If food is not eaten, normal hunger builds in pulses of increasing intensity, but the normal person can carry on with activities and does not develop distressing symptoms. An abnormal, addictive loop is more intense, exclusive and leads to the wrong results. Cravings are intense feelings of hunger, associated with strong and distracting drives to ingest food or drink. Cravings may be interpreted as urges to find missing nutrients, but the foods found in compulsive searches are not biologically correct. Instead, food cravings are a symptom of an addictive loop.
Cravings build quickly, interrupting other activities.
Often the addictive food and drink is not satisfying, and the most dysfunctional people keep eating and drinking with only the briefest interruptions. The gratification is short-lived and is followed by decreasing energy, irritability and renewed cravings. The nicotine loop in smokers may be in the range of 20 minutes. The timing of food loops is variable and ranges from minutes to hours. Addictive substances are good at inducing recursive loops.