Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stump Mom never told
Speaker 1: you from house top works dot com. Hey there, and
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Molly. Molly.
Speaker 1: I made a mistake this morning my breakfast choices. I
Speaker 1: decided to give in to craving. I had for greasy
Speaker 1: biscuits and breakfast meat, and I bought some really low
Speaker 1: quality breakfast food at a nearby um eatery. And I
Speaker 1: do not feel fantastic through craving backfired on you, backfired
Speaker 1: big time. See. I had the opposite experience this morning.
Speaker 1: I craved some waffles. I had the waffles. They were delicious.
Speaker 1: Oh well, good for you, Molly. But I think the
Speaker 1: reason that we're both I don't know, maybe very obsessed
Speaker 1: with our food cravings this morning, is that that's our
Speaker 1: topic today. Yeah, I mean like he was on our mind.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about the kinds of foods I crave
Speaker 1: the most. Yeah, and so I was definitely. I've been
Speaker 1: thinking about icing a lot lately and thinking about food
Speaker 1: cravings because I I like icing. Yeah, I'm more of
Speaker 1: a savory person. Really, which which is actually sort of
Speaker 1: strange because, um, most women crave sweet foods, least women
Speaker 1: in North America, whereas most men crave the savory side
Speaker 1: of things. Maybe I've I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's as a female, you're much more likely to
Speaker 1: have any food craving at all. I mean, basically a
Speaker 1: hundred percent of women have had a food craving at
Speaker 1: some point, right, whereas a study from Monell Chemical Sensus
Speaker 1: Center at the University of Pennsylvania found that only of
Speaker 1: men experienced food cravings. Now, I feel that food cravings
Speaker 1: are something that you know, our moms do tell us about,
Speaker 1: contrary to most of our topics. You know. I feel
Speaker 1: like my mom always said, you know, they're gonna be
Speaker 1: certain times in the month when you're just gonna need
Speaker 1: more chocolate than other times. And so, you know, around
Speaker 1: certain times in the month, I might find myself at
Speaker 1: the grocery store with like six tups of ice cream.
Speaker 1: I feel like it just happens to women because of
Speaker 1: what Kristen bones everything. It's hormones, um well, the thing
Speaker 1: that I hear about the most, and I think it's
Speaker 1: not that uncommon to ask your mom what she craved
Speaker 1: when she was pregnant with you. I think that my
Speaker 1: mom craved halapenos, which is weird because I don't really
Speaker 1: have much of a spicy palette. Apparently my mom ate
Speaker 1: entire boxes of donuts in one sitting. I could do
Speaker 1: that now. And it makes sense that women have these
Speaker 1: really bizarre cravings when they're pregnant, because that's the time
Speaker 1: when female hormones are really kicked into overdrive. It's a
Speaker 1: roller coaster of hormones. It is a roller coaster. And
Speaker 1: while we usually hear about things like hallepenos, nachos, boxes
Speaker 1: of doughnuts being eaten, um, a lot of pregnant women
Speaker 1: actually go for more simple things. There's a condition called
Speaker 1: pica that a lot of pregnant women experience, and pica
Speaker 1: is a physiological eating disorder characterized by the desire to
Speaker 1: eat non food items such as ice and dirt and clay,
Speaker 1: and a study of pregnant women experiencing pika found that
Speaker 1: about half of them ate eight ice, which is called
Speaker 1: paga phasia, and the other fifteen percent said that they
Speaker 1: ate some form of dirt, clay, or corn starch, which
Speaker 1: is called geophasia. Right and I guess there's this theory
Speaker 1: that the reason women might be inclined to eat some
Speaker 1: of these things is because of iron deficiency, and they
Speaker 1: can get iron from soils. Basically, Um, other researchers think
Speaker 1: it might be more about textures. But you know, pregnant
Speaker 1: women have all sorts of weird cravings, their senses change.
