A food craving (also called selective hunger) is an intense desire to consume a specific food, and is different from normal hunger.[1] It may or may not be related to specific hunger, the drive to consume particular nutrients that is well-studied in animals. In studies of food cravings, chocolate and chocolate confectioneries almost always top the list of foods people say they crave;[2] this craving is referred to as chocoholism. The craving of non-food items as food is called pica.[3]
A food craving is a strong desire to eat a particular type of food.[4] This desire can seem uncontrollable, and the person’s hunger may not be satisfied until they get that particular food. Food cravings are common. One research found that 97% of women and 68% of men reported experiencing food cravings.[5]
There is no single explanation for food cravings, and explanations range from low serotonin levels affecting the brain centers for appetite to production of endorphins as a result of consuming fats and carbohydrates.[1] Ghrelin, the “hunger hormone,” increases when people skip meals and is often experienced by people who suffer from chronic conditions, both of which impact the appetite signals in the hypothalamus.[6]
People often crave energy-dense foods: chocolate is the most frequently craved food, followed by other sweet and savoury foods which are high in calories. Pineapple is the second most popular food that people have a craving for. [5][7][8][9][10][11]
Foods with high levels of sugar glucose, such as chocolate, are more frequently craved than foods with lower sugar glucose, such as broccoli, because when glucose interacts with the opioid receptor system in the brain an addictive[12] triggering effect occurs. The consumer of the glucose feels the urge to consume more glucose, much like an alcoholic, because the brain has become conditioned to release "happy hormones" every time glucose is present.[13][failed verification] Foods that are easily digestible, deep in richness, and have distinct sweetness and saltiness are referred to as 'hyperpalatable'. These hyperpalatable foods affect the neurons in the nucleus accumbens, the human reward system, causing them to become very active, increasing the levels of pleasure. Hormones like dopamine, leptin, ghrelin, and cortisol are released, as well as insulin due to this stimulation.[14]
Cultural differences have been found, for example, with rice being the most frequently craved food in Japan.[15] Among low-calorie foods, cravings for fruits are common.[7][9][16] Food cravings tend to occur in the late afternoon and evening.[17] The desire to eat high-calorie foods increases throughout the day, while craving for fruits decreases.[16]
The aspect of a food craving is multi-dimensional. Physiologically, it is connected with several mechanisms that motivates food seeking and prepares the body for digestion such as increased salivary flow [18][19] along with activating reward-related brain areas such as the striatum.[20][21][22]Cognitive (i.e., thinking about the food) and emotional (e.g., desire to eat or changes in mood) components are also involved. A final behavioural aspect of seeking and consuming the food also occurs. Whilst experiencing a food craving often results in eating the craved food, the craving-consumption relationship also depends on differences within individuals and their current situation.[7][23]
The cravings for certain types of food are linked to their ingredients. Chocolate for example, contains the neurotransmitter phenylethylamine, which is important for the regulation of the body’s release of endorphins and is responsible for the state of mood and pleasure.[24]
In recent years, researchers have focused significantly on perimenstrual cravings for chocolate, resulting in a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying craving aetiology.[25]
Active ingredients in chocolate, known as methylxanthines (such as caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine), has been researched in relation to perimenstrual craving aetiology. It has been hypothesized that women crave chocolate since methylxanthines has been shown to have the ability to alleviate physical - and perhaps psychological - symptoms associated with menstruation, such as fatigue, irritability, bloating, or cramps.[26]
It seems intuitive to assume that the emergence of a food craving might indicate that the body is low in a specific nutrient, vitamin, or mineral. Understanding the reason behind a craving could lead to confidently supplying the body with that missing food. However, evidence for this is inconsistent and relatively poor. For example, when participants had to consume a nutritionally balanced, liquid diet, they reported more food cravings than during a baseline period,[27] and food craving could be induced by imagining their favourite food although participants were satisfied.[22] Further, females tend to respond with more negative affect to indulging their cravings than males.[5]
During pregnancy - a time during which the body needs more energy and certain nutrients than usual - it seems that the types of craved foods[28][29] do not differ from usually craved foods, and even if women crave unusual, potentially harmful, foods or other substances, it seems that this is rather driven by social factors than by physiological needs.[30] Similar interpretations have been derived from perimenstrual (chocolate) cravings which, for example, do not disappear after menopause, making hormonal mechanisms unlikely.[31]
There are basic associations between nutrient deficiency and food cravings, but they appear to account for a small fraction of food cravings at most. Instead, several psychological explanations for why and how food cravings emerge have been developed. Prominent models are based on (Pavlovian) conditioning.[32]
Pregnancy
Women will often experience cravings for seemingly random foods during pregnancy. The reason that these cravings occur is not definitively known.
