What Causes Cravings? Busting Common Myths About Food Urges
- Evgeniya Zhukovskaya
- Mar 22
- 9 min read
Chocolate ranks as the most craved food in the Western world, especially among women. But the real reasons behind cravings might surprise you - they rarely stem from nutrient deficiencies like most people think.
Food cravings are powerful feelings that make us urgently want specific foods. Many people believe their body signals nutritional needs through cravings. The science tells a broader story. Physical, psychological and social factors all play key roles in what we crave.
Research shows women typically want sweet foods, while men go for savoury options.
In this article, you'll find the science behind food cravings. We will bust common myths about nutrient deficiencies and show how your sleep patterns, hormones, and cultural background shape what you crave. You'll also learn why these desires feel so intense and what you can do about them.
The Science Behind Food Cravings
Your brain does more than just make you hungry—it creates strong desires for specific foods through complex nerve processes. The science behind these urges shows why that chocolate bar or packet of crisps seems impossible to resist.
How your brain processes cravings
Food cravings light up many brain regions at once and create a strong nerve response. Your brain's reward network jumps into action when you see, smell, or think about your favourite treat. This network is made up of ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and amygdala 22.
This activity pattern is different from regular hunger. Scientists found a specific "Neurobiological Craving Signature" (NCS) that can predict how strong cravings are just by looking at brain images. This signature shows that drug and food cravings light up similar brain paths, which explains why some foods can feel addictive.
Foods high in sugar, salt, or carbs trigger dopamine release that creates pleasure signals 24. Your brain needs more stimulation to feel the same reward after repeated exposure. This creates a cycle that leads to stronger cravings as time passes.
The role of hormones in triggering food urges
Your hormones have a big impact on what you crave and when these urges hit. Several key hormones work together in this complex process:
Ghrelin, known as the "hunger hormone," rises in your blood before meals and during fasting to signal hunger 4
Leptin from fat cells tells your brain you're full—low levels can leave you wanting more after eating 4
Cortisol released during stress makes you hungry for high-calorie comfort foods 5
Insulin keeps blood sugar in check, and any imbalance can trigger strong cravings 4
Women experience predictable craving patterns due to monthly hormone changes. Research shows that cravings get stronger when oestrogen drops and progesterone rises 5. This explains why many women want more carbs and sweets about 7-10 days before menstruation. Poor sleep throws these hormone levels off balance, especially leptin and ghrelin. This leads to stronger urges for starchy, fatty, and salty foods 5.
Why cravings feel so powerful
Food cravings feel intense partly because of our past. Our brains developed when food was hard to find, which made high-calorie foods crucial for survival 7. This led our nerve systems to strongly reward finding and eating these foods.
The reward gets stronger each time you give in to a craving. Scientists call this "food cue reactivity"—learned responses that create various experiences, body changes, and brain reactions 22. Studies show a clear link between food cue reactivity and how much people eat later (r = 0.33) 22.
Brain patterns might explain why some people find cravings harder to resist. People with strong cravings spend more time in brain states that make these urges stronger while failing to use networks that could help control them 8. This "sticky" pattern points to an imbalance between mental stability and flexibility—and might show reduced control over eating habits.
These biological mechanisms show why willpower often fails against cravings - they're built into your body's core systems.
Nutrient Deficiencies
Many people believe food cravings signal what nutrients their body lacks. This common belief is mostly a myth. Your body's relationship with cravings goes way beyond what common wisdom tells us.
What research says about cravings and nutrients
The nutrient deficiency theory makes sense at first glance - your body should crave what it needs. However, science tells a slightly different story. Research doesn't fully support the idea that we crave foods just because of nutritional gaps.
Let's look at chocolate, one of the West's most craved foods. If cravings truly showed nutrient gaps, chocolate would need to be packed with nutrients we commonly lack—but it's not. You'll find relatively small amounts of magnesium and other minerals that people often blame for these cravings.
Studies that examine pregnant women—who need more nutrients—show they usually want high-carb, high-fat, and fast foods instead of healthier options. These cravings show up early in pregnancy, not when nutrient needs are highest. This goes against what the deficiency theory would sometimes suggest.
