10 Tips: How to Overcome Food Cravings
What food did you crave today? Did you act on it?
Was it a healthy choice, or do you wish you had the skills to overcome your food cravings?
To fully understand how to overcome food cravings, first read about what they are and why we have them. In an ideal world, our food environment and advertising wouldn’t take advantage of our natural tendencies. Because that world does not exist, try these tips in the meantime.
10 Tips: How to Overcome Food Cravings
1 - Understand that food cravings are natural, we all have them, and they’re not a character flaw!
If you need to, go ahead and reread this article and know that cravings are so common. They’re ingrained in our biology. There is no reason to blame yourself, or feel like all your weight loss efforts have come crashing down. Forgive, accept, and move forward.
2 - Eat a variety of nutritious foods.
Keep nutritious snacks and meals on-hand and ready for when the cravings hit. It may not hit the spot like you want it to, but there’s a chance that it will distract you enough that you can overcome the food craving without giving in. Try a handful of nuts, your favorite granola, or some dried fruits.
3 - Try to reduce your exposure to food cues in the first place.
(NOTE: These are not your fault and it’s so difficult to go against the reality of our current food environment.)
If you find that certain activities you do are strongly linked with food cravings (such as sitting in front of a screen means “popcorn time” or walking past the convenience store means “soda pop time,” try going the extra step and doing something different whenever you can. That may mean less TV or screen time or taking a different route home to avoid passing the drive-through.
Identify if you crave a specific food because you’re doing something you associate with eating (e.g., relaxing in front of the television, preparing to watch a movie, commuting). You can try making a quick note on your smartphone or jotting it down in your journal when you experience them. Then, instead of these activities, try doing something else. Maybe head out for a walk, relax with your favorite hobby, or call a friend or family member. (11)
4 - Are you truly hungry?
Physical hunger has a feeling of emptiness in your stomach, fatigue, and/or lightheadedness. If you’re not sure whether you’re hungry or just have a craving, try to delay acting on it right away.
For example, drink a glass of water and wait 10 to15 minutes. If that craving hasn’t gone away, try a nutritious snack or meal. If that doesn’t work either and it’s an insatiable craving, try another distraction. (11)
If it doesn’t go away, you may very well be hungry.
5 - Identify the food cues.
When experiencing a food craving, try to identify where it came from. Was there a food cue (advertisement, smell, memory, or are you looking at something right now that makes you want to enjoy it)? Are you stressed or bored?
If you’re responding to a food cue, try to remove that cue. Stop paying attention to it by changing the channel, hiding the food, or otherwise distracting yourself from it, and work to overcome the food cravings. (11)
6 - Enjoy the craved food slowly and mindfully.
Start with a small amount of the craved food.
Mindfulness includes paying attention to whatever arises in the present moment with an open, curious non-judgmental attitude. It is a state of “enhanced receptive awareness and attention to present reality.” (7)
To overcome food cravings, try mindful eating. This means eating slower and paying more attention to your food. Do this by chewing well and savoring the smells, tastes, and textures.
Your body feels satiated when your stomach feels physically full and your digestive hormones send a signal to your brain that you’re no longer hungry. By eating slower, you’re allowing these signals to work before you get a chance to eat too much. (11)
Studies show that being mindful of thoughts and emotions can help overcome food cravings. One clinical study showed that participants ate fewer cookies when they did a mindfulness activity, as compared to those who did not do the activity.
Doing a brief mindfulness exercise can even change your level of hunger to reduce the influence of the attractiveness of less-nutritious foods. (7)
7 - Make nutritious foods more appealing.
A few studies show that it may be possible to change the foods we crave. In a process called “cognitive reappraisal,” some people have been able to reduce their cravings for less-nutritious foods and increase them for more nutritious foods by focusing on the long-term health consequences of frequently eating that food. (12,13,14)
In one recent study, 58 college students were asked to look at a picture of a food and think about whether it will increase their risk for heart disease or whether it will provide vitamins and minerals to keep them strong. This cognitive reappraisal exercise affected how frequently and how strongly those foods were craved. Just one week later, some participants reported that they overcame their food cravings and ate less of the less nutritious foods. (12)
While it can be difficult (but possible!) for you to change the foods you already prefer to eat, it may be easier to influence how children develop food preferences. If you have children, you can expose them to nutritious foods as often as possible. (10)
8 - Take care of your mental health.
Remember that your emotional state—including stress—is linked to food cravings. Your mental health is important, and can significantly help you overcome food cravings.
Try to reduce stress in ways that work for you: meditation, physical activity, socializing with people you care about, getting enough sleep. (4,9)
9 - After you indulged in your food craving.
Don’t beat yourself up! We both know that this is so easy to do— so don’t do it. Indulging does not make you a bad person. It makes you a human with a deep biological need for physical and emotional wellbeing who is surrounded by food cues and easy access.
If you need to, reread strategies 1-8 again. You can start over from whatever point you are at, and you really only fail if you stop trying.
10 - If you suspect you may be deficient in nutrients or have an underlying condition, be sure to see your licensed healthcare professional.
Remember, that even though right now there is more evidence of the conditioning hypothesis leading to food cravings, that’s not a 100 percent guarantee! Food cravings may be a sign of nutritional needs, so reach out to an excellent practitioner who can help you.
Working to overcome food cravings, especially when doing it when trying to live a healthier life, and be really hard, but you don’t need to do it alone.
If you would like someone to keep you accountable while working to overcome food cravings, I am here for you. Book a call with me today to see what is the best way I can support you in your journey.
What is the food craving you have the most? Are there any tips that have helped you overcome your food cravings? I would love to hear in the comments below!
SARAH FAILLA
References
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2 - Examine’s Nutrition Examination Research Digest. (2017, October). Can dieting actually suppress food craving? Issue 36. Retrieved from https://examine.com/nerd/article/can-dieting-actually-suppress-food-craving/
3 - van den Akker, K., Schyns, G., & Jansen, A. (2018). Learned Overeating: Applying Principles of Pavlovian Conditioning to Explain and Treat Overeating. Current addiction reports, 5(2), 223–231. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-018-0207-x
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4 - Harvard Health Publishing. (2019, June 24). Why people become overweight. Retrieved from
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-people-become-overweight
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9 - Harvard Health Publishing. (n.d.). How stress can make us overeat. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/how-stress-can-make-us-overeat
10 - Harvard Health Publishing. (2017, June 5). Controlling what — and how much — we eat. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/controlling-what--and-how-much--we-eat
11 - Harvard Health Publishing. (n.d.). 5 ways to outwit your appetite. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/5-ways-to-outwit-your-appetite
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