Essential nutrients. The only true human hunger satisfies the requirements of the body to function. You’ve heard of essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamin C, vitamin D. The list goes on. Essential means that without it, we cannot have thriving health.
You could have all the other nutrients in the world, but eliminate vitamin C and you’ll get scurvy. Some of the symptoms are loose teeth, bleeding gums, fatigue and rough scaly skin. If you become deficient enough in vitamin D, you’ll get rickets. Some of those symptoms are bowed legs, muscle pain and bone fractures. When we don’t get enough of something our bodies suffer. And depending on how bad the deficiency is, the repercussions may be severe. But imagine if you have a mild deficiency, how it may affect you. It may be mild enough that your doctor won’t notice it in your blood work and you may end up putting all kinds of band-aids on to manage symptoms.
Low iron is a really common example, especially in menstruating women. If a woman or girl frequently has a heavy period, symptoms of fatigue and lethargy may creep up on her so slowly she would never guess that iron is the cause. Brain fog, muscle aches and insomnia may also ensue. When we are deficient in an essential nutrient, there is a hunger that is never satisfied and we may end up eating myriad things to try to resolve it. So when we eat junk food, we can eat the whole bag of something because our physiological need is not being met. And our urge to eat continues until the need is met.
Ever crave chocolate?
When your body is deficient in magnesium, which chocolate happens to contain, chocolate is a common craving. Physiologically, your body knows you are getting something that it needs. And why does this commonly happen before a woman’s period? If her hormones are unbalanced during the second half of her cycle she becomes estrogen dominant. Estrogen requires much more magnesium to break it down than the progesterone that should be dominant. Hence the PMS symptoms and the cravings!
So, if you want to reduce cravings that make you eat more than you should, make sure you’re satisfying your true hunger. And a lot of these urges to eat, and endless thoughts about food will disappear. One tip I will give:
Aim for 6-9 servings of vegetables per day
Most of us aren’t getting enough, and there are many nutrients found in vegetables that will help satisfy your urges. If you have health topics you’d like to know more about please let us know by messaging us on instagram (link – https://www.instagram.com/wellnessarchitecture/)