Cravings, Explained

Cravings can feel like a tidal wave—loud, urgent, and impossible to ignore—yet they’re far from random. We dig into what a craving actually is, how it differs from hunger, and why your brain can fixate on sweetness or crunch even when you “should” be fine. As a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor, I break down the science in plain language and show how biology, mindset, and environment combine to create that intense pull toward specific foods.

We start with the body’s signals: how undereating lowers blood sugar and flips on a survival response, why cutting carbs makes your reward circuits hypersensitive to sugar, and how hormones like ghrelin and leptin change with dieting, stress, and poor sleep. Then we look at psychology—the scarcity effect that turns “off-limits” into irresistible, the hidden power of mental restriction and food labels, and the all-or-nothing patterns that fuel the binge–restrict cycle. You’ll also hear how environmental cues, social media, and habitual routines (Netflix snacks, anyone?) train cravings even when you’re not hungry.

Most importantly, we lay out practical, sustainable steps. You’ll learn how regular meals and snacks stabilize energy and mood, why adding carbohydrates back into meals often quiets the sweet tooth, and how to loosen rigid rules without abandoning nutrition. We’ll practice mindful pauses to identify whether you’re hungry, seeking comfort, or responding to a cue—and how to honor each scenario with care. The goal isn’t perfect control; it’s trust. When you treat cravings as information, not evidence of failure, they lose their edge and you gain freedom with food.

If this resonates, hit follow, share with a friend who’s stuck in the craving–restriction loop, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Your stories and questions shape future episodes—what cue triggers your cravings most?

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting Up The Cravings Topic
• 0:51 Host Intro And Show Lens
• 1:09 What A Craving Actually Is
• 2:23 Hunger Versus Cravings
• 3:28 Biological Drivers: Undereating
• 4:29 Carb Restriction And Reward Circuits
• 5:41 Hormones, Stress, And Sleep
• 7:50 Why Dieting Fuels Cravings
• 9:26 Scarcity Mindset And Mental Rules
• 11:29 Environment, Cues, And Habit Loops
• 13:17 Strategies To Work With Your Body
• 15:02 Rebuilding Trust And Key Takeaways
• 16:08 Next Episode Tease And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome back everyone. Today we're going to be talking a little bit about cravings and why they happen. If you tuned into episode nine, you'll recall that we talked about emotional eating. Oftentimes when I'm talking to people about the concept of emotional eating, we tend to talk about cravings too. A lot of people get distressed over the cravings that they have and they wonder why they happen to them, why do they get cravings? And so today I wanted to dive into what cravings are, what they mean, why they happen, and why they're not random and they're also not a character flaw. So let's get into it. I'm Heather Soman, a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor. This podcast is where we ditch food guilt, question diet culture, and learn how to nourish our brains and bodies in the way that nature intended. So let's get into it. First, let's start by defining what is a craving. I know a lot of you when I hear say the word craving, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. It's almost like this yearning for something. I know when I have some really strong cravings, I just cannot stop talking about that thing or thinking about that thing, or I'm like salivating at the idea of that thing. For me, it tends to be things like ice cream or chocolate. Those are things that I've always craved and always love. Spoiler alert, I will say that since becoming an intuitive eater in my own life, I don't really get cravings anymore. Like, yeah, I feel like having certain foods and I'm like excited to have something, but I don't have cravings to the sense where they are consuming all of my thoughts and they feel extremely strong. However, if you're someone who feels that way about cravings, I can relate. I totally know what that feels like. And so for a lot of people, again, cravings can be these really strong feelings and these almost like drive to hunger. Sorry, drive to get certain foods in. And this makes me want to talk about the difference between hunger and cravings, because we're gonna talk a little bit more about biology and how that kind of impacts our drive to eat. So hunger, on a really basic sense, is our physical need to get energy from food. So that's really what hunger is, and some of us feel it in our stomachs. It might be a stomach growling, it might be us thinking about food, which is a very early, subtle sign of hunger. This is something that we've covered before in the podcast, so feel free to look back on previous episodes towards hunger. And if you're curious about more to learn more about hunger, I would definitely recommend checking out my free resource online where I talk all about relearning your hunger and fullness cues. Okay, so again, hunger is