Photo: Tim Samuel

What should I eat if I crave potato chips?

Curb Your Craving With This Reach for kale chips, air-popped popcorn, and crunchy produce like apples, celery, and carrots. Dip veggie sticks into hummus if you feel the urge for chips and dip coming on!

everydayhealth.com - The Real Reasons You're Craving These 7 Foods | Everyday Health

What are the top 3 healthiest foods?

Top 10 Foods for Health Water. Drink 8 to 12 cups of water daily. Dark Green Vegetables. Eat dark green vegetables at least three to four times a...

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Getting to the Root of What’s Fueling Your Food Cravings

There’s a lot of talk about food cravings stemming from nutritional deficiencies, but research has not proved this to be true. If you've ever been tempted to blame your chocolate urges on a magnesium deficiency, Kimberly Snyder, a clinical nutritionist and the author of The Beauty Detox Power, would beg to disagree. She claims your desire for chocolate is more likely coming from an emotional place than a biological one. “I do believe it’s important to listen to your body and feel what foods you are naturally drawn to,” says Snyder. “Overall though, many common cravings are tied to emotional root causes. We often crave foods with specific textures — crunchy, soft, creamy, or smooth — and these textures correspond to particular emotions.” “There are two types of hunger,” explains Amy Gorin, RDN, of Amy Gorin Nutrition, in the New York City area. “Homeostatic hunger, or the physical need to eat, and hedonic hunger, the desire to eat foods for pleasure.” For instance, she notes, “you might be craving salt when your body actually needs it, such as after a hard workout during which you lost salt through sweating. Or you might be craving the salty food as more of a comfort food, since foods that tend to be salty are also ones that are higher in fat, like potato chips, which is what we crave sometimes during hedonic hunger.” It’s not hard to grasp the psychological component of food cravings and how we may have been conditioned, from childhood, to want certain foods right now. Take sweets, for instance. “Most of us grew up with sweets being presented as a reward,” says Snyder. “The very anticipation of a reward triggers the neurotransmitter dopamine in our brain and studies show that regular bingeing on sugar stimulates dopamine — the ‘feel-good’ chemical, which is very addictive.” Or maybe you don’t have an out-of-control sweet tooth but you still find yourself wanting to reach for the carton of cookie dough ice cream. Snyder sees clients craving fatty foods like ice cream and cream-laden dishes during extremely busy times, when they are being pulled in different directions. “During these times, fat can feel stabilizing. It’s heavy in your stomach and takes a while to digest, which can feel like it is grounding for you,” she says. Different cravings also appear to have different consequences. A study published in December 2015 in the journal Eating Behaviors looked at the relationship between food cravings and addictive eating. Researchers found that cravings for sweets and other foods high in carbohydrates may be more closely linked with bingeing and other addictive eating behaviors, while cravings for fats seem to be more closely associated with increased body mass index. Cravings announce themselves clearly, but what’s behind them is complex, and various factors come into play. While cravings aren’t always tied to emotional eating, before you reach for that piece of cake or bowl of pasta, check to see if your emotions may be to blame — and learn the smart ways to combat the cravings.

Additional reporting by Deborah Shapiro.

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What happens when you quit sugar?

It's during this early "sugar withdrawal" stage that both mental and physical symptoms have been reported – including depression, anxiety, brain fog and cravings, alongside headaches, fatigue and dizziness.

bbc.com - What happens to your brain when you give up sugar - BBC Future

It might surprise you to learn that sugar consumption (in the UK and other developed countries at least) has actually been steadily decreasing over the past decade. This could be happening for any number of reasons, such as a shift in tastes and lifestyles, with the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets, like keto, increasing in the past decade. A greater understanding of the dangers of eating excess sugar on our health may also be driving this drop. Reducing sugar intake has clear health benefits, including reduced calorie intake, which can help with weight loss, and improved dental health. But people sometimes report experiencing negative side effects when they try to eat less sugar. Headaches, fatigue or mood changes, which are usually temporary, are among the symptoms. The reason for these side effects is currently poorly understood. But it's likely these symptoms relate to how the brain reacts when exposed to sugary foods – and the biology of "reward". Carbohydrates come in several forms – including as sugars, which can naturally occur in many foods, such as fructose in fruits and lactose in milk. Table sugar – known as sucrose – is found in sugar cane, sugar beet and maple syrup while glucose and fructose are the main constituents of honey. As mass production of food has become the norm, sucrose and other sugars are now added to foods to make them more palatable. Beyond the improved taste and "mouthfeel" of foods with high sugar content, sugar has profound biological effects in the brain. These effects are so significant it's even led to a debate as to whether you can be "addicted" to sugar – though this is still being studied.

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What can I drink when I'm on a keto diet?

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How do you avoid saggy skin when losing weight on keto?

How to Tighten and Avoid Loose Skin Naturally Give Your Body Time to Adjust. ... Follow a Keto Diet Meal Plan That Focuses on Whole Foods. ......

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