Food Cravings Causes and How to Manage Them

By: Kinga Balogh, Registered Dietitian, CDE, Reviewed and Edited by JM Nutrition Team

 

It is three o’clock in the afternoon, and you find yourself standing in front of your kitchen pantry, searching for a decadent snack option.

Or it may be late at night, and you are about to order your favourite dessert on your food delivery app.

If this sounds like you, chances are you are intimately familiar with food cravings. As a matter of fact, up to 90% of people report having cravings from time to time in their daily lives. Food cravings are a complex phenomena influenced by a combination of biological, psychological, and environmental factors.  Research has provided valuable insights into the mechanisms behind these cravings and strategies to manage them effectively.

When the topic of cravings comes up, many affected individuals also experience feelings of guilt, shame and possibly resentment around having this phenomenon arise in their daily existence. As if not having cravings or not caving to food cravings offers a certain moral superiority or victory.

Our attitudes towards food cravings may be influenced by diet culture. People predominantly fear weight gain, command disciplined eating dynamics and often deem giving in to food cravings as a weakness or lack of willpower.

While this may hold true in certain situations, could it be that we need a paradigm shift in our thinking about food cravings?

Could it be that with a deeper understanding behind the nature and dynamics of cravings, we could approach it with more compassion and kindness?

Let’s take a closer look.

 

The Nature of Cravings

Every person tends to experience cravings differently. Some cravings are transient, while others linger on for longer periods of time.

What foods do people crave?

Typically, people predominantly crave more calorie-dense options, such as savoury, sweet or higher fat choices.

While one can crave wholesome foods, what seems to be more generalizable is for cravings to be directed to more processed choices.

Why do people crave high fat, salt or sugar content foods?

People crave these foods because consuming higher fat, salt or sugar content options activates reward pathways in the brain and leads to a cascade of neurotransmitters that literally influence how one feels at that particular time.

The literature on food cravings often terms such foods hyper-palatable, as they are easy to digest, have enjoyable qualities of sweetness, richness or saltiness and can also stimulate the release of a multitude of hormones involved in metabolism, mood and appetite regulation.

Related: The basics of metabolism

Where do cravings come from?

Cravings can arise out of nowhere. Or, they may be triggered by some sensory cues. It could be brought on by the smell, sight, or hearing about a specific food.

For example, reminiscing about favourite holiday foods may get one to crave carrot cake for instance. When you see an advertisement on TV or one’s social media feed, you can easily ignite an intense desire to consume a decadent ice cream bar.

Brain regions responsible for cravings involve memory, pleasure and reward pathways. An imbalance or fluctuation of hormone levels could also be implicated. Such instances include pregnancy, monthly menstrual cycles, menopause with women or andropause with men.

Who is more susceptible to food cravings?

Neurotransmitters, or chemicals produced in the brain may also lead to food cravings. In general, people experiencing higher levels of stress, sleep deprivation, emotional instability particularly anxiety, depression or folks demonstrating neurodivergent characteristics tend to have an increased likelihood of struggling with food cravings.

Selective vs. non-selective food cravings

What’s more, cravings can be selective or nonselective.

As the terms imply, selective cravings have specific food flavour, texture, mouthfeel or visual presentation characteristics in focus. One might enjoy a chocolate with almonds and sea salt sprinkles, or may crave a pizza from a particular vendor.

Nonselective cravings do not discriminate between the characteristics of the food in sight. At times, such cravings could be actually hunger or thirst driven.

 

Common Causes of Food Cravings

Now that we’ve explored important background information, we can delve into the common causes of food cravings.

Understanding the multifaceted nature of cravings is instrumental to gaining insight into possible tools for managing them, should they become a nuisance. Cravings can be a normal part of life. They may become problematic, however, if they lead to frequent overeating or interfere with balanced nutrition.

 

1. Biological factors: hormonal fluctuations, low blood glucose level or nutritional deficiencies

Biological factors are a common cause of food cravings.

Hormonal fluctuations

Hormonal fluctuations in pregnancy predispose expecting mothers to strong urges to consume particular foods. Cravings tend to emerge in the first trimester, peak in the second and tend to subside in the final stretch of pregnancy. This may be due to a heightened sense of taste and smell, combined with huge hormonal changes that orchestrate pregnancy and carrying a baby to full term. Similar dynamics are observed in girls and women experiencing hormonal changes in estrogen and progesterone levels throughout their menstrual cycle. This tends to be accentuated in the premenstrual phase (PMS), when women tend to crave carbohydrate rich foods.

