hi and welcome to healthy inspirations i'm your host wendy smith thank you for tuning in and joining us today the purpose of this show is to encourage and inspire you to take action in your life and your health today we are going to discuss my favorite topic which is food cravings i recently released my first book title junk foods and junk moods stop craving and start living the book focuses on the emotional connection we have towards food and how the foods we eat affect how we feel i notice that when working with people individually with food or health concerns cravings was a topic that most immediately came to the surface whether it was craving a sweet food a salty food caffeine or chocolate we all have experienced cravings at one time or another i was personally a junk food addict and it started at a very very young age i was always looking for the next sugary treat to give me the energy or the emotional feeling i was looking for today we're going to look at the top eight reasons why we crave food and what you can do about it so let's get started so first things first let's ask ourselves why do we eat why do we crave certain foods well we eat because food tastes good maybe we're feeling stressed out or sad or maybe we're celebrating a friend's birthday or engagement and maybe when it comes down to it we're just hungry and we eat for so many different reasons now the foods we eat can also be addictive which leads us to crave more the most common addictive foods include sugar caffeine food additives and preservatives so when we find ourselves craving something what can we do about it well the first thing you want to do once a craving hits is learn to deconstruct it in my book junk foods and junk moods i say to treat your body like a test lab to find out what you really crave and why many people view cravings as a weakness but really they are important messages meant to assist you in maintaining balance in your body so let's look at the top eight causes of cravings and give you some tips to overcome these cravings so the first one is the lack of primary food primary food it is the other forms of nourishment the food cannot possibly provide such as our career our relationships our spirituality physical exercise our home environment and all the other things that give us an urge nourishment except for food so being dissatisfied for a relationship for example or maybe having an inappropriate exercise routine whether too much or too little whether you're bored a hole or stressed or uninspired by a job or you're lacking a spiritual practice all these things may cause emotional eating because we'll eat to kind of curb why to curb our feelings and eating can be used as a substitute for the entertainment or to fill the void of this primary food so let's take a look at  this great tool which is called the circle of life and it's a great way to overcome and assess your current primary food your current primary food the chart has different phases or areas of your life and you can see how they need to be improved so you can kind of he's kind of write them on a scale from one to ten if you would like a copy for yourself please feel free to e mail info at food move girl dot com and i'd be happy to send you this little primary food assessment so you can do it for yourself so when looking at it like i said you want to write the areas of your life and see how they can be a part and proved for example maybe you're really stressed at work which is causing you to stress eat or crave sugary foods and then maybe you can ask your boss if you can scale down on projects or leave work a little early one day a week this chart will help us assess those areas of your life and then help you in turn re balance the primary foods that are out of balance so the next one is lack of water so lack of water can send a message to your body that you're really thirsty or on the verge of  dehydration but it but it comes in the form of hunger so it sends a signal that you're really hungry one in fact you're just hydrated so the first thing you want to do when a craving come comes to fruition is to drink a full glass of water this will help hydrate your body and eventually help reduce your cravings this one kind of an easy one the next one the third reason why we crave is imbalances certain for foods have more qualities which are expansive what other foods have more qualities which are contract of so eating foods that are extremely in or extremely causes cravings in order to maintain the balance for example if you eat a diet primarily  sugar which is very in you may start craving meat which is very expansive or eating too many raw foods may cause cravings for cooked foods and vice versa again this comes back to really treating your body like a test lab and diving into these deeper issues and what's going to work for you so the next one it's called inside coming out and oftentimes cravings come from foods we've recently eaten or food by our ancestors or even foods from our childhood has anyone ever craved grandma's apple pie or mom's chocolate chip cookies this is because these foods remind us of certain memories we had and we are really craving those memories not the chocolate chip cookie so a clever way to satisf these cravings is to eat a healthier version of your childhood baber it there are recipes available on food mood girl dot com as well as various health and healthy living blogs that you can find online so now we're going to take a quick break and when we come we'll uncover the last four reasons why we crave food and ways to overcome the craving cycle we find ourselves  rides were something with an order i don't think you should ever pay for any bill unless you have first made sure that all the charges are correct speaking of which have you heard of the latest medicare scam this happened to my client a things turns out the guy with a camera to medicare already has everyone's number they wouldn't need to ask for it damns like her every taxpayer draining billions from medicare and making it harder for people like us to get the health benefits more where they are and we believe everyone should have the opportunity to realize their full potential the arc stands up for those in advocating for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities so they can be  and we're back and now we're going to discuss the four reasons for the four other additional cravings and what we can do to overcome them so the next craving is a seasonal craving so often the body craves foods that are balance that are balanced with the elements of the season so for example in the springtime we tend to crave detoxifying foods like leafy green vegetables or citrus foods in the summertime we tend to crave cooling foods like fruit raw foods and ice cream and in the fall we tend to crave foods that are more grounding like squash onions and nuts and during the winter months many of us crave hot and heat producing foods like meat oil and fat cravings can also be associated with the holidays for example turkey eggnog sweet pumpkin pie all those goodies that we get our hands on during the holidays with the changing  weather and western p a you may find yourself craving more grounding and warmer meals this time of year such as pumpkin squash soup and grains when a seasonal craving approaches really honor that craving and eat foods that resonate with with each season eating seasonally is something that's very important and it's something that you should honor your body and listen to it and try to accommodate so the next one reason why we crave is actually the lack of nutrients so if your body has an adequate nutrients it will produce really really odd cravings for example folk cravings that usually mean your body has some sort of mineral deficiency because salt  it's natural and process form provides many minerals that your body actually means so when you're craving salt your body is really craving those minerals same goes for caffeine or sugar your motto your body may crave energy and look to those things as a quick fix but what it really needs is natural energy in the form of leafy green vegetables fruits and whole grains in adequate mineral levels produce the salt cravings and overall inadequate nutrition produces cravings for non nutritional forms of energy like the caffeine like i mentioned so for this type of craving really pay attention to your body and what it needs trying corporator more fruits vegetables and whole grains to see if the cravings naturally subside so the next type of craving that we've mainly found in women is hormonal cravings so women may experience menstruation pregnancy or men of pas cravings during these times because of the the fluctuating testosterone and estrogen levels in the bodies so you can naturally balance your hormones through food exercise and even supplementation however if your hormone cravings are really really severe i highly suggest consulting with your doctor to make sure your hormones are balanced and check and the last craving that we find ourselves is called the evolution and the evolution is when things are going extremely well and sometimes this self sabotage syndrome happens so we crave foods that throw us off and thus create more cravings to try to rebalance ourselves so this happens usually from low blood sugar and may result in really strong mood swings one of the ways to curve this craving is to make sure you are focusing on feeding yourself and not depriving yourself oftentimes when we are trying to lose weight or keep our health in check or go on a new fad diet we think that we need to deprive ourselves of the food that we love but this only leads to more cravings to get your body back into a natural calm balance so next time you're noticing this happen really pay attention and see if you are feeding and nourishing yourself or if you are depriving yourself always choose to nourish your body so this process up today segment of the causes of cravings and how to overcome them remember in any craving you find yourself in really focus on treating your body like a test lab just like i said earlier earlier today and the more you know about yourself and the food that you eat the better equipped he will be to overcome those cravings and have a healthy relationship with food for more information or if you have any questions about so they sigman feel free to visit my website at www dot food move girl dot com or feel free to email me at info at food move girl dot com i'd be happy to send you the handouts and some additional