It has been theorized that these cravings might be in order to replace nutrients lost during morning sickness. However, there is substantial evidence that pregnancy cravings serve a social function, rather than a nutritional one. Because popular pregnancy cravings differ in their nutritional make-up from culture to culture, it can be inferred that there is no set of nutritional needs that these cravings are filling. Instead, it may be that strange cravings help pregnant women signal their pregnant status and recruit help from others. Some decent evidence for this is the fact that women often crave obscure foods and reject commonplace ones.[30] Providing pregnant relations with food may have been common among the human ancestor Homo erectus,[33] which provides a possible explanation for the evolution of this behaviour.
Some people even crave non-food items such as chalk, clay, laundry starch, or soap. This is a condition called Pica. Pica may indicate a mineral deficiency or severe anemia. Pica is a condition which is rarely come across in developed countries.[35]
One of the treatments for morning sickness consists of accommodating food cravings and aversions.[36]
Depending from the historical period and the culture there are different traditions regarding pregnancy cravings. Some examples are:
During pregnancy, Hmong women would follow their food cravings to guarantee that their child would not be born with a deformity.[37]
In Malta, a pregnant woman is encouraged to satisfy her cravings for specific foods, out of fear that her unborn child will bear a representational birthmark (Maltese: xewqa, literally "desire" or "craving").
In the Babylonian Talmud, folio 82a of Tractate Yoma mentions pregnancy cravings for non-kosher food (the passage discusses a pregnant woman who craves pork on Yom Kippur) as the paradigmatic example of a presumed life-threatening situation where a person is allowed to eat non-kosher food (and is permitted to eat it on Yom Kippur).
In the Philippines, the condition is traditionally known as lihi, and it is believed that traits of a food that a pregnant woman craves and consumes is imparted to the child. This also extends to objects or people that a woman would find pleasurable to see during her pregnancy.
In Thailand, a woman who starts craving sour foods after her period has stopped is deemed to be pregnant.[38]
Chocolate is seen as a sweet that is desired more by women than by men. Studies conducted in the UK, the US,[39] and Canada[5] have concluded that women indeed crave chocolate more than men. Also this chocolate craving seems to occur more perimenstrual.[39] However a biological explanation has not been scientifically proven.
It seems to have a cultural cause instead of a biological cause. Spanish women experience perimenstrual chocolate craving far less than American women (24% versus 60%) although they should not differ much physiologically. Spanish females crave chocolate more after dinner. The times males crave chocolate also differs between both cultures but was the same as the craving for chocolate of females in their culture (except perimenstrual).[40]
Chocolate is often consumed for presumed dietary deficiencies (e.g., magnesium) or to balance possibly low levels of neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of mood, food intake, and compulsive behaviours (e.g., serotonin and dopamine).[26]
Chocolate contains methylxanthines, biogenic amines, and cannabinoid-like fatty acids, all of which potentially cause abnormal behaviours and psychological sensations that parallel those of other addictive substances. The combination of chocolate's sensory characteristics, nutrient composition, and psychoactive ingredients, compounded with monthly hormonal fluctuations and mood swings among women, ultimately form the model of chocolate cravings.[26]
Ambivalence (e.g., “nice but naughty”) about foods such as chocolate arises from the attitude that it is highly palatable but should be eaten with restraint. Attempts to restrict intake, however, cause the desire for chocolate to become more salient, an experience that is then labelled as a craving. This, together with a need to provide a reason for why resisting eating chocolate is difficult and sometimes fails, can, in turn, lead the individual to an explanation in terms of addiction (e.g., “chocoholism”).[41]
For treating small chocolate cravings, the smell of jasmine has been known to work.[42] Behavioral techniques, particularly cognitive bias modification and imaginal retraining, have demonstrated some efficacy in decreasing food craving.[43]
Health and social consequences
Intense food cravings can disrupt healthy eating and lead to obesity and related health problems. Food cravings can also make it difficult to one to tend to other health needs, including sleep and exercise.