Speaker 1: And basically, what I've heard is that people think it
Speaker 1: might be because the fetus is basically bagging them towards
Speaker 1: what the body needs. But morely, that actually contradicts what
Speaker 1: most scientists have now concluded about food cravings, That it's
Speaker 1: we don't crave foods that our bodies need. We don't
Speaker 1: crave food for nutrition. It's purely pleasure driven. So my
Speaker 1: body doesn't crave waffles because it needs waffles now, no,
Speaker 1: nor does your body need icing, Molly Um. Food cravings
Speaker 1: are driven by our hedonic or pleasurable aspects of eating.
Speaker 1: It's a completely different thing from actual hunger. When you're hungry,
Speaker 1: your body is telling you that you need to eat
Speaker 1: food for nutritional value and to you know, keep your
Speaker 1: body running. But when you experience food craving, it's purely
Speaker 1: driven by your mind. Right, So since women are more
Speaker 1: likely to experience these food cravings. Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: difference between hunger and food craving, so that way maybe
Speaker 1: we know when to you uh, tell our bodies to
Speaker 1: stop craving icing. Well, when you get hungry, what basically
Speaker 1: what happens in your body is that your blood sugar
Speaker 1: and insulin levels drop once you've digested all of your food,
Speaker 1: and then your body releases a hormone called greenland, which
Speaker 1: then signals the hypothalamus in the brain to release yet
Speaker 1: another hormone called neuropeptide why. And neuropeptide why simulates your
Speaker 1: appetite makes you want to eat um, and so you
Speaker 1: start eating. You know you're eating your food, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you start feeling full and you
Speaker 1: want to put your fork down. The reason why you
Speaker 1: feel full is because your fat cells, once they can
Speaker 1: tell that you've eaten enough food and satisfied your your
Speaker 1: body's needs, your fat cells release a hormone called leptin,
Speaker 1: and then leptin triggers yet one more hormone called probrio
Speaker 1: melano corton that suppresses the appetite. And when all these
Speaker 1: appetite suppressants and hormones are ran through the body of
Speaker 1: the brain is also monitoring things like our insulin level,
Speaker 1: our blood sugar level, so that's when um all our
Speaker 1: level sort of stabilized. That's how you know you're full.
Speaker 1: It can take a little while, but that's hunger. But
Speaker 1: from what I understand, Christen, there's no one hormone that's
Speaker 1: just gonna make you crave food, right. Food cravings is
Speaker 1: a pretty complex um mental process that is actually the
Speaker 1: same brain activity that happens um when you take drugs.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, so icing is sort of like crack, kind
Speaker 1: of like it, Molly. Um. It's all based on your
Speaker 1: dopamine reward system, and that's the um release of hormones
Speaker 1: in your brain that just give you those pure senses
Speaker 1: of pleasure. It's associated with things like sex, compulsive gambling,
Speaker 1: and like I said, you know, uh, drug activity, although
Speaker 1: all those things aren't necessarily healthy, just like food cravings. UM.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that is going on in your brain,
Speaker 1: as I understand, is that the hippocampus. Every time you're
Speaker 1: having these intense feelings of reward and wonderfulness, the hippo
Speaker 1: campus is helping you like take a mental memory of it. Right,
Speaker 1: So you remember how awesome cupcakes are. Right, So you're
Speaker 1: building all of these positive associations with you know, how
Speaker 1: how good that chocolate made you feel after a long
Speaker 1: day at work. And also, well that's going on, a
Speaker 1: part of your brain called the insula is monitoring um
Speaker 1: your emotions based on your physical state. So you are,
Speaker 1: you know, you're eating this chocolate, You're feeling good, and
Speaker 1: the insula is recognizing that as well. And then once
Speaker 1: all that is happening and uh and your brains recognizing
Speaker 1: you know that you're you're feeling pretty good, the caudate
Speaker 1: nucleus then triggers that dopamine reward system for the feelings
Speaker 1: of um uh satisfaction that we get from food cravings.
