Why You Crave Sweets
It’s late at night, and you have already eaten a delicious dinner. After an hour or so, you start wishing you had a little something sweet to cap the meal. A warm cookie with milk, some strawberry ice cream, or even a hunk of chocolate would make you feel satisfied. No matter how much you want that cookie, the problem is that you are on a diet and those extra calories are not going to help you lose 20 lbs.
Ever wondered why you desire junk food, even when you are full? If we didn’t get those naughty desires for junk food, everyone would eat a perfectly balanced diet of salad, quinoa, lean meats and vegetables all day and be in fantastic shape. But those cravings seem to have a mind of their own, and do not respect boundaries like diets and weight loss goals. Not to mention, according to the Mayo Clinic, high blood sugar can cause diabetes.
To determine how to combat those pesky cravings, we must first understand where they come from. Cravings are nothing more than brain waves that are sent out to your body to signal a need. Most of the time, our cravings are psychological, and when we crave something, it is because we are triggered to crave it from either visual, auditory, or sensory cues around us. Like a Dairy Queen commercial on tv, or the smell of cookies baking at the mall.
Some triggers are subliminal. For example, studies show that the colors red and yellow stimulate appetite, which is why many restaurants use those colors in their advertising and décor. Take for example the McDonald’s famous “golden arches” (which remind me of French fries) or Coca Cola’s trademarked red soda can. Cravings are also signs that our body is deficient in something and desperately needs more of it to feel better. To quote an article from WomentoWomen.com, “…cravings are signs of hormonal issues, which are often tied to inadequate nutrition.”
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