Aside from physical health matters, food cravings can disrupt social life, and lead to problems with employment and family. In extreme cases, extreme food cravings can lead to violence and legal problems, or contribute to accidents, especially motor vehicle accidents if a craving consumes ones mind.
Pica is the eating or craving of things that are not food. It is classified as an eating disorder but can also be the result of an existing mental disorder. The ingested or craved substance may be biological, natural or manmade. The term was drawn directly from the medieval Latin word for magpie, a bird subject to much folklore regarding its opportunistic feeding behaviors.
A chocoholic is a person who craves or compulsively consumes chocolate. The word "chocoholic" was first used in 1968, according to Merriam-Webster. It is a portmanteau of "chocolate" and "alcoholic". The term is used loosely or humorously to describe a person who is inordinately fond of chocolate; however, there is medical evidence to support the existence of actual addiction to chocolate. Psychoactive constituents of chocolate that trigger a ‘feel-good’ reaction for the consumer include tryptophan and phenylethylamine, which may contribute to cravings and addiction-like responses, particularly in people with specific genetic alleles. The quantity of sugars used in chocolate confections also impacts the psychoactive effects of chocolate.
Geophagia, also known as geophagy, is the intentional practice of eating earth or soil-like substances such as clay, chalk, or termite mounds. It is a behavioural adaptation that occurs in many non-human animals and has been documented in more than 100 primate species. Geophagy in non-human primates is primarily used for protection from parasites, to provide mineral supplements and to help metabolize toxic compounds from leaves. Geophagy also occurs in humans and is most commonly reported among children and pregnant women.
A food addiction or eating addiction is any behavioral addiction that is primarily characterized by the compulsive consumption of palatable food items which markedly activate the reward system in humans and other animals despite adverse consequences.
Pagophagia is the compulsive consumption of ice or iced drinks. It is a form of the disorder known as pica, which in Latin refers to a magpie that eats everything indiscriminately. Its medical definition refers to the persistent consumption of nonnutritive substances for over a period of at least one month. However, different studies have included alternative definitions including "daily consumption of 2-11 full glasses of ice (480-2640g)" or "the purposeful ingestion of at least one ordinary tray of ice daily for a period in excess of two months." Pagophagia has been shown to be associated with iron-deficiency anemia and responsive to iron supplementation, leading some investigators to postulate that some forms of pica may be the result of nutritional deficiency.
Palatability is the hedonic reward provided by foods or fluids that are agreeable to the "palate", which often varies relative to the homeostatic satisfaction of nutritional, water, or energy needs. The palatability of a food or fluid, unlike its flavor or taste, varies with the state of an individual: it is lower after consumption and higher when deprived. It has increasingly been appreciated that this can create a hunger that is independent of homeostatic needs.
Hunger is a sensation that motivates the consumption of food. The sensation of hunger typically manifests after only a few hours without eating and is generally considered to be unpleasant. Satiety occurs between 5 and 20 minutes after eating. There are several theories about how the feeling of hunger arises. The desire to eat food, or appetite, is another sensation experienced with regards to eating.
Research into food choice investigates how people select the food they eat. An interdisciplinary topic, food choice comprises psychological and sociological aspects, economic issues and sensory aspects.
A sweetened beverage is any beverage with added sugar. It has been described as "liquid candy". Consumption of sweetened beverages has been linked to weight gain, obesity, and associated health risks. According to the CDC, consumption of sweetened beverages is also associated with unhealthy behaviors like smoking, not getting enough sleep and exercise, and eating fast food often and not enough fruits regularly.
