Food cravings or food addiction?

What is a craving? 

You just finished a big meal and you’ve tucked your kids in for the night. Then once again, a craving for ice cream hits. Sound familiar? Good thing you stocked up at the grocery store so you grab a bowl and sit down for a show. It might seem innocent enough, and sometimes it is but the problem comes when cravings become uncontrollable. And just to be clear, I’m talking about food cravings for what are generally ultra processed foods that occur (for the most part) outside of your innate hunger signals. 

If you deal with this, I get it. I’ve been there. I often binged on dollar store candy bars (cause it’s the best price, obv’s!) and loads of bread when that’s all I could get my hands on. If you are like I was, you might want consider the differences between a mere cravings and a food addiction. Read on, friend.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself about your food cravings:

  • How frequent are your food cravings?

  • Do you regularly eat more than planned?

  • Do you frequently eat past the point of fullness (feeling physically ill or very uncomfortable in stomach region)?

  • Do you often feel shame or guilt after “giving in” to a craving?

  • Are your food cravings affecting your overall health? 


Is it an addiction? 

Addiction to substances like alcohol and illegal drugs are clearly mind-altering and we all know these are terrible for us. So it is possible to be addicted to substances that don’t give that immediate high like a drug does? Apparently, it is. 

An article titled “Food Addiction: A Deep Dive into “Loss of Control” and “Craving” found that many parallels exist between food addiction and substance abuse. The study points out the correlation between substance abuse and food addiction as one having strong cravings for an ultra diluted substance such as in highly refined foods (like ice cream and candy):

In substance use disorders, the craved substance is the individuals’ substance of choice, typically a more potent form of the plant, substance or other from which it was derived, e.g. cocaine from the coca plant. Higher intakes of ultra-processed foods have been observed in association with FA [food addiction] . This may suggest that these foods and/or individual components of them are facilitative of an addictive response and therefore craving of them, similar to the process of substance addiction. Ultra-processed foods are manufactured to be highly palatable by combining multiple processed ingredients to achieve optimized sensory properties, which may induce craving. 

Test yourself

If you are not sure whether your cravings are a little more than simple, occasional cravings, there is a very helpful questionnaire here (the Yale Food Addiction Scale): 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5brr56uvk2y5pyt/YFAS%20validation%20packet%20(1).zip?dl=0&file_subpath=%2FYFAS+validation+packet%2FYale_Food_Addiction_Scale.pdf

With instructions on scoring yourself here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1hktep13k524sgv/mYFAS2.zip?dl=0&file_subpath=%2FmYFAS2-1+(2)%2FmYFAS2_Scoring.pdf

Outside of an addiction or sometimes in addition to, there may be several different reasons you experience food cravings.

Nutrient related sugar cravings

Firstly, if you are eating a high carbohydrate diet and not getting enough protein and fat, this may lead to blood sugar imbalances and make you crave sweets and carbohydrate rich foods mere hours after eating. 

Our current food supply simply does not provide us with the proper amount of nutrients our bodies need and certain deficiencies can lead to cravings. Common deficiencies that may cause food cravings are deficiencies in magnesium, iron, B vitamins, tryptophan, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, etc. For example, tryptophan is the amino acid needed by the body to produce serotonin. A lack of serotonin can lead to feeling of despair or depression and so sometimes, we look to food to get a hit of dopamine to feel good. Dopamine can then be affected and begin to need that stimulant to be released and cause yet more cravings! It’s a never ending cycle! 

Physical food cravings

The physical food cravings can be related to the nutrient food cravings as the body works to regulate itself. However, lack of sleep or skipping a meal might give intense food cravings to get an energy boost. Additionally, lack of sleep suppresses the body's hunger and fullness hormones causing you to eat more food than you need and eat lower quality foods. 

In addition, food cravings might be related to a imbalance of gut bacteria. Dysbiosys (too much of the bad bacteria in the gut and not enough good) can be the cause of your sugar cravings since that bad bacteria thrive off of the glucose from carbohydrates. The well known candida albicans can cause this but there are many other known and unknown pathogenic bacteria’s that can cause food cravings. Pathogenic bacteria like candida can cause food cravings AND eating too much sugar and refined carbohydrates can cause pathogenic bacteria overgrowth. Again, a never ending cycle!

Emotional food cravings 

Most experts agree that there is a root cause in addiction. For some that might be a traumatic childhood. Others might look to substance to deal with overwhelming demand placed on them. So before you completely brush off the reality that you might be dealing with an addiction, ask yourself why you are struggling with food cravings - yes, go back to that questionnaire! 

Stress and anxiety can be a huge contributor to food and sugar cravings. We start to feel overwhelmed or stressed and we reach for those chips or chocolate without even thinking. The brain is seeking to overcome that stress by craving these highly palatable foods that give us a dopamine boost and make us feel better - even if just temporarily. And in this way, it is ALWAYS temporary.

Deal with the CAUSE of the food cravings and you’ll be well on your way to overcoming them. Don’t deal with them soon enough or you find it near impossible to deal with, then yes, you may actually be dealing with food addiction.

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