Are cravings nutritional deficiencies?

As my nutritionist tells me, cravings can sometimes be due to nutrients we need, but actually hunger can be due to that as well. But we've got some natural cravings built in to the human species, for fat and sweet tastes, which kind of makes sense when you realize that both of those are full of calories and we want to have something that encourages us to eat more of those.

Well, we don't need it now, but a few thousand years ago, maybe. :-)

From a few animal studies, and a couple poorly done human studies, it seems that the body gets pretty good at associating tastes and smells with various nutrients IF they are distinct. Which they usually aren't, for most foods now. Like right now, we can have bread that can have a huge variance in what nutrients we get out of it, so our body gets one set of signals (scent and taste) but not the same results every time.

But when people and animals alter food habits so they are getting one ingredient at a time, or only a few mixed together, they seem to start to be able to, well, sort of 'figure it out' a bit better. Makes sense, if the body has one set of nutritional payoff associated with one scent and taste, I'd think.

I actually had to have a hugely restricted diet for medical reasons and I started growing my own herbs (couldn't used bought spices). I used to get the worse cravings for some of these, sometimes, just wanted handfuls of one herb or another. When we went back and started looking over the diet, it turned out that I was usually low in certain nutrients on these days, and the herbs I craved were high in those same nutrients. It was really kind of cool to see, honestly.

I'm going to go with maybe. I think that possibly it might have been when I was craving oranges and grapefruit, but I'm going to go with a firm no for that potato chip craving the other week.

ValentineNicole wrote: »

Why do we get cravings? Are they really nutritional deficiencies? If so, why can we crave the same food for days?

Cravings can indicate nutritional deficiencies ... but they might not be straightforward and obvious.

You might crave chocolate ... but what you really need is something to raise your blood sugar level, and a mango or chicken sandwich will do the trick just as well.

For some time now, I've been craving potato chips, french fries, and all sorts of greasy salty food. I started tracking my calories here 10 days ago, and the most interesting thing I discovered is that my diet (heavy in fresh fruit, veg, and whole grains) is very light on salt. I struggle to reach half the daily recommended value. I started salting my veg and whole grains, and even taking electrolyte tablets on days of heavier exercise, and although I'm still not at my daily recommended value, I'm closer ... and my cravings for greasy salty food have pretty much disappeared.

shaumom wrote: »

As my nutritionist tells me, cravings can sometimes be due to nutrients we need, but actually hunger can be due to that as well. But we've got some natural cravings built in to the human species, for fat and sweet tastes, which kind of makes sense when you realize that both of those are full of calories and we want to have something that encourages us to eat more of those.

Well, we don't need it now, but a few thousand years ago, maybe. :-)

From a few animal studies, and a couple poorly done human studies, it seems that the body gets pretty good at associating tastes and smells with various nutrients IF they are distinct. Which they usually aren't, for most foods now. Like right now, we can have bread that can have a huge variance in what nutrients we get out of it, so our body gets one set of signals (scent and taste) but not the same results every time.

But when people and animals alter food habits so they are getting one ingredient at a time, or only a few mixed together, they seem to start to be able to, well, sort of 'figure it out' a bit better. Makes sense, if the body has one set of nutritional payoff associated with one scent and taste, I'd think.

I actually had to have a hugely restricted diet for medical reasons and I started growing my own herbs (couldn't used bought spices). I used to get the worse cravings for some of these, sometimes, just wanted handfuls of one herb or another. When we went back and started looking over the diet, it turned out that I was usually low in certain nutrients on these days, and the herbs I craved were high in those same nutrients. It was really kind of cool to see, honestly.

Very interesting post.

I don't think it's mostly built in, I think you train your brain what to crave by what you eat. At one point I was taking a liquid multivitamin that looked like bottled swamp water. It tasted gross. At first I could barely get it down. The rest of my diet was really poor, I was eating college cafeteria food, gas station food, and working myself to death. After awhile I got to where I woke up craving that vitamin goop every day. I think it's because it was by far the best source of nutrients I was consuming.

Not usually....pretty sure when someone is craving a cooky it's not because they're sugar deficient.

I also think that outside of rare circumstances a craving tends to be more psychological or habit driven. When I first started this I'd crave something (what it was would vary) in mid afternoon and sometimes in mid morning, since I'd been used to eating then. I either ignored it or forced myself to eat something else then, like carrots or a few nuts, and it quickly went away after a few days. Occasionally if I know something I like is coming for lunch at work or someone has brought a particularly tempting snack for the break room I'll crave that.

On the other hand, I'm on vacation in a hot climate right now (it's quite early in the morning) and I have found myself craving fruit (which I like at any time) much more than usual. Part of this is obviously that much better fruit than I have had access to in the winter in Chicago has been available, so it's just delicious and tempting, but I know I also crave fruit when I'm thirsty, as it's juicy. So not really a nutritional deficiency, but along the same lines.

I am skeptical of the nutritional deficiency thing, however, as I'm MUCH more likely to crave fruits and veggies when I'm in the habit of eating them than when I'm not (and in theory would be more likely to be deficient). Years ago before I had the habit of eating veggies I rarely craved them and now I often do.