kind of that physical need, that biological driver for food. A craving is a little bit different. Cravings may happen when you're hungry, but they can also happen outside of hunger. They are, in a basic sense, the desire for a specific taste or texture, or maybe even it's a food experience that you're craving. Cravings can be driven by our biology, our psychology, our emotions, our environment, or really all of the above. All right, let's talk about some of the biological drivers that lead us to have cravings. The first is that we're restricting food in general, so we're not getting enough energy in, andor this is also called undereating. When we don't eat enough throughout the day, the body sort of activates a bit of its survival system. So when our blood sugar goes down, because we haven't eaten in a while, our brain starts to seek energy because our brain's main source of energy is carbohydrates. So when our blood sugar goes down, our brain immediately sees it as an emergency. The alarms go off and our brain goes, I need to have more energy. And so this is what can drive craving sometimes. I find this happens to people a lot in the afternoon because our blood sugar naturally dips. So just know if you start to crave sweets or chips or whatever it might be in the afternoon, this is not random. This is because your body is looking for energy, your brain is looking for energy. The next is carbohydrate restriction. I see this a lot. Again, a lot of people will try to restrict carbohydrates because they've learned that carbs are bad, or if they restrict carbs, they'll lose weight, whatever the narrative might be. And it's interesting because nine times out of ten, when I see people who are craving carbs and are really distressed about it, they're like, oh, I have this sweet tooth and I'm always just craving carbs. Um, I'm always craving craving street sweets. Those tend to be the folks who are restricting carbs the most. And so often the advice that I give these people is why don't we start including carbs in your meals and snacks? Which I know might blow some people's minds, but every single time I've done this with a client, I have found that their cravings for carbs and that drive to overeat sweets diminishes quite quickly, actually. So again, when carbs are limited, the brain's reward circuitry becomes more reactive to them. This is why you might feel like you're addicted to sugar. This is why you might feel like you cannot stop eating all the bread from the breadbasket when you allow yourself to have carbs. This is why it's born from restriction, not because there's something wrong with you. Okay, another biological driver is hormonal shifts. So we know, as we've talked about before, ghrelin is our hunger hormone. There are other hormones too, but that's kind of our primary one. And it increases when we're dieting and restricting. So it drives our appetite up naturally. Ghrelin can also increase when we're chronically stressed. So when we have a lot of cortisol circulating through our bloodstream, when we're really stressed out, and also when we haven't slept enough, our ghrelin can increase as well. So it can make us feel more hungry. And then another hormone called leptin, which is one of the many fullness hormones, um, helps us kind of understand when satiety has happened. So leptin decreases when we start eating something. Um, sorry, it goes up when we start eating something to help us feel more satisfied. But when we've been in chronic calorie restriction, it actually decreases the response to leptin. Our body doesn't release as much leptin because it wants to get more food in. And basically what that means is it makes it harder to feel satisfied. So a lot of people who kind of let go of restrictive eating or let go of eliminating carbs, for example. So let's say, for example, somebody coming off keto, they tend to eat a lot of those foods and not feel as satisfied as quickly. And that's again, there's a biological reason for that. Lastly, just another thing that happens when we restrict certain foods. And again, let me just say when I'm talking about restricting here, I'm saying we're just not allowing ourselves to have much of that food, if at all, have that food. So when we restrict certain things, our brain's reward centers become more sensitive to those flavors and those certain foods. So foods that are higher in fat or salts or sugar may lead to that dopamine release, which can reinforce some of the wantingslash craving for insert food here. Um, again, restriction really amplifies that system that leads us to cravings. So here's why dieting leads to more cravings and not less if you haven't already put two and two together. It kind of has this restriction rebound effect. A lot of those of us who work in this sort of non-diet space and help people get rid of dieting, is we talk about something called the binge restrict cycle. And this doesn't necessarily mean that there is a binge eating issue. There may be, um, and maybe I'll do a future episode on binging specifically, but what we see is this phenomenon that happens all the time where somebody starts to restrict their food intake for whatever reason it might