Do you crave for salty food all the time or sugary treats are there in your mind most of the time?
Sometimes off and on most of us crave for something different or a particular taste such as getting up at the middle of the night craving chocolate or desiring spicy noodles or pasta. But when the craving for a particular food becomes frequent, it is a body’s ways of telling us that something is out of sync in our system.
What Does Craving for Certain Food Indicate About Your Health?
Here is what your body is trying to tell you through your tongue.
What Does Craving for Cheese Indicate About Your Health
Cheese is also considered as comfort food. It contains L-tryptophan, a compound that is known to improve mood and give a relaxing feeling by releasing serotonin and a chemical called choline.
Indulging in a small portion sometimes can be a good way to distress, but if your mind constantly revolves around the cheesy, gooey dishes, it may be a sign that you are having a problem with memory and concentration. A study shows that those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder crave cheese twice as more than others(1).
Occasional cheese desire also signals that the diet is lacking in fats. Cheese is a good source of calcium but too much of it can be harmful.
What Does Craving for Soda Indicate About Your Health ?
Many people are addicted to carbonated drinks such as Coke, Pepsi, and others and cannot go ahead with their activities of the day without it.
Most people crave the sugary punch in them while many are addicted to the caffeine hit they get after they drink them.
Another reason for soda craving is calcium deficiency. The acid in carbonated drinks can force out the calcium and magnesium from the bones leading to calcium depletion and cravings (2). When a person’s dietary intake of calcium is too low the body to meet its need tries to leech out the calcium from the bones. The fizzy drinks help in this process.
What Does Craving for Potato Chips Indicate About Your Health?
Craving potato chips and hot French fries signal that body is low on healthy fats. The body does not manufacture fatty acids on its own. It is therefore required from the diet.
We can get the fats our body needs from the salmon and other fatty fishes and from avocado, nuts and olive oils.
If you are craving fried potatoes or any form of fried food, charge-up your diet with the healthy fats from your kitchen.
What Does Craving for Water Indicate About Your Health?
If you feel super thirsty there are chances that your body is dehydrated. But if there are excessive thirst and water craving along with frequent urination it could be a warning sign that you need to check your insulin level.
Excess sugar build-up in the blood puts an extra load on the kidney to process all of it. This leads to, it getting excreted through the urine making you feel thirsty again.
What Does Craving for Chocolate Indicate About Your Health?
Sometimes, people need a chocolate fix, be it milky, dark or nutty. Chocolate craving is often connected to menstruation as most of the females crave is around that time.
Chocolate craving can also be a sign of magnesium deficiency. Research shows that chocolate is rich in magnesium(3), eating them, therefore, can meet the body’s requirement for this mineral.
Magnesium is a sedating hormone and is a fix for extreme stress as it helps in relaxing the muscles, enables energy production and improving heart function. Being deficient in it can affect your sleep and make you reach out for sweets and chocolates to charge yourself up.
What Does Craving for Red Meat Indicate About Your Health?
Red meat craving comes in when you are low in iron. Red meat is also, an only good source of vitamin B12(4). Therefore, if you do not eat meat and crave it try supplementing your diet with iron and vitamin B12 or B-complex.
Iron is important for the immune system and also to transport oxygen throughout the body. It is therefore important to meet up its deficiency.
What Does Craving for Salty Foods Indicate About Your Health?
You can crave excessive salt when the body is dehydrated, especially after exercise or hangover or when you haven’t drunk enough water.
Rehydrate the body by drinking excessive water and lightly salted popcorns, olives, and other naturally salty things.
What Does Craving for Coffee Indicate About Your Health?
Most of you cannot feel fresh without getting a cup of your coffee as a first thing in the morning. Or many of you are addicted to these cups frequently every hour.
Coffee craving is basically an addiction to caffeine which energizes or gives a hit to pull you over the workload or the stress of the day.
Coffee craving can also mean a deficiency of phosphorus in the body. It is a trace element which is needed to process calcium in the body. You can boost the level by including nuts and seeds in the diet. This might reduce your coffee craving as well, if it is due to deficiency of phosphorus.