Emotional eating, also known as stress eating and emotional overeating, is defined as the "propensity to eat in response to positive and negative emotions". While the term commonly refers to eating as a means of coping with negative emotions, it sometimes include eating for positive emotions, such as overeating when celebrating an event or to enhance an already good mood.
Hedonic hunger or hedonic hyperphagia is "the drive to eat to obtain pleasure in the absence of an energy deficit." Particular foods may have a high "hedonic rating" or individuals may have increased susceptibility to environmental food cues. Weight loss programs may aim to control or to compensate for hedonic hunger. Therapeutic interventions may influence hedonic eating behavior.
The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) is a 25-point questionnaire, based on DSM-IV codes for substance dependence criteria, to assess food addiction in individuals. The scale was released in 2009 by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
Expected satiety is the amount of relief from hunger that is expected from a particular food. It is closely associated with expected satiation which refers to the immediate fullness that a food is expected to generate.
The psychology of eating meat is a complex area of study illustrating the confluence of morality, emotions, cognition, and personality characteristics. Research into the psychological and cultural factors of meat-eating suggests correlations with masculinity, support for hierarchical values, and reduced openness to experience. Because meat eating is widely practiced but is sometimes associated with ambivalence, it has been used as a case study in moral psychology to illustrate theories of cognitive dissonance and moral disengagement. Research into the consumer psychology of meat is relevant both to meat industry marketing and to advocates of reduced meat consumption.
Soul food is a kind of African American cuisine that encompasses a variety of fried, roasted, and boiled food dishes consisting of chicken and pork meats, sweet potatoes, corn, leafy greens and other vegetables. Soul food has long been embedded in African American culture, but pushes towards healthy eating habits, for both physical and mental health, have adapted soul food cuisine to fit within health trends. This article will describe modifications of traditional soul food within health trends, including soul food with low carb, soul food with low sugar, soul food with low fat, soul food for vegan and soul food in gluten-free.
Caroline Christine Horwath is a New Zealand nutritional scientist and professor in the Department of Human Nutrition at the University of Otago.
Food psychology is the psychological study of how people choose the food they eat, along with food and eating behaviors. Food psychology is an applied psychology, using existing psychological methods and findings to understand food choice and eating behaviors. Factors studied by food psychology include food cravings, sensory experiences of food, perceptions of food security and food safety, price, available product information such as nutrition labeling and the purchasing environment. Food psychology also encompasses broader sociocultural factors such as cultural perspectives on food, public awareness of "what constitutes a sustainable diet", and food marketing including "food fraud" where ingredients are intentionally motivated for economic gain as opposed to nutritional value. These factors are considered to interact with each other along with an individual's history of food choices to form new food choices and eating behaviors.
Hyperpalatable food (HPF) combines high levels of fat, sugar, sodium, or carbohydrates to trigger the brain's reward system, encouraging excessive eating. The concept of hyperpalatability is foundational to ultra-processed foods, which are usually engineered to have enjoyable qualities of sweetness, saltiness, or richness. Hyperpalatable foods can stimulate the release of metabolic, stress, and appetite hormones that play a role in cravings and may interfere with the body's ability to regulate appetite and satiety.
Intuitive eating is an approach to eating that focuses on the body's response to cues of hunger and satisfaction. It aims to foster a positive relationship with food as opposed to pursuing "weight control". Additionally, intuitive eating aims to change users' views about dieting, health, and wellness, instilling a more holistic approach. It also helps to create a positive attitude and relationship towards food, physical activity, and the body.
The Food Cravings Questionnaires (FCQs) are among the most widely used self-report questionnaires for measuring food craving. They were developed by Antonio Cepeda-Benito and colleagues in 2000. For the 39-item trait version (FCQ-T), respondents indicate how frequently each statement is true for them in general on a six-point scale with 1 = never/not applicable, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = usually, and 6 = always. For the 15-item state version (FCQ-S), respondents indicate the extent to which they agree with each statement right now, at this very moment, on a five-point scale with 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree.
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