(upbeat music)
- Hey munchies, welcome to the channel
if you're new or if you're not I'm Alyssia.
And I'm so glad you're here either way.
Today we are talking about cravings,
or should I say munchies?
So this Is updated and I think improved.
I did a video about cravings a few years ago
and while I don't think there's anything wrong
with the video or the content necessarily.
My relationship with food has shifted so much since then
that I thought it was time to talk about cravings
through this evolved lens
through which I now approach health and life.
So in this video
we are gonna talk about what cravings are
and then there's gonna be a part two of this video
which will launch next week.
Where I'll share what we can actually do about them.
Now the truth is this was just gonna be a really
absurdly long video.
So I decided to break it up into two parts
and I appreciate you for understanding.
So a craving, what is it?
It's defined as a powerful desire for something
and that could be mental, emotional
or a physical desire or urge.
So let's talk for a second about physical cravings.
Are they real?
So we hear about them all the time
and how cravings might come from hormonal changes
like PMS or pregnancy.
And I think most women would argue.
Yeah, they're real.
Also cravings may come from genetic differences.
At times we've heard that we may crave what we don't eat.
So like nutritional deficiency
if we're lacking variety in our diet, for instance
we may have an increased need for certain vitamins
or minerals and then start craving a food.
Now at the same time, you may have heard
that we crave more of what we do eat.
So if you eat sugar, you're gonna crave more sugar,
or refined grains, or processed foods, or even vegetables.
You might've heard people say the more you eat healthy food
the more you crave it.
And I have actually felt all of those things before
in my personal experience.
So I did some research
and it seems there's a lot less scientific evidence
around physiological cravings than you might think.
Big surprise actually,
if you followed my Journey to Food Freedom.
You've probably heard me say more than once
that with science and especially that of nutrition
we just don't have as many answers as we think we do.
Or we think we should.
There have been studies looking at cravings
throughout the menstrual cycle,
showing that changes in hormone levels can impact
the types and amounts of foods we eat.
But overall, it's still an evolving area of study.
So there's not a ton of research on cravings
but that doesn't mean that they aren't real.
It just means that it hasn't really been done.
And so we don't know yet for sure.
Remember, science is all about not knowing it exists
literally because we don't know stuff.
So it's okay to not know.
It just feels uncomfortable to us because we wanna know.
But since there's not a ton of science out there saying
for sure cravings are physiological.
I think that's a huge part of why our society
tends to suggest cravings are mental,
or they're all about willpower.
Now let's talk for a second
about mental and emotional cravings.
Certainly a huge part of our life experience is happening
in our minds, which is our mental and emotional experience.
Food cravings often arise to satisfy emotional needs.
Have you ever turned to food to try to reduce stress
or anxiety, or maybe like we've talked about before
to fill an emotional hunger?
So this is true as well.
And my approach to health has evolved to really believe
that the mind and body are connected.
I was not raised this way.
I pretty much blindly trusted the numbers
and wanted to believe that the body could be controlled
and wasn't impacted by emotions.
I mean to be honest, I didn't even know what emotion was
but that's another video.
Now, I see that's not true.
And that's why I did the Food Freedom Series
earlier this year.
I'll link it below if you didn't get to
hear me talk about some of those important concepts
like inner and outer wisdom
or why dieting can cause dysregulation in the body
why counting calories, doesn't always work
and more stuff like that.
But acknowledging this mind-body connection
and essentially that emotions are real.
I learned what it meant to listen to your body.
I'd heard this phrase a bajillion times,
but I didn't know how to actually do it.
This is a skill that has to be learned and practiced.
And most of us don't learn it.
- [Narrator] Alyssia do you hear me.
- Learning how to listen
and how to acknowledge my emotional experience
and how it relates to my body
is how I healed my relationship with food
through mindfulness.
I experienced so much stress around trying to be healthy.
The stress was causing a lot of mental health problems
but it also made it impossible
for me to lose weight or to just feel at ease around food.
My life was ruled by food and health decisions.
So this evolution was life-changing for me.
And that's why I think it's so important
to talk about it today.
So when it comes to cravings
are they mental and emotional or physical?
And my common sensical take
that doesn't have the literature to prove it
but does have direct experience
is that it's both or it's all.
There's likely an overlap
where there are interrelated causes
and effects and feedback loops.
And this is why that triangle of health
was so meaningful to me that I discussed earlier this year.
So we do have some science that demonstrates
the mind-body connection and research
on stress is a huge part of that.
Stress hormones are physiologically being secreted
in the brain and body, but also causing mental
and emotional reactions and feedback loops.
And more research about hormones is validating this
mind-body connection every day.
So there are studies showing that
carbohydrates can boost the hormone serotonin
which you may have heard has a calming effect.
So this may be why carbs can be comforting
or maybe they aren't comforting for you
but not much more as comforting
for me than bread.
But interestingly, there's also research suggesting
that a combination of fat and sugar
may have a calming effect.
So a study showed that stressed out rats
preferred to eat a combination of sugar and fat
as comfort food.
And that had me thinking back to the topic
of this video cravings.
Particularly about foods we tend to crave.
So what foods do you crave most?
Let me know in the comments below.
I often crave some of the most common ones
that are potato chips
cookies, pizza, French fries, ice cream,
mac and cheese or pasta chocolate is a common one.
Although come on white chocolate all the way.
So I looked at the nutrient profile of these foods
and went, Hmm, these are not just carbohydrates or sugar.
They're carbohydrates and fat.
So in fact, most of these actually have as much fad
if not more fat than carbs overall.
So this may be related to our physiology.
Something else to consider is if we get a lot of cravings
when we're dieting, for instance.
They may be mental and emotional cravings
from the restriction.
If we tell ourselves you can't have pizza
and all we want is pizza, but who's to say
that it's not actually our body craving more fat and satiety
because it's just not getting enough of what's offered
in the diet, since diets tend to be lower in fat.
Unless of course you're on a high fat specific diet
like a (indistinct) diet.
So recap so far cravings are powerful desires
or urges that can exist in the body, the mind, or the heart.
But something else I wanna be sure to touch on
is that these urges come into our experience
as sensations in the body.
So emotions too are sensations in the body first
and then we make meaning of the sensations.
And the meaning or the mental story
is what gives the emotion a name.
So cravings are happening as sensations in the body
whether they're mental, emotional, or physical
and this is important.
And we're gonna build on this next week
when we talk about what to do about it
and I'll provide you a tool that you can work with too.
So stay tuned for more, feel free to share in the comments
what strategies you turn to to deal with cravings.
And the next week I'll share what I used to do
and also what I do now, because it's not the same.
Also as a heads up for anyone who finds the relationship
with food and food freedom content helpful.
I have compiled 16 videos into a course.
Some of it is from what I've shared
the last six months on YouTube.
And we've included worksheets, tools,
journal prompts, guided meditations, and more.
If you didn't get to go through the daily video course
when I launched it in January on YouTube
and you want all the goods associated and more,
you can now sign up at mindovermunch.com/foodfreedom.
If you found this video helpful
I must remind you to please subscribe and hit the bell
that is very appreciated.
I will see you next week
for the followup episode on cravings.
And remember it's all a matter of mind over munch.
(upbeat music)