For example that even after eating a big, healthy meal, stomach full of it, you still feel like you want to eat something else which is generally considered unhealthy. When we have the feeling that we need to eat something salty does that actually mean our body is asking for more salt because it lacks?
I think you’re confusing “hunger” for “cravings”.
I’m sure someone more knowledgeable than me can break it down better but to my understanding cravings are more of a mental/hormonal thing vs actually being HUNGRY, which is something I don’t ever really feel unless I’ve been doing strenuous activities for hours on end.
Being able to discern between the two was a big unlock for me about eating healthier.
Yes you should listen to your body. When your body is telling you something, pause and listen.
Sometimes we eat when we’re not actually hungry. This is typically driven by 1) social — ie: parties, celebrations and 2) emotional - boredom, anger, stress, sadness.
How to tell if it’s physical vs. emotional hunger?
Ask your body not what do I need to eat but rather, what do I need?
Pause and reflect on this for a few minutes before taking action.
With true hunger, any satiating type of food will typically come to mind first.
It’s possible that what you need is not food but rather something else, for example:
It’s not uncommon to confuse lack of energy, sleepiness, and thirst with hunger.
Emotional hunger is also your body’s way of telling you to find something soothing.
If you tend to wait until you’re hangry to eat, your body may be telling you the satisfying meal is not enough and you’re emotions are still high after eating the meal. You may feel like you’re still hungry but it’s actually you’re still angry. As such, the proper thing to do would be to not wait until a point of hangry to eat. Keep healthy snacks in your work bag/work station and available at home.
We’re also living in times where there’s hyper palatable food around us 24/7. So it’s not a surprise people turn to food to deal with emotional cravings. A diet full of poor nutrient foods could also lead to hunger.
The key is to take a moment to discern what it is you really need. Stepping outside of the emotion of you will, and mindfully examining what’s behind it.
There is also hormonal causes - imbalance in ghrelin and leptin (hunger, fullness) that drive a pattern of more food cravings than usual. Someone suspecting this should consult with their doctor.
Hunger/cravings/boredom/emotion
All of these things can influence your desire to consume foods, the trick is learning to decipher.
I used to believe that, as someone with what I jokingly call my “salt tooth” (not a big sweet eater personally), my incessant craving for salty foods was because my body needed it, as some sort of imbalance or something. I’d indulge myself constantly, because, salt is just salt, right? No calories in salt. LoloOLOloLoLoL
Anyway, when I got pregnant I quickly learned that I did NOT benefit from the salty foods I was eating, in fact, my body would hold onto even MORE water (edema) to try and balance out the salt I’d consumed. It was so uncomfortable.
And what’s more; it’s not a reasonable justification to say “salt is just salt”, as I had for so many years, because I certainly wasn’t eating straight NaCl and going about my day. No! I was air frying packaged tater tots. I was microwaving breakfast sausages and grilling hot dogs. And all this led me to learn that I wasn’t hungry for these things. They were a comfort to me, a craving I’d misinterpret for actual hunger cues. Salt and sugar are zingers to your taste buds, and your palate (and brain) gets used to them as a quick fix- especially sugar for the glycogen hit. The more you indulge, the more “used to it” your palate becomes, and you add more, and more, and MORE!
This is where your “hunger” for a second meal comes in. The body doesn’t pragmatically plan its hunger cues. In fact, given the chance, I think the human body is geared more toward overindulgence and extra fat storage than anything else. It’s like a cave man mentality- gotta store it up for winter! Or the next famine! Or whatever, you get it. But the problem is, in our modern world, many of us aren’t gearing up for the next famine, though we look well prepared for it.
Best practice is to eat well-balanced meals that are adequate for your activity level. If you’re still feeling “hunger” after finishing, drink a glass of water and wait 10 minutes before your next move. You may find the urge to pass, maybe it was just a craving for something sweet because… sugar. In any case, after the 10 or so minutes are up, if you still feel legitimate hunger, then go for it. Those 10 minutes can tell you a lot about what your brain and body are saying.
> For example that even after eating a big, healthy meal, stomach full of it, you still feel like you want to eat something else which is generally considered unhealthy.
You want to eat something else or you want to eat something specific? Wanting food is hunger, wanting something specific is a craving.
Hunger is easy, eat satiating meals. High protein & fiber is the magic sauce here. You want meals that have lots of volume, digest slowly and fire the right neurotransmitters so you brain doesn’t feel hunger.
