Pretty much everyone experiences food cravings at some point.
There seems to be a huge difference in how often we feel cravings, what we crave, why we crave foods and how often we “give in” to cravings.
The evidence surrounding cravings is pretty mixed and there are no simple answers or solutions.
However, after reading the evidence it seems there is a strong indication that we can benefit from accepting cravings instead of trying to suppress them.
Accept that food cravings are a part of life as a human and accept that we will be exposed to foods, images of foods and advertising for foods that are delicious.
Accept that foods don’t have power over us, we just know they taste good and can bring pleasure.
Accept that it’s normal to crave foods and also accept that not every thought we have is a good one.
We don’t need to act on every thought we have and sometimes we have thoughts that aren’t helpful.
If we accept this, then we can spend more energy developing skills around mindfulness.
Learning to notice our thoughts without acting on all of them.
By noticing our thoughts and considering those thoughts, accepting that thoughts can be random and unhelpful, accepting that we don’t have to act on our thoughts, we may learn to deal with cravings more easily and they may lose their effect on us. (1)
What is the research into cravings?
There is a lot and it’s fairly mixed.
There are issues with studying humans and behaviour and many people will change their behaviour when they are participating in a study.
With studies looking into cravings, people may find it easier to resist cravings as there is an end-date and the drive to impress the researchers can be motivating. (2)
Interestingly, more frequent cravings in studies don’t always correlate with increased food intake.
People may say that they experienced more cravings than usual, however when studied they don't actually eat more.
There may be an unknown reason for this or again, it could be the short term motivating effect of participating in a study. (3)
It’s also a fairly subjective area - think about it yourself, what is a craving?
Is there a difference between feeling like eating something and an intense desire to eat?
Consider this as you continue reading, there is strong individual variation with cravings so apply everything to yourself.
The average results in a study may not actually relate that well to you as an individual so read and think.
What are food cravings?
Food craving refers to an intense desire to consume a specific food. (3)
They are linked to eating and weight-related outcomes, contributing to obesity. (4)
A common thought is that hunger drives cravings, however there isn’t a clear indication that hunger drives cravings for specific foods.
Except in the case of low blood sugar levels, in which case a drive to eat carbohydrates is likely. (3)
Fasting and very low Calorie diets are actually associated with lower hunger levels and less cravings which is interesting. However does this craving suppressing effect last? (3)
When dietary approaches are compared over the longer term, think 3-5 years, nearly all show poor results. (5)
This graph has been adapted from a study which pooled together weight loss data to show patterns over the longer term.
As you can see, the very low Calorie diet had great initial results, which were likely helped with the hunger and craving suppressing effects that many people notice.
However the trend is for the weight to come back on as the years pass which makes us wonder if the hunger and cravings also return.
In another review of diet studies, at least 12 weeks of Caloric restriction seemed to reduce cravings for sweet, starchy, high fat and fast food.
The reviewers also found that targeting a specific food to avoid was unlikely to reduce overall cravings, for example, only trying to reduce carbs or fats.
In these cases, the reduction in exposure to some energy dense indulgence foods was made up for by still having access to other options.
They found that reducing Calorie consumption, without a macro bias, suppressed cravings the most. However, reductions in cravings were less pronounced in females, particularly for sweet and starchy foods.
Whilst these results lend weight to a learned behaviour situation with cravings, the authors admit that research on cravings is ongoing and it is unlikely to be a single drive which is the cause of cravings. (6)
Let’s segue from here to gender differences, then to cue-reward research.
Do gender differences affect cravings?
Men and women tend to crave different kinds of foods.
On average, men crave more savoury foods (e.g., meat, fish, eggs), whereas women crave more sweet foods (e.g., chocolate, pastries, ice cream.
Once again, huge individual variances.
The menstrual cycle likely plays a role in food consumption and cravings for many women, however again, individual variance means that no absolute statements can be made.
However this graph gives us a nice indication of how cravings increase for many women before menses. (4)
Cue and Reward
The food environment most of us live in is characterised by wide and open access to foods and a lot of advertising for Calorie dense delicious indulgences.
Food cues such as these can trigger cravings which combined with the access to food, can drive food consumption and weight gain.
Once again, individual variance applies as different people are more or less susceptible to this food environment, cravings and behaviours. (4)(6)
We see a food or something that triggers us to think of a food, if we react immediately and have that food near us, we will likely eat it.
Changing your food environment may help to reduce cues in your environment, however we must also accept that we cannot control all of the environments we encounter.
We mentioned before how cravings don’t always lead to increased eating.
Foods are frequently eaten without being craved for and craved foods are not always eaten.
Similarly, we often crave foods even when we are not hungry.
There are however, stronger links between mood and craving. (3)
Delicious foods can make us feel good, especially in the short term.
Combine this with mood being linked to cravings and we have a cycle of a cue, low mood resulting in us eating something that makes us feel good.
This good feeling may not last long so we chase it by consuming more.
What can we do if we experience cravings?
Firstly, trying to notice what foods you typically crave and when you crave them, can give you some individual information to help.
See if you can notice patterns and if you can see any behavioural loops where a specific cue makes you crave a specific food.
It may be a situation where you can develop an alternative action to the cue.
If the cue is mood, then working on your mental health and speaking to your doctor sounds like a great idea.
Strategies that seem to fare poorly are avoidance or suppression of cravings.
Those that just try not to think about sugar, often eat more of it.
Those who try to avoid foods they crave, often think about those foods more. (1)(7)
Changing our food environment where possible does seem to help reduce cues and the behavioural loops of cue and reward can be both learned and unlearned.
Accepting our cravings and distancing ourselves from our thoughts seems to work well.
The added benefit of this is that it works in all situations, when our environment changes, when we can’t help but be near foods we crave.
Not only that, but when studied, people who learn these techniques seem to actually experience less cravings also. (1)(8)(9)
How do we accept our cravings?
Nearly everyone experiences cravings.
Potentially we can reduce some cravings by managing our food environment however we can’t manage 100%.
The good news is that through accepting cravings and focussing on behaving differently in the presence of cravings, cravings decrease.
We might have a thought, “I need chocolate.” If we trust our thoughts and treat them as facts, then we will likely eat chocolate.
Instead if we can distance ourselves from our thoughts and treat them as experiences rather than fact, it may help us re-frame things; “I am experiencing a thought that I need chocolate.”
It’s about looking at thoughts, not from thoughts.
Observing thoughts and letting them come and go whilst separating those thoughts from our actions.
Part of this process (known as cognitive dissonance) is to imagine thoughts as leaves on a stream or clouds in the sky.
Think of the thoughts coming and going, the thoughts will pass. (8)(9)
Whether or not this works for you will depend on you, your cravings, your thoughts and environment.
Cravings are complicated and unlikely to be explained by one simple thing, however if we accept that cravings are a reality and stop trying to hide from them, we may find a better way to deal with them.
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