Speaker 1: That is then probably followed by immense guilt like I
Speaker 1: had about eating a lot of breakfast meat this morning.
Speaker 1: And I never have guilt about I sing. But the
Speaker 1: thing I do know, if I know one thing about
Speaker 1: drugs is that they're addictive, and so you need more
Speaker 1: and more things eventually to start getting your fixed right.
Speaker 1: And I mean basically, if you start craving chocolate and
Speaker 1: you just have a bite of it, that's never going
Speaker 1: to be enough. And that cycle can play a big
Speaker 1: role in UM creating patterns such as stress eating. You know,
Speaker 1: if you have a bad day at work, you immediately
Speaker 1: just want to go out and eat an entire box
Speaker 1: of doughnuts. Okay, that's because our emotional state UM normally
Speaker 1: has a greater impact on cravings than hunger. Gotcha, but
Speaker 1: I want cupcakes when I'm sad, when I'm happy, I
Speaker 1: want them all the time, Kristen, But why do I
Speaker 1: want them? Was I born with the love of cupcakes?
Speaker 1: You were? Well, you were born with a love of
Speaker 1: cupcakes in a way, Molly, because babies UM are born
Speaker 1: with a preference for sweet taste. UM scientists think that
Speaker 1: this innate food craving and desire that really spans all
Speaker 1: cultures UM. Everywhere across the globe. People experience food cravings,
Speaker 1: and I think that it is because we develop UM
Speaker 1: this desire for high calorie nutrition in the womb, because
Speaker 1: the what we eat in the womb is energy dents.
Speaker 1: And you can start to figure out different taste while
Speaker 1: you're in the womb, like about the second trimester, that's
Speaker 1: when you start saying, oh mom had garlic, or oh
Speaker 1: mom had donuts, like my mom did right. And there
Speaker 1: was a study that found that if a mother recently
Speaker 1: ate garlic, for instance, um while she was nursing, the
Speaker 1: baby actually drank the breast milk over longer periods of
Speaker 1: time as though they were trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: that new flavor was. So even when we're in really
Speaker 1: when we're very young, we're trying to detect new new
Speaker 1: flavors that we that we like. And then as if
Speaker 1: our moms didn't warp us enough in the womb and
Speaker 1: when they were nursing, the rest of our food cravings
Speaker 1: basically come from like happy memories of our childhood. So
Speaker 1: if you know, I must have had some great day
Speaker 1: once upon a time where I got cupcakes, and as
Speaker 1: a result, I associate them with comfort and good times.
Speaker 1: And that link between emotions, memory and food explains why
Speaker 1: you only crave foods that you've had before. I will
Speaker 1: never crave your mom's macaroni and cheese because I've never
Speaker 1: had it. Have you had craft macaroni and cheese, because
Speaker 1: then you have Uh So, if we if we want
Speaker 1: all these energy dense foods, but at the same time
Speaker 1: we're trying to watch our weight, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: our body is really, our brady and brain are working
Speaker 1: against us. Right, And this comes back to sort of
Speaker 1: why food cravings can be such a huge pomb for women.
Speaker 1: It's because if you've ever had a diet, then you
Speaker 1: probably have found yourself trying to stave off your cravings.
Speaker 1: You've got to figure out how to manage your cravings
Speaker 1: to have a good diet, right right. Psychologist and nutritionists
Speaker 1: advise um against going cold turkey with your cravings. If
Speaker 1: I've got you know, if you've got a chocolate fixed Molly,
Speaker 1: and you are trying to cut down the pounds, you
Speaker 1: can't just get rid of all the chocolate because at
Speaker 1: some point you're just gonna give in and you're gonna
Speaker 1: eat way more than you should have, and it's alway
Speaker 1: is going to be on your mind. Instead, you should
Speaker 1: just give in on occasion, and um, the key is
Speaker 1: limiting the frequency. There was a six month study on
Speaker 1: weight loss and the participants who were actually able to
Speaker 1: lose the most weight didn't resist all of their food cravings,
Speaker 1: but rather gave in every now and then, and they
Speaker 1: were the ones who are able to keep up with
Speaker 1: that weight loss um most successfully. Yeah, And another study
Speaker 1: I found really encouraging for my sweet tooth is that
Speaker 1: found basically, Spanish women eat more chocolate than American women,
Speaker 1: just like on a regular basis, and as a result,
Speaker 1: they have much many fewer cravings for it, basically because
Speaker 1: you know, it's part of their diet, right, it's not
Speaker 1: some special thing that you associate with, you know, good times.