be, they want to pursue health, they want to change their body, whatever it is, they start restricting food, they start to feel really good about that restriction for a short period of time, and then eventually the body starts sending them some craving signals. And what ends up happening is those cravings get really, really strong. The biology factors that we just talked about are really ramping up, making us want to eat something more. And eventually it leads to what some people describe as the eff it effect. So that time where you just go, I cannot do this any longer. And that can lead to a binge or an overeating episode, or just an episode where you're eating that food that you were previously restricting. And we have a lot of research on this to show uh that dieting can increase cravings. We know through research that restrictive diets increase ghrelin and decrease leptin, as we've talked about. We know that the brain reward centers become more activated by even images of food when they're when we have undergone restriction. So again, it makes sort of this like perfect storm almost for cravings to happen. So some of the psychological drivers here is the we want what we can't have situation. I think we've all heard that expression before. I often talk about the concept of the scarcity mindset, which is a little bit more of a technical term for this. So when something's off limits, it becomes more desirable. And I think we can list many, many examples as to why that happens. I often talk about uh the pandemic and how when the pandemic was first starting, if you remember, the grocery store shelves were quite scarce. They were quite empty, especially regarding toilet paper. Why were we having toilet paper shortages? Because people were worried that they weren't gonna have access to that thing anymore. And the exact same thing happens when you decide, I'm not eating carbs anymore. As humans, we are really good at procuring resources and we feel most safe and comfortable when we know we have access to the resources that we need. So when we all of a sudden say, that's it, I'm not eating any carbs anymore, guess what? That's the thing that you're gonna crave most often. So it's this whole scarcity mindset, and it can really increase that preoccupation with that food item. Now, something interesting happens here that I've seen quite a bit in my practice where somebody isn't necessarily restricting the food. Let's say they let themselves have the carbohydrates, but mentally they still see it as a bad thing or it's off limits, or they only allow themselves to have a small amount amount of it. That mental restriction is actually still a form of restriction. And despite the fact that yes, you might be eating enough food in the day, you might be having some of that food, if there's still some type of restriction happening, that can still drive some of these cravings. I can't tell you how many times I've met with people who are definitely eating enough throughout the day, but they're so focused on eating enough protein and fats that they have such little carbohydrates or whatever it might be. They're eating enough energy, they're getting enough calories, but they're not getting that true satisfaction from all the things that they want. They're not getting the flavor, they're not getting enough carbs or whatever it might be because they have all of these food rules of things that are bad uh in their minds, or they're they're labeling foods in a certain way. Again, this can increase cravings every single time. And then for some people, they find that the brain wants to rebel against these rigid rules because we as people we want autonomy. We want to be able to not have restrictions. Um, despite what your mind might tell you, our body doesn't want to have those types of restrictions like that. That doesn't mean that we're ignoring the science of nutrition here. I think that all foods can fit and I think all macronutrients are important. But it's interesting how our brain and our body sends us signals when it's not getting quite enough. What this type of thinking can lead to is sort of rebound eating, is one way to put it. So when we have that psychological restriction of not having something, and then we hit that point where we go, F it, I'm just gonna have the thing. I see this a lot for all or nothing thinkers. They go, well, I already ruined today, so I'm just gonna keep eating X, Y, and Z thing. Or I already broke the rule on Thursday, so we'll start again on Monday. It's really that all or nothing mentality. Again, this drives our cravings up way more. Another way I see this happen is people eating a whole bunch of foods other than the food that they actually feel like having. So if you're trying to have, let's say, rice cakes to replace a muffin that you really want to have, you're probably gonna eat a whole lot of rice cakes. And is that really gonna serve the craving that you're having for the muffin? Whereas if you ate five to ten rice cakes, would you have just been more satisfied with the muffin itself? So that's something to consider as well, and something that I see quite a bit. Again, stress and emotions play a really big