How can honoring your cravings for highly processed, high sugar/salt/fat foods possibly be a good thing for your health? Let’s talk about it!
First, let’s start by thinking about what a craving is. Defined by the National Cancer Institute, a craving is “A strong, urgent, or abnormal desire for a certain substance or activity" (1). If you have experienced food cravings before, I challenge you to think about how hearing them defined as “strong” and “urgent” resonates with you. Speaking from my own experience, it takes a pretty powerful urge to get me out from underneath my blanket and out the door at 9 PM. But, it is something I have done over and over again when I find myself with a late night craving for a dessert after banning sweets from my kitchen.
The second component of this definition is an “abnormal desire,” or something that is unusual, atypical, deviant. Again, take a moment to reflect on the frequency of your cravings. Would you describe them this way? Or, would you describe them as something more regular and routine in your eating pattern? Do you have periods of very frequent cravings? Do you constantly have a background urge for certain foods?
The concept of "self-control" is the center of many dieting tactics such as restricting specific food groups, nutrients (i.e. sugar, salt, fat), or fasting.
In order to be "successful" in restricting the body's hunger signaling, one must use "self-control," a function of the executive component of cognitive function. Cognitive function includes reasoning, judgment, and problem-solving. All consciously delivered signals from internal and external stimuli are filtered through this area of the brain to drive behaviors (2). For example, when information about low body temperature is processed cognitively, it may result in the behavior of putting on a coat or covering up with a blanket. In this scenario, you may override the desire to increase your body temperature by choosing not to cover up with a blanket; which is similar to overriding your hunger by choosing not to eat.
It is important to recognize that your behavioral response will, and SHOULD, be different based on the strength and consistency of the signals being processed cognitively. With very strong hunger cues means a very strong drive to respond with food intake. Further, research has shown that hunger signals are made stronger with inadequate energy availability by increasing our sensitivity to "rewarding" properties of the food such as taste, smell, texture, appearance (2,3).
What is important to recognize here is that: implementing "self-control" over any type of hunger cues by choosing restriction is a cognitive function that will always occur after the initial firing and processing of that signal. In other words: the signals are still there, but you are just choosing to ignore them. However, all of the self-control in the world will not make your cravings go away, and may even make them harder to ignore over time.
So yes, your self-control may be correlated with the frequency/intensity of your food cravings, but not in the way that you think that it is. Instead, more self-control may be leading to more unrelenting cravings.
More unrelenting cravings mean an increased risk of behaviors that will satisfy this desire. Yay! Or, is your instinctual response more along the lines of: "Great! I've already blown it so I guess I'll just eat what I want now until I can start over tomorrow."
⭐️ When honoring your cravings is seen as a failure: the risk to react with rebound food deprivation is higher. When food deprivation is sustained, and you are kept in a state of overall energy deficiency: increased appetite and food-reward sensitivity continue.
⭐️ When honoring your cravings is seen as a success: regular food intake that is in line with metabolic energy demand can continue. When energy needs are met, cravings will regulate and return to something that we experience on occasion!
Cravings are a part of our biology. Additionally, the quick + easy access to highly satisfying foods is apart of the world we live in. Yes, these foods are often high in sugar, fat, salt, calories, and whatever else you can name. The ethicality of these being the most accessible food sources for most of our population is a different conversation. But, denying our instinctual drive toward these foods with the tactic of "self-control" is not the answer to guaranteeing less intake of these foods over time.
When we zoom out to look at the bigger picture of our nutrition, deviations from the overall trend are just that: divots that look like tiny little bumps in the main path. Seeing them as such can keep us from overcorrecting, and creating long-term irregularity/instability.
When we zoom out even further to look at the even bigger picture of health + wellness: it includes prioritizing mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, and social needs in addition to nutritional needs. Honoring your cravings often means meeting other needs of your health with food. This can be aside from OR alongside meeting nutritional needs.
Honoring your cravings is an essential part of achieving your "healthiest" eating pattern! Those that have experienced chronic suppression of hunger and cravings, fueled by feelings of shame for lack of "self-control" are at increased risk of both mental and metabolic dysregulation of food intake. Working through this to achieve the life-long ability to regulate food choices is how I help individuals looking to achieve an eating pattern that is healthiest for them in all ways that food can provide: nutrition, in color.
Interested in learning more? Visit my website to learn about the 1-on-1 coaching services I offer, sign up for my mailing list for enriching tips delivered to your email, or visit instagram page @nutrition_incolor.
References:
Dictionary of cancer terms; cravings. National Cancer Institutes website. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/craving
Kevin D. Hall, Ross A. Hammond, and Hazhir Rahmandad, 2014:
Dynamic Interplay Among Homeostatic, Hedonic, and Cognitive Feedback Circuits Regulating Body Weight
American Journal of Public Health 104, 1169_1175, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.301931
Avena NM, Murray S, Gold MS. Comparing the effects of food restriction and overeating on brain reward systems. Exp Gerontol. 2013 Oct;48(10):1062-7. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2013.03.006. Epub 2013 Mar 25. PMID: 23535488; PMCID: PMC4013785.
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