Craving certain foods? A dietitian explains why (and how to curb those annoying urges)

It may be that hankering for a chocolate bar at 3pm, a drive that leads to a pantry raid at 11pm or an urge so strong that you drive yourself to the service station in the middle of the night for something sweet.

These cravings are a desire for a particular food or flavour that is so strong you can think of nothing else. Such a craving can be driven by a range of factors, some physiological, some behavioural.

While understanding them is one thing, the good news is that there are also ways you can satisfy them without indulging in a complete calorie blowout.

What causes food cravings?

Food cravings may be experienced for several reasons. Dietary inadequacy in some instances may drive the desire for specific foods, as seen in pregnancy when iron-deficient women report craving ice to crunch on.

More commonly though, cravings are a result of programmed behaviours in which the brain has been taught to seek out a specific taste or flavour. For example, in the case of eating sweet foods after dinner, after a few days of reaching for a sweet treat after your evening meal, it is more likely the brain will continue to seek out this flavour at a similar time of day.

There is also some suggestion that overly restrictive diets, in which certain foods are banned or proactively avoided, may also explain why some foods are desired more than others when an individual feels deprived.

Food cravings may also be suggestive of underlying hormonal imbalance. People with insulin resistance or glucose regulation issues often find they experience sweet cravings after eating as a result of inefficient transport of glucose to the body’s cells.

Is your diet balanced?

When there’s a desire to take control of particular cravings, the first thing to assess is whether your daily dietary intake is balanced. Food cravings are more likely to occur when your diet results in fluctuating blood glucose levels caused by carbohydrate-heavy meals based on bread, rice and pasta with inadequate amounts of lean protein and vegetables.

Carbohydrate-heavy diets can drive the desire for more sweet food, fuelling cravings and overconsumption of refined carbohydrates and processed sugars. One of the easiest ways to break this pattern is to consume the vegetable and salad component of any meal first, followed by protein and then carbohydrate. Nutritionally this aids blood glucose control and will remind you of the importance of focusing on eating balanced meals and snacks throughout the day.

Are you feeding a food craving?

If you routinely reward yourself with sweet or salty foods when you are tired or stressed, or after a meal, breaking the cycle will largely require behavioural re-programming and often a change of environment to break the association between the feelings or environment and eating a particular food.

An example of this would be scheduling a gym session or massage or catch-up with a friend some evenings so you do not find yourself in front of the TV each night and wanting to eat chocolate. Or calling a friend when you would usually eat something sweet, or going for a walk after a meal – anything that shifts you out of your regular habit or routine.

A study published in the journal Appetite found that a significant number of participants lost their craving for chocolate altogether when they had to go for a walk before they could indulge.

Does your environment need change?

Most importantly, if your goal is to stop eating certain foods that are derailing your diet, you need to stop buying them. One of the biggest predictors of eating discretionary or “junk” food is availability. This means if there are chips, chocolate and ice-cream in the house, you will eat them.

Is it a blood glucose issue?

There’s a difference between a random food craving and finding yourself constantly searching for sweet foods and feeling unsatisfied, even after eating. In the case of constant cravings for sweet foods, especially after you have already enjoyed a balanced meal, it may be time to schedule an appointment with your GP and make sure you do not have issues with your glucose or insulin levels, which are driving the cravings and making diet compliance challenging.