How seriously do you take food cravings?

[Straggletag]

I never have food cravings, not once in two pregnancies did I get an itch after any particular food. But just lately I was reviewing a farmer's price list and now I'm fantasizing about marrow bones, heart, and liver (or kidney, yum!). This may or may not be a true craving, but it did get me thinking. A lot of people go by the theory that cravings are your body's way of telling you that you're missing something. What do my feller TFers think?

[Kelilah]

I think you need iron!

Organ meats are rich in iron and other nutrients that the muscle meat doesn't have. I still can't bring myself to eat them though. Something about the flavor is off-putting to me.

I tend to listen to my cravings because there's generally a reason for them. For example, I don't like the taste of salt and will go months without eating it. But the body needs some salt to function, so every once in a blue moon I suddenly crave potato chips and homemade fries and salty caramels. Then once I have enough I don't like it anymore. When I was pregnant, I craved meat (unusual for me) and winter squash, couldn't get ENOUGH meat and winter squash, and it turned out that they contained the extra protein and folic acid that I needed most.

So yeah. As long as your cravings aren't telling you to eat poisons, listen to them. The body knows what it needs and where to get it.

[Koalamom]

I have distinguished my food craving as 2 different types. I have the "I am feeling really good and healthy and need a food" And there is the bad craving of "I have just got to have that food right now", I may not be feeling to great when I have that craving. Does this make sense?

I always listen to my 2 yr old dd's cravings. When I make her eat a food (healthy), she gets an allergic reaction. Like I insisted she eat pineapple, and she fought me on it. She ended up being allergic. Same with summer squash.

[motherbirth]

When it's a craving for healthy food (organ meats, spinach, etc), I always listen to it. I was a vegetarian and anemic for my first pregnancy, suddenly I started craving chicken and fish when I hadn't eaten (or wanted) it in years. You'd better believe that I started eating meat again.

[Straggletag]

Originally Posted by Kelilah

I think you need iron!

LOL, I think so, and potassium. I just realized I went through eight bananas in three days.

[gardenmommy]

I listen to my cravings, but don't take them as gospel. I mean, sometimes I just really want some chocolate/sweets. I don't think there is anything I NEED in a piece of cheesecake, or a brownie, or a chocolate chip cookie. However, when I crave salmon, lamb, kale, etc., I start thinking about what I might be missing in my diet, and how I can meet those needs. I think it is wise to listen to your body, but certainly, take into account what it is you are craving; there may indeed be something you need, or it may just be a passing fancy.

[ursusarctos]

Originally Posted by bluebirdmama1

I have distinguished my food craving as 2 different types. I have the "I am feeling really good and healthy and need a food" And there is the bad craving of "I have just got to have that food right now", I may not be feeling to great when I have that craving. Does this make sense?

I think that's a really good way of putting it.

I do pay attention to my cravings, but that doesn't always mean I follow them. In the spring, I had incessant cravings for artificial nacho cheese and corn chips, for months Knowing that I probably wasn't deficient in yellow dye or refined sodium, I actually brought it to MDC and someone suggested I might be needing trace minerals. I think that was true, because now that I've upped my trace mineral intake (more roots, real sea salt, etc.) in the past half a year I no longer crave nachoes and they taste kind of gross.

If I crave a whole food, though (including dark additive-free chocolate ) I will usually go out of my way to acquire that food and eat it. I figure that it will do me good regardless of whether I really "need" the food nutritionally, and often whole food cravings do end up corresponding to actual needs. Like now I've seriously wanted meat, preferably red, and stewed, with green or root veggies if possible, for the past couple months... and guess what, I turned out to be pregnant and that's some of the best possible food I could be eating.

I find that I need to be in a good place nutritionally to crave good foods. Like in the spring I was pretty run down really, and hadn't been eating properly for months. So voila, my system is all out of whack and I start to crave refined crap. But now that I've been eating really well for a couple seasons and am much better nourished, I don't even want refined foods, and they make me feel bad. My body has been "rebooted" in a way, I feel, and is better able to know what it really needs because it is balanced.

[zaljeera]

What are some legit online colleges that have nutrition courses? I want to know of some legit online colleges that have courses for nutrition? I would like to know if the school is accredited and once I finish if I will be able to use my schooling? And is there anyone who has gone through college for nutrition and now is working?
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[Rasa]

I've been wondering about cravings recently too. Since starting TF most seriously this last May, I've heard it mentioned a number of times that we can actually crave things we don't need. Kind of like we can be tricked into wanting what we shouldn't have (perhaps addiction is too strong a word or maybe not?) So we may really really like dairy, eat a LOT of dairy, when we're actually sensitive to it. Or have a mineral imbalance that makes us crave MORE of that mineral (saw something like this correlating to a craving to eat too many nuts). Or crave sweets when what we really need is protein. These things make a lot of sense to me sometimes--as for the sweets cravings (which I used to experience quite strongly before upping my protein and good fat), I think that's the easiest way for the brain to get a quick energy fix--of course it's going to signal for the easiest source of energy if it's nutritionally deprived, not necessarily what it needs, KWIM? Other times I just get totally confused...do I want something because I need it or because I DON't...AGH!!

I guess I would label those types of cravings as deceptive or 'bad' and unfortunately, I see a LOT of those cravings in my dd, 4.5 yrs old, especially when she's tired, bored, etc. I try to not 'control' her food but present healthy choices, talk about nutrition in what I hope is an age-appropriate manner, work with her to get her the things she likes and, yes, perhaps what she's craving. But I still see her being totally controlled by food (or should I say, food 'like' substances...refined sugar, refined wheat, etc.) and it gets so tiring trying to negotiate that. And then I end up being WAY more controlling than I'd prefer. Hopefully that's just the place we are right now and things will evolve for the better.

[mbravebird]

With the negative cravings, isn't it partly when the gut bacteria are out of balance, so the beasties that are more in charge send more messages to the brain -- like more sugar! more wheat! Yum we like that stuff because it makes us proliferate! Whereas when things are more in balance their messages aren't so overwhelming.

In general, I try to follow cravings. I trust them. Pregnancy is the most obvious craving state, because our nutritional status is so important then. I've found that my pregnancy cravings were always right-on. In my first pregnancy, I craved cucumbers like a mofo, but never got around to eating many. I then got high blood pressure. Come to find out that cucumbers are great at lowering PIH. My second pregnancy, I craved asparagus a lot during the first trimester, and recently found out that asparagus is high in folate.

Even now, I sometimes crave citrus when I'm having some adrenal insufficiency. And then I just recently remembered that vitamin C supports the adrenals.

Go get thee some organ meats!!