7 Things To Know About Food Cravings | The Diet Channel:

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crave sweets - add trace minerals

crave sweets -- you may have overgrowth of yeast in intestines

Do you crave chocolate?

You have a calcium/magnesium imbalance. Women crave chocolate before their menses due to hormone changes. The magnesium in chocolate helps create a sense of relaxation by making long-chain fatty acids. However, chocolate has chemicals in it that are psychoneurotic chemicals. These chemicals can create highs and lows. An alternative is to have mixed greens everyday. Mixed greens are a great source of magnesium and help with the craving for chocolate. You have a nutritional deficiency, and a hormonal imbalance.

Do you crave sugar, pop, breads, pasta, and potatoes?

Generally, people who crave sugar have poor fuel-burning capacity in their bodies. You really need minerals. You can have huge fluctuations in your days, real highs and then very low lows. You are often moody and irritable, and feel fatigued with low stamina, often blaming “getting older” as the reason for your reduced energy. You have a nutritional deficiency and a hormonal imbalance than could lead to hypoglycemia or pre-diabetes.

Do you love to eat Pizza and bread?

You most likely have a yeast problem. Emotionally, you can have mood swings up and down, with chronic allergies and digestive distress. You have a sugar/hormonal imbalance, and nutritional deficiencies. You also have digestive issues with poor metabolism, weight gain, and increasing fatigue.

Vitamin Deficiencies Associated with Chocolate Cravings

According to Russell J. Martino,Ph.D, individuals who constantly have a craving for chocolate may actually have a deficiency in vitamin B or magnesium. Chocolate cravings can be curbed by increasing amounts of raw nuts, seeds, beans and fruits in an individual's daily diet. In addition, the supplement flax seed oil may also assist in lessening the craving for chocolate.

If you are often craving chocolate, it can actually be the bodys way of telling you that you are lacking the vital and very important mineral, magnesium in your body.

When your body is lacking of a certain vitamin or mineral, it will send you signals to motivate you to eat certain foods which contain the items your body needs to function properly. And when it comes to magnesium, chocolate comes to the top of the list.

Magnesium has many vital functions for your body. The lack of magnesium can cause insomnia, mood swings and nightly muscle cramps. Especially runners or highly sportsactive people need magnesium to prevent muscle cramps. Magnesium produces serotonin, which is what makes the body feel relaxed. Without it, your body will not get into balance after for example a long run, and your muscles will never relax, which will cause the cramps.

Other than this, magnesium fills out many functions in your body, and is important for your nerves, your growth, energy, digestion and brain. Together with calcium and, I would say that magnesium is THE most important mineral.

Chocolate and Moods - I think you may have heard of endorphins, the chemicals made in the brain that cause feelings of pleasure, and cheer you up. Chocolate stimulates endorphin production in the brain, this is why you often crave chocolate when you are emotionally upset. Chocolate is also high in something called "amines" , there are good and bad amines in the body and in food and chemicals in the environment Unfortunately chocolate is loaded with the bad, toxic type. The body needs to neutralize these bad amines and does it with an enzyme called monoamine oxidase (MAO). When you eat a lot of chocolate, and on a regular basis you keep these MAO levels high, this then creates a second problem which is a depletion of some good amines, serotonin and dopamine. A lack of these good brain chemicals creates depression, sleep problems and more food cravings. If these levels are low on a consistent basis they can create a wide variety of symptoms:

Cravings for carbohydrates

Vague muscle aches and pains

Insomnia

Depression

Binge eating

Tension headaches, migraine headaches

PMS headaches, mood swings, and body aches

Generalized fatigue

Joint swellings

Numbness and tingling

Fibromyalgia

Obsessive compulsive behavior

Addictions (alcohol, smoking, stimulants)

7 Supplements that Help Stop Cravings

The ability to stop cravings is important for any diet. Cravings for sweets or junk food can be difficult to resist, and indulging in those cravings can lead to set backs in your diet and workout programs. Cravings usually indicate a nutritional deficiency in your body. Taking certain vitamin or mineral supplements can stop cravings before you indulge. Here are the 7 supplements that can aid in your ability to stop cravings.

1. Chromium

Cravings often occur because blood sugar is low. Chromium aids in the regulation of your blood sugar by helping insulin get the sugar quickly to your cells. This helps to stop cravings for food high in carbs and sugars.

2. L-Glutamine

L-Glutamine is an amino acid that sends a message to your brain that a craving for sweets has been fulfilled. It can be helpful to stop cravings that are particularly strong. Dissolving the powder under your tongue can help stop cravings faster than taking a tablet.

3. Magnesium

Magnesium offers several benefits when it comes to the craving of sweets and chocolate. First, like chromium, magnesium helps with the regulation of insulin and blood sugar. Secondly, magnesium helps to balance the emotional part of the brain, and a deficiency of magnesium can increase the craving of chocolate which stimulates that part of the brain. Finally, magnesium can aid with stress and insomnia which can contribute to unhealthy cravings.

4. Pheylalanine

Many cravings occur because our brain chemicals are imbalanced. An amino acid known as pheylalanine can help raise your endorphin levels to help restore balance of brain chemistry. If you overeat because of emotional problems, this supplement can help stop cravings.

5. Trace Mineral Supplements

Deficiency of these required minerals can lead to cravings of salty or sugary junk foods. Many supplements exist that can help you get a proper amount of these trace minerals that may be lacking in processed foods and will aid to stop cravings.

6. L-Tryptophan

Low levels of serotonin have been known to cause cravings. The amino acid L-tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin, and its use can help stop cravings by increasing the production of serotonin in the body. In addition, L-tryptophan requires the use of several vitamins, such as vitamin C, zinc and folic acid to produce serotonin, so taking a multivitamin in addition to an L-tryptophan supplement is beneficial. The supplement 5-HTP can also be used in place of L-tryptophan.

7. Zinc

Deficiencies of zinc lead to a decreased sense of taste. Due to a lowered sensation in your taste buds, your body begins to crave high sugary snacks since those types of flavors are more pronounced. By taking zinc supplements, you can stop cravings by satisfying your taste buds with an increased sense of taste in everything you eat.

Cravings for sweets, chocolate and junk food can many times be attributed to a nutritional deficiency in some other area. Taking these supplements can help to stop cravings like these, but it would be better to make sure you receive the proper nutrition in everything you e