Cravings it depends what you are craving and why, sometimes this is your body telling you that you are not eating balanced meals and sometimes you just want something. If you are craving sugar try complex carbs, I also like peppermint lifesavers to deal with sugar cravings as I can suck on one for 5 minutes to deal with it and it’s only 3g of sugar; they are not healthy but 3g of sugar is also practically nothing particularly if you have just eaten a bunch of fiber. If you are craving fatty food add more olive oil to your meals.
If you know your body you can tell when you need protein, fat or carbs.
Edit: not sure why the downvotes. Hungry and super sluggish? Carbs. Hungry and crazy, can’t stop thinking of foods? Fat. Hungry for meat? Protein.
If you know your nutrition needs and what your foods have, then reference how you feel, it’s really easy to know.
Hmm. I just realized I’m describing intuitive eating, a super popular trend.
It sounds like you’re practicing what’s called “mindful eating” by paying attention to your body’s cues regarding food. That’s great, and so is being curious and asking questions!
I’ve experienced non-specific cravings for more food after a meal, and i wonder if it’s driven by my dopamine receptors wanting more stimulation. The next time it happens, i plan to do a dopamine-releasing activity to see if that staves off the desire to mindlessly eat.
I want to look further into specific cravings because i believe there could be a link to nutritional deficiencies in addition to the reasons other commenters gave. We’re far from total understanding of how the human body works, so imo anything is possible.
Thousands of types. But it really depends on how sophisticated your diet to train your hunger is.
Eg. I read there are over 50,000 types of plants that you can eat. So conceivably, you could have 50,000 types of hunger, if you ate them all and remembered the taste.
There are many triggers to eat physical, mental, obligatory, etc. When your stomach starts grumbling they a pretty good sign of hunger. When you see a picture of your favorite food it’s a different hunger.
The great thing is to be aware of this and spend a minute to acknowledge how you feel and sort out how you want to address the trigger.
I’ve been confused by salt cravings too. There’s definitely PICA which is driven by low iron and it’s a craving to eat dirt / rocks. I wonder sometimes if a salt craving is related to that.
Often after spicy food, sweet is craved to help reduce the effect of the spice. Also the best time to eat a sweet is right after a meal because you will metabolize less sugar - I looked this up recently because I wondered. I thought maybe time of day like morning is better or something but turns out it’s time of meal.
And me personally, sometimes I crave vegetables. When I make my own food I incorporate a LOT of vegetables and a pretty wide variety but if I’ve been eating restaurant food more, I get way less vegetables and I start to feel actual cravings.
Refined sugar and carbs can get addicting. Sugar produces dopamine. I am not sure what the salt craving is all about - potentially electrolyte issue? If you drink too much water you can get an electrolyte imbalance
I think deficiencies can cause cravings, but the body isn’t very good at knowing what will actually help the deficiency. I do not have a source for that, just knowing that for example people with iron deficiency may want to eat dirt or ice, which won’t help.
But most people don’t have deficiencies and just like to eat. If you are actually hungry, you will know it, you won’t have to try to figure it out.
We have different types of hunger chemicals in our body, or at least different internal physiological triggers that release the hunger hormones (which primarily ghrelin).
When your stomach is empty, that results in one sensation of hunger. Researchers inflated balloons inside people’s stomachs, and this resulted for the most part in people feeling full.
But then there is another type of hunger which persists even when the stomach was artificially filled with balloons. This is when we are starving of nutrients. The researchers fasted one group of participants (no clue for how long), and there was a partial sense of feeling full reported, but hunger persisted even though their stomachs felt full.
The researchers concluded:
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned here is how hunger is not particularly accurate and is often trying to predict when you’ll eat food rather than tell you when you need to food. You can look up the experiences of people who do long term fasting to learn that hunger actually becomes less of a problem over time. I don’t know the science behind it, but it seems like having an eating routine trains your body to experience hunger at the times you usually eat.
I would suggest just eating or drinking a ts of salt and lots of water if you have a craving after meals, that might help. I know that if I don’t feel fulfilled I maybe should’ve eaten more protein because you don’t have a physical feeling of hunger for protein but you can feel unsatisfied because of it.
Absolutely. Thirst has an association with a “hungry” feeling. First thing I do as a coach is remind people when they feel a crazing to drink water first. Often times it goes away or one is better able to control overeating or heavy snacking
Cravings yes - they tell you what your body needs. Only issue is they don’t tell us exactly.
So if it’s salt - could be dehydration: increase electrolytes in your diet. (Sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium)
Sugar - glucose - more fruit and fiber. Sugar should be consumed with fiber so it doesn’t spike insulin.