Related: Nutritional support of a dietitian for hormones

Blood sugar fluctuation

Blood sugar fluctuation often predicts craving patterns in people as well.

While certain level of blood glucose fluctuation is normal, quick rises and falls in sugar levels tend to cause more issues.

People living with diabetes, experiencing a significant drop in their sugar often describe an intense urge to drink juice, have sugar tablets or honey to remedy the discomfort of hypoglycemia or low blood sugars.

Likewise, people without diabetes who consume generous amounts of refined carbohydrates, simple sugars in juices or desserts may notice more frequent cravings. This could be explained by the dynamics of carbohydrate metabolism. Simple carbohydrates are typically more refined and processed, contain very low amounts of fibre and break down fast. As a result, they get into the bloodstream and spike blood sugar levels. They also cannot maintain blood sugar stability, and folks as a result often experience a quick drop in glucose levels. This sugar rollercoaster commonly translates to pervasive cravings and feeling less in charge of food choices.

Do nutritional deficiencies cause food cravings?

People often wonder if certain nutritional deficiencies may explain food cravings. While certain deficiencies, such as iron, vitamin D or B-vitamins can activate the brain’s appetite centre leading to increased hunger and cravings, this pattern predominantly does not hold true in most cases. In other words, psychological or environmental factors more often cause this urge.

 

2. Psychological factors: emotions like anxiety, boredom, sadness, or loneliness 

Psychological factors may also be a cause of food cravings.

In fact, psychological factors probably take the lion’s share, when it comes to pinpointing causes for one’s food cravings.

Relationship conflict, work stress, financial struggles, health problems, traffic jams, parenting challenges are some very common life hassles most people experience. While being in these situations, folks may notice feelings of frustration, disappointment, sadness, anger, anxiety, or loneliness, just to name a few.

In the absence of effective coping strategies, one may easily turn to food for rescue. The sheer fact of eating offers mental separation from one’s problems; this can be a great distraction and relief from tough emotions. While gaining momentary relief offers some benefits, a compulsive need to eat when feeling down can be a slippery slope. Eating in excess may give rise to unintentional weight gain and lead to a relentless effort to diet in hopes of weight reduction.

Related: dietitian’s support for compulsive eating

The conditioning model of food cravings states that cravings can develop from pairing consumption of certain foods with external stimuli (such as going to the movie theatre and eating popcorn) or internal stimuli (such as feeling lonely and indulging in chocolate).

With repetition of this conditioning, an association is learned between the stimuli and the pleasurable experience of eating, eventually leading to increased cravings and potentially overeating. The good news is that conditioning can also be “unlearned”; if the cue is no longer paired with a particular food, eventually it loses strength and the craving subsides.

Meule A. The psychology of food cravings: The role of food deprivation. Current nutrition reports. 2020 Jun 23:1-7.

 

3. Environmental cues: smell, sights, advertising around food

Another potential common cause of food cravings is found in environmental cues.

Environmental cues, such as the sight, smell or even mention of certain foods may trigger intense cravings.

One may wonder whether nutritional status plays a role. Studies show that even people that feel full and satiated from a meal they just consumed, can fall for food cues. In essence, food cues can trigger a conscious desire or urge to eat, thereby overriding internal signals of satiety.

Additional environmental factors, such as food abundance, variety and food novelty (new food options) cause people to over-consume.

Furthermore, the existence of metabolic pathways that allow excess energy to be stored as fat suggest that human beings are equipped to handle surplus. While the adaptive significance of storing reserves no longer holds value, as people in developed countries rarely face food shortages, scarcity or famines, the human body has a propensity to continue to do so in the event of consuming in excess.

Cohen DA. Obesity and the built environment: changes in environmental cues cause energy imbalances. Int J Obes (Lond). 2008 Dec;32 Suppl 7(0 7):S137-42. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2008.250. PMID: 19136984; PMCID: PMC3741102.

 

4. Restrictive eating patterns

Yet another potential cause of cravings: restrictive eating patterns.