Research shows restricted foods become more tempting. Weight loss studies spanning two years found people on low-carb diets wanted more carb-rich foods. Those on low-fat diets craved more fatty food.
Times when deficiencies might trigger cravings
While most cravings don't point to nutrient gaps, some situations break this rule. Salt cravings might show a real sodium deficiency, though that's uncommon with today's processed food-heavy diets.
People who sweat a lot or take certain medicines might need more salt when they crave it. Some research hints at a link between iron deficiency and red meat cravings, though it's more complicated than simple nutrient signals.
The pica phenomenon: craving non-food items
The desire to eat non-food items—called pica—shows stronger links to nutrient deficiencies than regular food cravings. Pica makes people compulsively eat things without nutritional value like ice, dirt, chalk, paper, or laundry detergent. Specific groups get pica more often: young kids (mostly under 6), pregnant women, and people with certain mental health conditions including autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disabilities, or schizophrenia.
A meta-analysis found 27.8% of pregnant women worldwide show pica behaviours. This happens more in developing countries where anaemia rates are higher and education levels lower.
People with pica often lack iron, zinc, or calcium.
Adding these missing nutrients sometimes stops the unusual cravings. Ice craving and chewing (pagophagia) relates to iron deficiency anaemia, especially in children, pregnant women, and young adults.
The connection isn't simple though. Not everyone with pica lacks nutrients, and supplements don't always help. Some researchers think social factors might cause pica more than physical needs, since it happens more often in lower-income areas.
Physical Triggers of Food Cravings
Your body's physical state shapes what foods you crave and when you want them. These biological triggers work without you knowing it and have the most important influence on your eating patterns.
Sleep deprivation and how it affects hunger signals
A single night of poor sleep can change your relationship with food drastically. When you don't get enough sleep, your hunger-regulating hormones get out of balance. Your body makes more ghrelin (which makes you hungry) and less leptin (which tells you you're full). This explains why you reach for high-calorie comfort foods after a bad night's sleep.
Research shows that lack of sleep changes how your brain reacts to food.
Brain scans show that tired people have more activity in their piriform cortex - the part that processes food smells.
This makes them especially sensitive to tempting food aromas 10. Studies also show that getting more sleep can help reduce food cravings and manage weight better 11.
Hormonal fluctuations during pregnancy and menstruation
Pregnancy creates some of the strongest food urges you'll ever experience because of dramatic hormone changes. Studies show that pregnant women eat up to 50% more than usual 12. This bigger appetite comes from changing pregnancy hormones - progesterone increases hunger while oestrogen usually decreases it 12.
The menstrual cycle creates its own craving patterns. Food urges get stronger 7-10 days before your period starts when oestrogen drops and progesterone rises 6. Many women crave carbs and sweets during this time. These cravings serve a purpose - eating carbs helps produce serotonin, which might help with premenstrual mood swings.
How your gut microbiome influences what you crave
Trillions of tiny organisms in your digestive system affect what foods you will choose. Your gut microbiome is your "second brain" and it talks directly to your central nervous system through the vagus nerve 14.
These microbes affect your cravings in several ways:
They change taste receptors and make you less sensitive to sweet and fatty flavours, which might make you want stronger versions of these tastes 15
They make proteins that act like hunger and fullness hormones, which can mess with normal appetite control 15
They create specific substances that tell your brain to look for nutrients the bacteria need 16
Studies in mice show this clearly. Scientists took gut microbes from animals with different diets and put them into mice without gut bacteria. The mice that got the new microbes started choosing foods that matched what the donor animals liked to eat 17.
A diverse gut microbiome is vital to control appetite properly.
Research shows that more microbial variety relates to better hunger control, while less variety often leads to stronger cravings 15.
Psychological Factors Behind Cravings
Your mind has a powerful influence on food cravings that goes beyond physical hunger. Mental factors can turn a simple appetite into strong cravings for specific foods that you can't seem to resist.
The conditioning effect: why context matters
Our brains learn to connect certain foods with specific situations, environments, or emotions through classical conditioning. Studies show this process accounts for up to 11% of changes in eating patterns and weight gain 18.
