Don’t blame your biology, cravings ‘lie in the brain’

“There is no evidence that food cravings are linked to nutritional deficiencies. What is more likely is that the foods we crave are those we usually attempt to resist because they induce guilty feelings when we eat them.

“If we try to resist something, though, the urge for it doesn’t go away, it actually becomes amplified,” lead researcher Prof Peter Rogers of Bristol University was quoted by The Sunday Times as saying.

A recent study has also proved that cravings for food are emotionally or psychologically driven. Researchers showed that women who tried to suppress thoughts about the favourite fattening food ended up eating 50 per cent more of it than those who talked about their cravings.

However, according to Rodgers, food cravings for many women often peak when they are premenstrual — these are caused by hormonal changes. “Energy requirement does fluctuate throughout the menstrual cycle and women tend to need 100 or so calories more a day just before their period.

“However, this increase in energy needs is not related to a shift in food preference; so on those days, women should want to eat any food, not just those that provide pleasure. Were cravings biologically based, people the world over would get the urge for similar foods in response to nutritional needs. Yet studies have shown that there are huge cross-cultural differences in the kind of foods we crave.”