Day 41: 

Juice: Pale Faced

Pale Faced:
2 Grapefruits
1 Apple
1/2 Fennel Blub
1 Small Bunch of Fresh Mint

This juice was incredibly interesting. Each element had a very strong and distinct flavor and blending it all together created a surprisingly nice flavor. Fennel is in season right now folks, so whenever you can incorporate it into you juices. It is jam-packed with phytonutrients. See Entry 30 for more about Fennel.

Lately I have been researching cravings - food cravings to be specific, not just normal hunger cravings.

Wait, what's the difference you ask?

Well, a hunger craving is a general craving for food. The generic tummy grumble and the body asking for sustenance to fuel itself. Food cravings are those pesky, very specific, almost insatiable cravings for a particular kind of food, regardless of whether you are hungry or not.

I was researching if food cravings could be linked to nutritional deficiencies and was surprised to find a huge amount of variance on the subject. A lot of research has gone into Carbohydrate and Sugar cravings and how they can be triggered by mineral deficiencies and blood sugar control. Mainly these studies were done while researching for diabetes. One study sites "Five minerals (and their co-factors) are critical for adequate blood sugar control: chromium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, and vanadium."(Source) The study talks about each of these minerals specifically and discusses how cravings (mainly sugar and chocolate) relate to each mineral. I found the study's summary very interesting:

"The average American diet is already deficient in these minerals but in frequent dieter even more so...Because it is likely that mineral deficiencies are widespread, particularly in the dieting population, it is important that some assessment of mineral status be made. Correcting mineral deficiencies can go a long way toward helping the frustrated dieter control her impulses to eat something sweet, something fatty, or something devoid of nutrition in an attempt to satisfy an inner compulsion" (Source)

Great information, right? But where to start?

Well, I found this amazing chart on Natropath website:  http://www.naturopathyworks.com
Check it out for more information on how to target specific cravings.

I also found a lot of studies supporting the idea that food cravings are purely psychological.  One study sites mental imagery as the key to food cravings. Mental Imagery is when people crave a specific food, they have vivid images of that food. The study suggests that while one is imagining a food one is distracted and has a hard time mentally processing. But the study itself does not limit this specifically to food: 

"Mental imagery (imagining food or anything else) takes up cognitive resources, or brain power. Studies have shown that when subjects are imagining something, they have a hard time completing various cognitive tasks." (Source)

The study goes on to explain that subjects, while craving food, were asked to vividly imagine "common sights (for example, they were asked to imagine the appearance of a rainbow) or smells (they were asked to imagine the smell of eucalyptus)" and this decreased there food cravings.

However, it does not explain if thinking to other "common sights" as well as the food craving improved productivity. (Source)This study seemed to merely outlines how food cravings can be disruptive mentally, but does not clearly explain the origins of food cravings.

Another psychological study suggest that "food cravings involve a complex mix of social, cultural and psychological factors, heavily influenced by environmental cues," due to the simple fact that "few people crave vitamin-rich green leafy vegetables and many other foods contain more phenylalanine than chocolate—including salami and cheddar cheese." (Source)

• phenylalanine - an essential amino acid (a building block for proteins in the body), meaning the body needs it for health but cannot make it. You have to get it from food. (Source)

I can see that. It makes sense that sometimes cravings can be linked to stress and emotional issues.  Perhaps I am biased, since I was raised in a holistic/natropathic environment, but my question is: Stress actually produces chemical reactions in your body. You produce body adrenaline, right? So, how is a craving not linked to a chemical reaction in your body?

Also, a study was done in 2011 of "98 female students at the University of Pennsylvania [it] found that those who reported the most cycle-related cravings also had a history of dieting, eating disorders and high body mass indexes" (Source) which works in tandem with what our earlier study which found that "mineral deficiencies are widespread, particularly in the dieting population".

But, the biggest outpoint in most of the psychological studies on food cravings is that most of the researchers agree that Pica - the persistent craving and compulsive eating of nonfood substances - such as pagophagia (the practice of consuming ice) and geophagia (literally, earth-eating), amylophagia (eating starch) are associated with iron deficiency.

"...some studies have shown that pica cravings in individuals with iron deficiency stop once iron supplements are given to correct the deficiency. low blood levels of iron commonly occur in pregnant women and those with poor nutrition, two populations at higher risk for pica." (Source)

I'm still not quite sure what to make of all this - I don't think most researches do either - but I willing to accept it is a little bit of both. A little bit physiological and a little bit psychological.

What do you think?

Other Sources:

•  A Cognitive Experimental Approach to Understanding and Reducing Food Cravings
• Eva Kemps, School of Psychology, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100 

•  Are food cravings the body's way of telling us that we are lacking certain nutrients?
• Peter Pressman of the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, Calif. and Roger Clemens of the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy 

• How to Fend Off a Food Craving
• By Melinda Beck, The Wall Street Journal