You build stronger neural pathways each time you eat chocolate during your favourite TV show or grab chips in stressful meetings. These triggers can make you crave specific foods even when you're not hungry.
Just being in similar situations is enough to spark these urges.
Research shows that tasty, high-calorie foods like chocolate are the most common craving triggers 19. The more you enjoy something, the stronger these connections become. Scientists call this "food cue reactivity."
Stress and emotional eating connections
Food becomes both comfort and escape during tough times. Of course, this explains why we get the strongest cravings when we feel emotionally vulnerable 1.
Common emotional eating triggers include:
Problems in relationships
Pressure at work
Money problems
Health issues
Feeling bored or alone
Research shows that cortisol - a stress hormone - makes us hungry for high-calorie comfort foods 2. This creates a tough cycle: emotions drive overeating, which leads to guilt about breaking diet goals. These negative feelings then trigger more emotional eating 1.
How restriction creates stronger food urges
Most people think dieting reduces cravings, but it actually makes them stronger. Studies show people who restrict their eating have more intense and frequent cravings than those who don't 3.
This creates an interesting effect. Short-term food restrictions increase cravings for forbidden foods. However, long-term calorie reduction can eventually decrease food cravings in overweight adults 20.
The feeling of deprivation affects cravings more than nutrient deficiencies 21.
Labelling foods as "off-limits" makes them more tempting psychologically. Researchers call these "ironic effects" of trying not to think about certain foods 20. Learning about these mechanisms helps us understand what drives cravings beyond physical hunger.
.
Cultural and Social Influences on Cravings
Food cravings show remarkable differences between societies and cultural backgrounds. These differences show how social factors shape our desires and the reasons behind them. Food urges mean more than just what our bodies need - they reflect who we are culturally and what matters to us.
Why chocolate cravings differ across cultures
Chocolate cravings that people experience vary greatly between different societies.
Research shows that up to 91% of women in North America report chocolate cravings, while only 6% of Egyptian women feel the same way.
Japanese and Spanish people also crave chocolate less than Americans. Culture plays a bigger role in these differences than biology. Many cultures don't attach the same emotional meaning to chocolate that Western societies do. Western cultures often link chocolate with comfort, rewards, and celebrations. East Asian cultures tend to crave rice-based or fruit-based sweets instead.
How advertising shapes our food desires
Marketing creates powerful food cravings through constant exposure and emotional connections.
Studies show that children who watch food ads eat 45% more food afterward than kids who watch other commercials.
Food ads change how your brain thinks about food by:
Making products seem scarce ("limited time offers")
Building emotional bonds with products
Making bigger portions seem normal
Linking foods to specific feelings or lifestyles
These marketing strategies create lasting effects that make advertised foods more appealing, even when you're not hungry. Sometimes they create new cultural food traditions - just look at how chocolate became a Valentine's Day essential.
The language of cravings: how we talk about food urges
People in cultures without specific words for "craving" report fewer intense food desires. Cultures with rich vocabularies to discuss food pleasures often experience more cravings.
The words we use to talk about food urges shape how we experience them.
French people focus on eating for pleasure rather than holding back. This creates a different relationship with indulgent foods. Meanwhile, cultures that label foods as "forbidden" or "sinful" often struggle more with craving patterns. These social and cultural aspects help explain what causes cravings beyond just biological reasons.
Conclusion
Food cravings go far beyond basic hunger or nutritional needs. Your brain, hormones, emotions, and cultural background are vital parts that shape these powerful urges. These cravings don't usually point to nutritional gaps - they come from your sleep patterns, stress levels, and deep psychological connections.
Do persistent food cravings bother you? Let's discuss this on a free 30-minute call to create a personalised strategy that will work for you.
The complex nature of cravings explains why willpower alone isn't enough to manage them. Your sleep quality, hormone balance, and emotional state directly impact your relationship with food.
References
[7] - https://www.heart.org/en/news/2024/07/26/where-do-food-cravings-come-from-and-can-we-stop-them
コメント