Is it hunger or craving?

Are you drawn to specific foods? Have to have them at certain times of the day? Does your craving come as an emotional response to stress? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you could be addicted to certain foods, most likely unhealthy ones.

While appetite is essential and normal, cravings and addictions are destructive. Knowing what the difference between hunger and craving is can help you become more aware of your habits, be more satisfied with your meals, and reduce calories without the need to continue eating. If your desires are compulsive, extreme and beyond your control, you are experiencing addictive behaviour. If they are moderate and manageable, they are indications of normal appetite.

Appetite and cravings are simply manifestations of types of hunger: one physical the other emotional. Hunger is the body’s way of letting you know it needs food energy. Any food will take away your hunger and the hunger signals. Cravings are more urgent and specific. Distract yourself with something productive and it will pass.

Physical Hunger	Emotional Hunger
Tends to come on gradually and can be postponed	Feel sudden and urgent urge
Can be satisfied with any number of foods	Causes very specific cravings
Once full, you’re likely to stop eating	You tend to eat more than you normally would
Doesn’t cause feelings of guilt	Can cause feelings of guilt afterwards

It is said that food addiction is more difficult to alter than drug addiction because food is required for survival and cannot be avoided. The behaviour of food addicts is quite often deep-rooted. Compulsive eaters are usually not feeding their bodies, they are feeding their emotional emptiness, or attempting to escape or mask pain or trauma. The addict usually realizes that food is only a temporary substitute to bring momentary pleasure. We know that food, or any addiction, is a poor substitute for any emotional and spiritual craving. Ironically, the addiction itself may prevent sensory enjoyment of the food being consumed because the addict feels tremendous guilt or is already anticipating the next item to be eaten.

Food addicts may find it beneficial to focus on the sensory experience of eating, to concentrate on each taste, smell and texture, without guilt, rather than constantly anticipating the next mouthful. Addictions are often rooted in a failed and misdirected attempt to attain an inner completeness and contentment from an external source. Altering addictive behaviour is difficult because the essence of most addictions is often deeply anchored into our psyche. It is necessary to investigate the origin or cause of the addiction in order to stop destructive behaviours.

There are three ways to approach cravings and addictions: suppress them without changing their cause; give in to them; or change their cause and quality. Clearly the latter approach is the most constructive. To eliminate the craving, first identify and eliminate the cause.

To eliminate the cravings for chocolate or sugar, stop eating those foods that trigger the craving. These cravings are usually the result of too much meat, chicken, cheese, salt, baked or roasted foods, and eggs. These extremes may cause cravings for alcohol. Eliminating extremes reduces cravings for strong opposites, salt and sugar for example.

Here are some tips to reduce cravings for carbohydrate:

• Eat more regularly throughout the day
• Identify times/patterns of cravings. Eat a healthful snack before the craving occurs
• Mid-afternoon is the most common time to experience carbohydrate craving because blood sugar levels are low and tryptophan is at its lowest point of the day
• Add a healthy source of protein to each meal
• Use sugar substitutes such as stevia
• Supplement acidophilus to control bowel bacteria

Most often, hypoglycemia is the cause of cravings for alcohol or sugar. Identifying hypoglycemia and understanding how it works enables the person to gain control over their eating habits. Whatever the cause, awareness of how the body and mind works is the first step to controlling destructive eating patterns.