Dieting and restrictive eating patterns often seem to be associated with increased self-reported cravings. Following rigid food rules, wanting to eat clean and in moderation under most circumstances may give rise to some unmet physiological or psychological needs pertaining to food. Often people on diets report intrusive thoughts about food or may become preoccupied with looking for recipes as a way to “remedy” their cravings and “food noise”. It appears that at the outset of dieting behaviours, food cravings increase, however with prolonged efforts to maintain an energy deficit, cravings eventually subside. 

Meule A. The Psychology of Food Cravings: the Role of Food Deprivation. Curr Nutr Rep. 2020 Sep;9(3):251-257. doi: 10.1007/s13668-020-00326-0. PMID: 32578025; PMCID: PMC7399671.

Related: ARFID support with dietitian

 

Practical Strategies to Manage Food Cravings

How do you manage food cravings?

Let’s take a look.

1. Eat a balanced diet

While this may seem like a no-brainer, it’s important to maintain a balanced diet and eat regular meals in order to help manage food cravings. Reason being, it can do wonders to stabilize blood sugar levels, and thereby reduce the likelihood of food cravings.

In general, aim for meals and snack options that include a good balance of dietary proteins, complex carbohydrates with optimal fibre content and heart-healthy fats. It’s imperative to pay attention to your hunger cues to help devise optimal meal spacing. In general, eating every 3-4 hours ensures one’s body is receiving an adequate amount of food.

2. Consume fewer hyper-palatable or ultra-processed foods

As described above, hyper-palatable or ultra-processed foods can be a bit of a trap as well when it comes to efforts to prevent food cravings from arising. While higher salt, sugar or fat content foods taste great, they may trigger the reward pathways of the brain and cause cravings.

Interestingly, what appears to be the case is that some individuals are more prone to experiencing excessive cravings when consuming these foods. Others, on the other hand, tend to be less impacted.

Folks are encouraged to observe how such foods affect them, and decide on the frequency of resorting to these options based on their experiences.

Furthermore, choosing satisfying, and less processed snack options such as fruits, dairy products, or heart-healthy nuts may prove to offer relief from the barrage of cravings as well.

3. Get adequate sleep

Sleep can help manage food cravings as well.

In fact, sleep plays a critical role in controlling one’s appetite regulation mechanism. Sleep deprived individuals tend to crave highly rewarding, ultra-processed foods. It’s of paramount importance to implement good sleep hygiene strategies in hopes of optimizing sleep quality. For people who engage in shift work, it’s critical to consume most of the meals during work hours. At the same time, it’s helpful to allow for fasting during one’s sleep hours.

Related: nutrition tips for better sleep

4. Manage stress

It’s critically important to manage stress on our lives, for many reasons. Not the least of which is to help manage food cravings.

Stress can sneak up on most of us. While short term stress may suppress appetite and food cravings in general, chronic and pervasive stress does the opposite.

With higher levels of a stress hormone, called cortisol, food seeking behaviours tend to increase leading to overeating and feeling out of control with one’s eating habits.

As such, it’s key to explore and implement stress management strategies, such as mindfulness, breathing exercises, visualization or engage in an exercise routine that is enjoyable is a worthwhile effort. This is a sentiment often underscored by our sports dietitians.

Related: Cortisol lowering foods for stress management

5. Work with a mental health professional

Furthermore, work with a mental health professional who may offer further guidance to optimize mood, find meaning and purpose in life, or help harmonize relationships. Indirectly, all these strategies can constitute a great arsenal in the prevention and management of intrusive food cravings.

6. Stay in the moment and reflect

Clients are often asked to stay in the moment and ask themselves very simple questions when they are searching for food in the absence of hunger.

By posing the questions of What do I need right now? What is it that would help me get through this moment without relying on food? one may find viable solutions that are very individualized to each affected person.

One may need a hug, a walk in the park or a meaningful and attuned conversation with a loved one. Others may find it helpful to listen to relaxing music, cuddle with their pet or watch a funny video.

When attempting this strategy, it is imperative to be honest and dedicated to wanting to find a more genuine answer to one’s actual needs.

7. Reduce environmental cues to eating

To help manage food cravings, consider a reduction of environmental cues to eating.

When it comes to our “food landscape”, it is key to work on reducing these cues. For some, it may be curating their social media feeds, for others it may involve exposure to less food advertising, watching less cooking shows or perusing through less food magazines.

A quick scan through one’s house may also prove to be insightful.

