Kitchen Myths

Facts and fiction about food and cooking, by Peter Aitken

A craving for a specific food is your body’s way of telling you that it needs a nutrient that’s present in that food

2 Comments Posted by on December 30, 2011

Nice try, but you cannot use this myth to justify your chocolate or ice cream or potato chip attack! The human body just does not work this way. A craving is a psychological phenomenon, although it’s also been suggested that certain foods, such as chocolate, may trigger the release of “satisfaction” signals in the brain. Either way, however, it has nothing to do with nutrition.

Odds and Ends

2 responses to “A craving for a specific food is your body’s way of telling you that it needs a nutrient that’s present in that food”

  1. Burt Reynolds August 28, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    look at cultures (often asian islands) that let eggs develop partially to obtain more calcium… or iron deficent people who have a taste for blood…
    that being said, chocolate is not really much more than fat, sugar and a few neuro chemicals that do cause something of a learned craving.

    Reply
  2. Seraphalx June 16, 2013 at 9:43 pm

    People develop a tolerance and then a taste for, say, chili peppers, because they do provide something your body wants. Very different from wanting heaps of deep-fried oreos.

    Reply

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