role here. So take a listen to the last episode about emotional eating because that can certainly intensify cravings, and especially because we're feeling this almost like driver towards having that thing when we're when we're stressed or emotional in some kind of way. Another thing that can lead to cravings is our environment and sort of habit-based cravings. And what I mean by that is exposure to certain um cues, for example, things like smells or ads that you see online. I know for me, if I'm like starting to get hungry and I get on Pinterest or Instagram and I start seeing some really yummy recipes, all of a sudden I'm craving a whole bunch of different foods. Um, or I just like really want to have that thing, or it just really intensifies my cravings. I when I think about smells, I don't know why I think about Subway, just because it's like one of those like really distinct, unique smells. I know that can sometimes lead people to have cravings. Some people also really don't like that smell, and that's okay too. But all of this to paint the picture of sometimes we could be passing by something in our environment, and it can bring up certain cravings of something. And then habit loops can also trigger our cravings, even when our body isn't hungry. And I see this again for a lot of people who sort of engage in mindless eating when we're just eating when the TV's on, for example. I saw this again a lot for people in the pandemic where it became like the only distinguishing factor between the workday and the home day when everybody was working from home was having a glass of wine and a snack. For some people, it's like the second that the Netflix goes on, a snack is had. And that's something that can start to become a habit loop that you just start to eat because you're doing this thing so often. Another one that I have personal experience with is rewards that are learned over time. So, for example, a lot of people will crave a little sweet after dinner, right? It's like, mm, I just feel like a little something sweet. And that is something that can be learned over time. So if you grew up in a household or for a very long time have finished your dinner and immediately had something sweet, all of a sudden that can start to develop some of these cravings that come up over time. And they can go away and it can be broken if you want it to. And I'm not saying that it's a bad thing per se. I do, however, remember when I was sort of stuck in this loop, it was because immediately after eating something, I would always go to have something sweet. And I noticed that I would get to the point where the meal would be finished and immediately I was salivating for something sweet. It wasn't until I started dating my now husband and I would go over to his family's place for a dinner, and they didn't have dessert after dinner, and I would be sitting there looking around, almost distressed, as to why aren't we having dessert right now? Like I need a little something sweet, and I would always come home right after those gatherings and have something sweet because I was almost distressed about not having something sweet because my palate was so used to having something sweet after something savory. And it took me quite a while to break that. And it wasn't because I was thinking that sweets are bad. I still have a sweet thing every single day. What I didn't like was that distress that I felt over not having a sweet. And it really made me think about am I actually enjoying this sweet or is it just something that I have been doing habitually? And I noticed that what I was doing too was I was sort of not letting myself have a sweet earlier in the day because my time to have it was after dinner. So I changed a few things to kind of get rid of that habitual craving, that thing that I've learned over time. And again, nothing wrong with the sweets, but if you're noticing this almost like something happens to trigger the craving every single time, like again, the TV remote going like the Netflix going on, or you've just finished dinner, that might be something to consider and look at why are why are we doing that? Is this because it's a habit that we have? And there's definitely some ways to break that, and maybe I can talk about that in a future episode. Please let me know if that's something that you're interested in. All right, let's talk about some things that we can do because I'm all about working with our body instead of working against it. So, first thing I am gonna say, and you've probably heard me say it before, is to eat enough consistently. So building in regular meals and snacks every three to four hours-ish helps to reduce some of those biological triggers and drivers to craving things more. When we are fed regularly, it helps to do things like stabilize our blood sugar, which also stabilizes our energy. And that can really help us with reducing cravings. This next one I'm sure comes as no surprise, but if you've been restricting carbs or you've eliminated carbs, add them back in. Those are really gonna help with decreasing some of those sweet cravings. And if this feels like something that isn't safe for you right now, or that feels