Ridding the Mind of That Nagging Craving
You gotta have a cookie.
Now!
One with chips big enough to satisfy this urge for chocolate that is making you crazy. Should you or shouldn’t you?
When a craving is this intense, enjoy, say some researchers. Indulging occasionally might satisfy you enough to stay on the nutritional straight-and-narrow the rest of the time.
Whoa, say others who counter that a little willpower is what’s needed: Eating a nutritious, low-fat diet can reduce and even eliminate cravings.
Then there’s the all-in-your-head approach: Rescript your mental image of craved foods to make them seem less appetizing.
*
The Chemical Connection: When certain brain chemicals increase, so do cravings, according to Sarah Leibowitz, a neurobiologist at Rockefeller University in New York, who has studied the effects of some brain chemicals on animals’ appetites. High levels of a chemical called neuropeptide Y increase urges for carbohydrates, she says, while high levels of galanin make the animals choose fat-filled foods.
A taste for carbohydrates is highest in the morning, she says, while urges for fatty foods increase throughout the day, often peaking around dinner time. She says that is probably true for animals as well as people--although abundant human data is lacking.
Another researcher, Adam Drewnowski, professor and director of the Human Nutrition Program at the University of Michigan, agrees that a variety of brain chemicals can trigger cravings. But for humans, he says, there are other factors that also influence what foods you crave.
Physiological factors such as pain, along with psychological factors such as depression, can bring on cravings, he says. Cultural and socioeconomic factors can come into play too. Consider the change in dietary habits in Japan, which has undergone drastic Westernization. “Fat intake there has tripled in the last 25 years,” he says. “But I am assuming their galanin levels have not tripled.”
Food cravings often occur in response to a painful or stressful situation, Drewnowski says. “Sugar and fat may act as natural analgesics.”
Some cravings are strongly tied to habit: You always eat popcorn dripping in butter at the movies.
*
The Gender Differences: Women tend to crave more often than men, Drewnowski has also found, although he does not know why. Women are likely to crave foods filled with fat and sugar, such as candy and cookies. Men are apt to want foods high in protein, fat and salt--like a juicy steak.
*
Wishing Away Those Cravings: Never mind those brain chemicals or life’s stresses. The trick to controlling your cravings, says Linda Tatum, a Beverly Hills hypnotherapist, is to teach yourself to regard foods you crave as neutral or, better yet, unappetizing.
She asks clients with cravings to visualize the object of their desire--say, a chocolate chip cookie--on a large screen. Then she interrogates them about their mental image. Is the cookie in color? In a frame or free-floating? How does it smell? Is it on a plate? In clear focus?
Once that mental picture is firmly implanted, she asks the same questions about a food the client loathes--say, cottage cheese. “In every case, something is different,” she says. A cookie is likely to be pictured in mouth-watering color; cottage cheese in unappetizing black-and-white.
Next, clients learn to transpose mental pictures of the unappetizing food to the irresistible food: to see the cookie in black and white, for starters.
*
The Nutritious Approach: Eating right can reduce or eliminate cravings, others say. “If you are providing your body with optimal nutrients, you should not be experiencing cravings,” says Diane Grabowski, a dietitian and nutrition educator at the Pritikin Longevity Center, Santa Monica, where the menu emphasizes very low-fat diets.
Concentrate on eating a diet with about 75% carbohydrates, 15% protein and 10% fats, Grabowski says, and your body won’t want sugary, fried or fatty foods. She emphasizes eating carbohydrates that are unrefined--apples instead of apple juice, for instance. Those who switch to a low-fat, balanced diet and eat frequently--six mini-meals a day--can expect cravings to disappear within a week, she says.
*
The Long View: Drewnowski acknowledges that some people--but very few--seem to adapt to low-fat diets without cheating, but if you’re not one of them, an occasional indulgence might actually keep you healthier in the long run.
“Women who go on severe diets (with little fat or sugar) appear to be at greater risk of alcohol and drug use,” he says, citing preliminary results of a current study.
Someday, drug treatments might target overwhelming cravings by normalizing levels of brain chemicals associated with them. Meanwhile, depriving yourself too much might have adverse long-term consequences, Drewnowski says.
