Food Craving Meanings and Why You Crave Certain Foods
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“All I want is an ENORMOUS steak. I just need more iron.”
Chances are you, too, have echoed similar words, and drove to a local steakhouse for dinner.
For years, popular belief has held that our cravings show what is lacking in our diet, that cravings are our body’s way of telling us what they need.
While not entirely false (there is research connecting cravings to certain nutritional deficiencies), it is not the entire story
Most of us have food cravings. 97 percent of women and 68 percent of men who took part in a study published in the journal Appetite reported experiencing them. Cravings are motivational states that give us the urge to consume a particular food.
Are you the type of person who craves chocolate? Or do you have cravings for salty snacks? What are the food cravings for different foods, anyway?
Different cravings mean different things.
Craving is an almost uncontrollable compulsion to have a certain food. So it’s not just that you like a certain food. It’s that you have to have it.
What would your reaction be if I told you that you couldn’t have a specific food ever again? What would happen if I told you couldn’t have chocolate ever again? If you’re willing to go to a battle to the death over that food, it’s a craving.
WHAT IS THE CRAVING MEANING OF CHOCOLATE?
Let’s start with the most common one: Chocolate.
Chocolate is one of the richest sources of magnesium, hands down according to nutrition data.
Do you know the foods that nutritionists typically point to as being high in magnesium, like green leafy vegetables? Well, they are, but chocolate beats them all.
In 100 grams of broccoli, there is about 21 mg of magnesium. In 100 grams of spinach, there is about 79 mg of magnesium. In 100 grams of lettuce, there is about 14 mg of magnesium.
In dark chocolate (70–85% cocoa) there is 230 mg! Even milk chocolate has a respectable 63 mg per 100 grams. Even hazelnut chocolate spread like Nutella has 64 mg.