like a really, really scary thing to do, I would definitely recommend working with a dietitian who has an understanding of sort of intuitive eating and takes this sort of lens because they can certainly help you with that. But I promise that adding the carbs back in is going to help you. I know it feels really scary, and I know it feels like you're gonna eat all the carbs forever. I promise you will not. And there's a certain psychological reason why we won't that I will save for a future episode. It's called habituation. Uh, but essentially it will help you with reducing those carbs with those carb cravings. Okay, the next one, loosen the food rules. Easier said than done, I know, because food rules can be really, really sticky in our minds and we could have lived with them for decades. So the labels that we have around food, the language that we use around food. So a lot of the times people describe food as good or bad, healthy, unhealthy, clean, junk, whatever words you want to use, those labels actually imply a lot of morality around food, and it also implies some level of we should be restricting the bad, the junk, etc. foods. And I'm not to here saying that um those foods are lower in nutritional value, because they certainly are lower in nutritional value. That's that's not the issue here. The issue is that when we're applying these labels, it is that mental restriction that we talked about earlier. And that mental restriction is what's leading to those cravings happening more. When you can adopt a mindset of food being neutral, so things being neither good nor bad and allowing all foods to fit in our lives, that can really help with reducing those cravings. That doesn't mean we're just gonna eat ice cream and pizza all the time. We're still going to apply what we know about nutrition science, and we're also gonna allow ourselves to have the ice cream and pizza. Again, not all the time, but it's something that we can fit within our diets, and it's not gonna ruin our health, it's not gonna ruin our lives and our progress, etc. The next thing, this one might sound a little woo-woo for some of you, but bear with me. Practicing mindful awareness. So pausing to identify before you grab to something. Because as we talked about last time with emotional eating, what we tend to do is we feel a negative emotion, we feel something, something's about to happen, and we just like grab the food. We don't pause to really ask ourselves, why am I grabbing this food right now? Is this physical hunger? Is this an emotional reason? Is this because it's a habit? All of them are valid. None of them are wrong. But what this does is that pause allows us to connect with ourselves and our body a little bit more and just helps us to learn a little bit more about what it is that we're doing here. Again, if you're in the period where you're sort of trying to come out of restriction, trying to come out of dieting, I know that this can be really difficult. But the last one is to rebuild trust with your body. So learning how to listen to our hunger and fullness cues, honoring them, and honoring what satisfaction means for us and our energy levels and all of those types of things that we can learn through principles of intuitive eating, rebuilding trust with your body can really help you with navigating cravings and might actually help you with decreasing cravings even more. So a lot of people that I meet with in my practice, I notice that they feel they can't trust themselves around food, they can't trust their cravings, they're almost at war with their body and are constantly like, why am I craving this thing? Why is it that I want this so much? And as we start to build more trust with ourselves and take a more curious approach to how we nourish our bodies and how we treat ourselves, it can really improve the way we interact with food. And I can guarantee it can help with cravings as well. This is something that takes a long time and a lot of practice, and I would definitely recommend getting some kind of support to work through some of this because this type of work is not easy at all. As we've talked about here, cravings are multi-layered. So there's that biological piece, the psychological, the emotional, the environmental. There's so many things that come into cravings. Cravings are not a bad thing, they are not proof of a lack of discipline, they're just signals and they're just another data point for us to use moving forward. When we stop fighting cravings and instead learn to understand them, they actually lose their intensity quite a bit. And again, once we can start to honor our cravings and honor what we actually feel like and honoring our bodies, those cravings decrease in both intensity and frequency. In the next episode, I have a very special guest joining us, Trista Chan. She is going to be talking all about PCOS and hormone health. And even if that isn't something that you live with, she debunks some really common diet myths, such as is gluten and dairy inflammatory. And I would definitely recommend checking it out because she is just a wealth of knowledge. So thank you so much for listening today, and we will see you in the next one.