Speaker 1: It's just oh, it's like eating rice for me. It's
Speaker 1: just just eating their brown rice. But I will say
Speaker 1: one thing that you know, if you're ever in a
Speaker 1: relationship and you're trying to sort of, um maybe have
Speaker 1: a little weight loss competition male to female, it is
Speaker 1: going to trip you up much more than it's gonna
Speaker 1: trip up males. Right. That's because men have um fewer
Speaker 1: food cravings. Right, Like we said at the beginning, UM,
Speaker 1: only seventy men really have any food cravings at all. Well,
Speaker 1: I have your food cravings. But in a pretty interesting
Speaker 1: study that was just published in Time magazine, not only
Speaker 1: do they have your food cravings, but if they do
Speaker 1: have a food craving, they can turn it off much
Speaker 1: easier than women can. Uh. In this study, men and
Speaker 1: women were both asked to fast, and they were both
Speaker 1: taught this um mechanism of cognitive suppression to deal with
Speaker 1: food cravings. And then while they're very hungry, they interviewed
Speaker 1: both the men the women on their favorite foods. And
Speaker 1: so let's say that they interviewed me and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I really like cupcakes. So after my fasting,
Speaker 1: they hooked me up to some brain scanners. They put
Speaker 1: a cupcake in front of me and they said, we
Speaker 1: baked this fresh. You've been so hungry, and they're like,
Speaker 1: we use the best cream cheese icing on this cupcake.
Speaker 1: It's red velvet, which happens to be a particular favorite
Speaker 1: of mine. And then they watched my brain and they
Speaker 1: did they let you eat it? They don't. They just
Speaker 1: watched your brain as an evil study. That's why studies
Speaker 1: are awful. Um. But so my brain is firing, like
Speaker 1: I'm trying to use the methods they taught me to
Speaker 1: suppress my food craving. And even though it might have
Speaker 1: tricked myself into saying, oh, I'm not hungry, I don't
Speaker 1: want that cupcake, my brain is telling a different story.
Speaker 1: Whereas we're men's brains O, men's brains just went dormant,
Speaker 1: which makes just say something about men but um no,
Speaker 1: they were able to use their methods to be like,
Speaker 1: I don't want that, even though it's my favorite thing. Ever,
Speaker 1: so it seems like for women, food cravings or just
Speaker 1: something that it's it's just a fact of life. We
Speaker 1: just gotta do with one of those things. So instead
Speaker 1: of trying to, you know, get rid of our food cravings,
Speaker 1: it's all about management. So maybe things like keeping cupcakes
Speaker 1: out of the house or avoiding you know, certain restaurants
Speaker 1: you know that uh serve gravy, that serve gravy, right,
Speaker 1: because things like site, smell, time of day, all of
Speaker 1: that can trigger these food cravings that we need to
Speaker 1: be aware of. So frankly, I found this podcast pretty
Speaker 1: encouraging because it means I can still eat cupcakes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and now all that talk about red velvet cupcakes, I
Speaker 1: kind of want one, craving one. Yeah, let's I think,
Speaker 1: let's get out of here and go eat cupcakes. So well,
Speaker 1: we're out grabbing a cupcake. Why don't you head on
Speaker 1: over and read the article on through cravings at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands
Speaker 1: of other topics. Because it has stuff works dot com
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