What's Really Behind Your Food Cravings?
I've written before about Changing My Relationship With Food and how the process was key in my recovering from morbid obesity. One of the things I discovered along the way was that food cravings are physical.
Physical cravings are our cells crying for the nutrients they need. Sadly, we often respond to this urge by eating highly processed and refined foods which only promote further malnourishment.
Yup, that was me. Tipping the scales at over 300 pounds, yet starving. I used to think the four food groups were Starbucks, chocolate, cheeseburgers and French fries.
While I was transitioning from the Standard American Diet of packaged and processed foods to a diet high in raw, living foods, I went through some periods of strong cravings. {To get a sense of what my transition looked like, you can read A Day In The Life}
Early on, my body craved wild-caught Alaskan salmon daily. After several months of detoxifying my system of food additives and preservatives, I couldn't get enough beets. Morning, noon and night, all I wanted for about a week was beets. Crazy, since prior to that, you couldn't pay me to eat them.
There were a couple of weeks I remember, where the only greens I wanted were mustard or turnip greens. I have to be honest here and tell you, for most of my life I didn't even know what mustard and turnip greens were, much less eat them.
I still experience cravings and have learned to listen to my body. If watermelon is what my body desires, I eat watermelon. Craving kale, I'll make a large green smoothie.
Anyways, all this is to say that I was recently reading a terrific book by naturopathic doctor Colleen Huber, Choose Your Foods Like Your Life Depends On Them
, and was pleasantly surprised to find this:
Physical cravings are our cells crying for the nutrients they need. Sadly, we often respond to this urge by eating highly processed and refined foods which only promote further malnourishment.
Yup, that was me. Tipping the scales at over 300 pounds, yet starving. I used to think the four food groups were Starbucks, chocolate, cheeseburgers and French fries.
While I was transitioning from the Standard American Diet of packaged and processed foods to a diet high in raw, living foods, I went through some periods of strong cravings. {To get a sense of what my transition looked like, you can read A Day In The Life}
Early on, my body craved wild-caught Alaskan salmon daily. After several months of detoxifying my system of food additives and preservatives, I couldn't get enough beets. Morning, noon and night, all I wanted for about a week was beets. Crazy, since prior to that, you couldn't pay me to eat them.
There were a couple of weeks I remember, where the only greens I wanted were mustard or turnip greens. I have to be honest here and tell you, for most of my life I didn't even know what mustard and turnip greens were, much less eat them.
I still experience cravings and have learned to listen to my body. If watermelon is what my body desires, I eat watermelon. Craving kale, I'll make a large green smoothie.
Anyways, all this is to say that I was recently reading a terrific book by naturopathic doctor Colleen Huber, Choose Your Foods Like Your Life Depends On Them
, and was pleasantly surprised to find this:Food Cravings
Nifty, huh? This is only a partial listing. You can see the whole chart of Food Cravings here.
So, tell me, what food has your body been craving lately? Will you reach for a healthy alternative instead of the bag of Doritos?
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