Cravings!!!

Foxyfin wrote: »

Two options:

If you never want craving again... don't eat it again.

If you want cravings for the rest of your life... eat it.

Chocolate is manufactured to make you a good consumer for the economy. If everyone ate the apples from the tree in their garden the share holders at Cadburys would be homeless. It messes up your bodys natural rhythm and you will always battle with it. Work out what your body nutritionally needs and give it that. If you stopped eating it your body would only ever crave the real nutrients you need and you would get the same pleasure eating an apple as you do now with chocolate.

Just my opinion but worth a thought.

Chocolate is manufactured to be sweet, and to the tastes of the culture it is being produced in, yes. It is manufactured to have specific qualities that make it addictive. All manufactured food does. This is called marketing. You make a product people want, and if you can get science to help you out, foods that people will crave.

However, it does not "mess up biological rhythms"-that's pure tin foil hat BS spoken by people who have no background in biochemistry and a vague understanding of science. In simple terms, all sugar, any kind, including the apple from that tree, has an effect on your body's chemistry. Our bodies crave carbs and fats because we need them to survive, and our bodies are greedy to keep us alive. Your body always fears the famine that may come and has not yet evolved out of that fear (there are still starving people in the world, so it's obviously still a needed trait), so high calorie foods, especially after they have been introduced into the diet, will be craved when you are starving yourself (which is what every diet is-purposeful famine).

Sugars are especially sought after, because they can be used so quickly by the body and assists in fat storage, so when the next famine comes we can survive. Studies in the last few years in fact have shown that fructose, the sugar from the apple, seems to trigger your body to store fat FASTER than the other forms of sugar do. It's postulated this is due to it being more available in nature, in the form of ripened fruit, and it's why to fructose substitute kick died so quickly. Hard to tell people something is better for them because it's natural, when it makes them fatter.

And don't even get me started on "natural."

There's also very little evidence that suggest nutrition is the issue. In fact, there's so little evidence that after searching for half an hour, I was unable to find one article with any citation from an actual academic journal or respected nutritionist or medical worker. However, it may be a sign of insulin issues, and cravings for sweets often come attached to drops and rises in insulin, and if it is a constant craving for sweet stuff you should talk to your doctor.

There is no proof that cutting a food from your diet will make you stop craving it. In fact, most studies say only a very small portion of the population find this to be true.

Cutting can be good for you, and you may find that the craving for your favorite snack dies when you try it again. For instance, I used to love Coke, but having minimized sugar in my diet for 4 months, it tastes grossly sweet now and I don't like it anymore. In other words, you might find yourself Pavlov'ed out of a craving after some time.

The general consensus in the nutrition and medical fields is moderation. Deny yourself and sabotage your diet, or give yourself a treat in a very small portion, and fill up with other, healthy snacks in the process. Like eat the apple with a half serving of peanut butter. Or eat a salad and then slowly savor your piece or two of chocolate. Go for high quality substitutes to favorite candies. A truffle bought in the chocolate shop versus a king size Snickers bar.

If you'd like to learn more about how your body uses sugar, I recommend these free articles. If you have access to a campus library, I'd go there instead, as they have much more available to them.
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/133/3/835S.full
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/humansciences/content/carbohydrate

Here's what I would do.. It depends what kind of chocolate you're craving. It may be a sign, that your body needs iron or magnesium. Definitely don't make a vending machine mistake. Cheat yourself by getting a 100% cocoa powder or 90% dark chocolate and make skim milk hot chocolate sweetened with stevia.