Everything is normal. You get out of bed, you have your healthy breakfast and go to work. Everything is as usual, you are eating better than ever and suddenly something happens- the urge to eat some chocolate, some sweets or other junk appears.
You wonder what in the world is going on. You haven’t cheated in a long time and now the craving is stronger than you are. You feel like a doll with a remote and it seems like your navigator insists on you eating a piece of cake, some cookies or a piece of chocolate.
Why does that happen? The answer to this question could be found in different perspectives but the reason is most likely hidden behind a vitamin or mineral deficiency. It sounds weird but in reality it is really logical.
No matter that there are a lot of researches on the topic of the relationship between food cravings and nutritional deficiency, I will skip the boring data and I will tell you about my experience.
Since I was a kid, I often have muscle cramps. I remember the time when I played basketball, how I always got cramps in my calf. It was really disturbing but when I took enough magnesium everything got better.
Nowadays, even though the food I eat has enough magnesium, I can tell that at times I am really deficient in this mineral. There were times when I didn’t take absolutely no vitamins and I constantly had muscle cramps. I somehow neglected the fact and kept going the same way. I used to eat clean, real food and I never thought of junk food-cakes,chocolate and etc. I remember that I used to really crave raw cashew.
It seemed weird that I had such a strong desire to eat cashew. And let me tell you it wasn’t greediness! As the time went by I started craving chocolate cakes(not that I gave in to the cravings…), but the desire to eat chocolate, went way beyond my control. I wondered what was going on.
After some analysis 😉 of my muscle cramps and the strong desire to eat raw cashew and chocolate stuff, I guessed I am deficient in magnesium. I started taking some magnesium supplements and in no time everything got back to normal.
Example two: When I was a kid I really detested the nettle soups my grandma cooked. I stayed on the table, hardly eating a bowl of soup. It tasted absolutely disgusting to me.
I mentioned that a couple years ago I had anemia and iron deficiency. Back then, one of my favorite foods were nettle and spinach. Weird, huh?
Even though most of the iron in plants isn’t fully absorbed, it is a fact that leafy, green foods contain a lot of iron. Probably that explains my desire to eat leafy greens when I had anemia.
There are plenty of examples… probably if you give it a thought, you will remember a lot of stories like that. What does that mean? That I am encouraging you to give in to your food cravings and overeat on chocolate foods and other junk? Absolutely not!
What I am trying to tell you is that it is good to listen to your body. It always knows what it needs. The only thing you have to do is give your body what it needs!
And what it needs in the case with food cravings, is to pick among the variety of real foods, those that contain the deficient for your body nutrient. And to make it easier, when you find yourself craving something, look at this chart, that will tell you what deficiency responds to your food cravings and what are the healthy alternatives for it!
Have you tried to kill the cravings, eating the recommended foods in the chart? Did it work for you?
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