Are foods readily displaced in one’s home or are most edible options tucked away in the fridge and pantry?

Work to reduce visual cues because it can go a long way in reducing the stimuli that would prompt cravings and eating in excess.

8. Practice “urge surfing”

Practice “urge surfing” as this may be an attractive option for some people.

In essence, what this means is to look at a food craving as an urge or a wave that one can learn to ride out with skill power.

While most cravings tend to increase in intensity, they also can plateau and eventually level off.

For this reason, implement distraction strategies. Call a friend. Go for a walk. Do a crossword  puzzle. Or dance to your favourite tune. These can help pivot from giving in to a food craving.

If you delay to consume the craved food, you’ve already achieved partial success.

Delay may eventually lead to completely circumventing the eating when cravings are the motivating factor.

Reliance on positive affirmations, such as saying that one is stronger than the food craving, for example, may offer further ammunition in one’s efforts.

All these attempts will help to unlearn the conditioning that may have been established a long time ago, possibly from one’s childhood.

Where some people report that they need to snack while watching TV at night, uncoupling these two behaviours will eventually happen if one persists to refrain from eating when sitting in front of the tube at night. Listening to an audiobook or podcast while outside for a walk may also offer a change in one’s evening routine.

 

Food Cravings: Causes and How to Manage Them Final Thoughts

Cravings can be a normal part of life. They may also become problematic if they lead to frequent overeating or interfere with balanced nutrition. One may still feel guilty or embarrassed when satisfying even occasional food craving as we come to the end of this blog post. The intention is not to vilify this behaviour. Conversely, it is to raise awareness around the triggers, dynamics and strategies to manage such situations.

Readers are encouraged to adopt an inquisitive and curious mind when exploring the cause of their food cravings and in coming up with their solutions. For some, dieting behaviours coupled with food restrictions are the culprit. For others, learned associations, unmanaged stress, emotional instability or chaotic eating habits may offer an angle for approaching it. Hormonal shifts throughout the menstrual cycle or menopause may prove to be another valid trigger.

It is also important to acknowledge that cravings are not necessarily harmful per se. They may be a symptom of unmet physical, psychological or social needs. Reframing the purpose and meaning of cravings, getting curious about the root causes and finding personally meaningful solutions is a worthwhile effort. A dietitian and/or mental health professional specializing in eating dynamics may prove to be a valuable asset in one’s quest for lasting solutions.

Cravings can contribute to unwanted consequences, such as feeling out of control in one’s eating patterns, gaining excessive body weight or noticing disruptions in one’s ability to carry out daily activities and responsibilities due to feeding struggles. Even under these circumstances, remaining curious about the eating dynamics, taking an honest introspection into possible root causes and seeking the help of skilled health care professionals for additional guidance proves to be a worthwhile approach.

Conclusion

Should you feel you require personalized nutritional care to help manage cravings or similar concerns, with ED dietitian Kinga Balogh, or another practitioner, book a free consultation or contact us for an appointment. As always if you have comments or questions, we encourage to let us know.

 

References

Cohen DA. Obesity and the built environment: changes in environmental cues cause energy imbalances. Int J Obes (Lond). 2008 Dec;32 Suppl 7(0 7):S137-42. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2008.250. PMID: 19136984; PMCID: PMC3741102.

Meule A. The psychology of food cravings: The role of food deprivation. Current nutrition reports. 2020 Jun 23:1-7.

Meule A. The Psychology of Food Cravings: the Role of Food Deprivation. Curr Nutr Rep. 2020 Sep;9(3):251-257. doi: 10.1007/s13668-020-00326-0. PMID: 32578025; PMCID: PMC7399671.

Rebello, C. J., et al. (2016). Reward-induced eating: Therapeutic approaches to addressing food cravings.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5083777/

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318441

 

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About Author:

Kinga Balogh is a registered dietitian for disordered eating and eating disorder recovery. She is a weight-neutral HAES™ dietitian and health and nutrition coach, combining dietetics and coaching strategies to enable clients achieve fulfilling lives. She also works with clients to help them make peace with food and their bodies. In addition, she works towards achieving self-liberation from unrealistic body ideals and develop body acceptance. Kinga has appeared in a number of publications including The Toronto Star, Bored Panda, Canadian Living and more. Kinga is available for online nutritional counselling.

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