger the need to eat without even feeling hungry. Proper management of these causes like proper sleep schedule, exercise and mental workout to release stress, eating balanced diet and taking routine supplements help reduce the causes of food cravings.
Healthier Alternatives For Common Food Cravings
Sometimes healthier alternatives to your cravings are the right thing you need to refuel your body, satisfy your cravings while providing two times the nutritional value your body needs. Rich in protein, fibre, natural sweeteners and vitamins, these alternatives will give you exactly what your body needs.
For brownies and chocolate cakes, the healthiest alternatives to replace them with would be a protein powder based dessert. Most times, people use bananas as the base for a sweeter, more fudgy texture. Dark chocolate that has a little percentage of milk should be used. Coconut cakes banana bread and blueberry cheesecakes with low fat cottage cheese can be great replacements to cakes and cheesecakes respectively. Muffins are healthy and filling, but to reduce gluten content, replace flour for almond or cassava flour. To add more fiber, replace flour for oat flour.
For sodas and pops, replace with fruit juices.
For mousses, make a healthier option by using silken tofu and your favorite flavor. Most people opt for chocolate as it tastes better.
For cookies, replace sugar with brown sugar, and flour with wheat or oat flour. Add fruits and nuts, wholegrain and seeds.
For ice-cream, replace with smoothie bowls and frozen yoghurt packed with fruits and nut butters.
For red meat, replace it with chicken and other lean meat options. And for dairy, replace with low fat cheeses, milk and yoghurt. If you are lactose intolerant, opt for nut milks.
For a creamy snack, opt for fruit parfaits and bowls. Vegetable salads with a low fat mayonnaise works great as a snack also.
For bread, go for brown instead of white, and eat more sourdough. You can make different varieties of sourdough bread according to your preferences.
To make most snack ideas, replace them with vegan varieties. Coconut sugar for sugar, kimchi for any fermented foods you do not fancy, dark chocolate for milk chocolate, vegan cake for the latter option. The most important part in your food should be your enjoyment as your body gains from it’s benefits also.
To avoid craving non food items, take food items high in iron. A deficiency of iron causes a strong urge for things like flour, chalk and ice. These wouldn’t add any nutritional value to your body, so it’s best to avoid them.
Light snacks go well in the afternoons and early evenings. If you
There are other healthy alternatives to most food cravings such as burgers, cereals, and jellies. Be sure to try them out, but also in moderation.
Summary
Cravings can be managed when the cause is identified. Common causes could be stress, dehydration and lack of sleep. Try practicing lifestyle habits that include healthy balance to limit cravings. Taking supplements also helps curb the craving of non food items, and switching common craving alternatives for a healthier option is recommended to give you more nutritional value than the latter.
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