This video, titled "Cravings," by Deb Ford, DCN RDN, explores why we have food cravings and how to manage them. It discusses how the food industry manipulates us into craving unhealthy foods and explains the difference between helpful (functional) and unhelpful (dysfunctional) cravings. The video also covers six types of hunger and offers strategies like mindfulness and prioritizing sleep to help you gain control over your eating habits.
Key Takeaways
1
Cravings are a powerful force that often drives our eating habits beyond conscious control.
2
Functional cravings are your body's natural signals for nutrients, while dysfunctional cravings are artificially driven, learned, or manipulated by modern food industries.
3
The food industry uses tactics similar to the tobacco industry, employing advertising and engineering highly processed, hyper-palatable foods to create addiction and bypass willpower.
4
Sugar is highly addictive, even more so than cocaine in lab studies, and refined carbohydrates quickly turn into sugar, fueling a cycle of cravings and energy crashes.
5
Emotional triggers and psychological conditioning, such as associating food with comfort or celebration, often drive cravings that are not about true hunger.
6
Willpower alone is often insufficient to overcome cravings because self-control is a limited resource that depletes throughout the day, leading to decision fatigue.
7
The six types of hunger are nutritional, low blood sugar, emotional, empty stomach, thirst (often mistaken for hunger), and habitual hunger.
8
To break free from dysfunctional cravings, you need to retrain your brain by shifting your mindset with mindfulness and understanding the real effects of unhealthy foods.
9
Prioritizing adequate sleep (around 8 hours) and practicing stress reduction techniques are crucial for managing cravings, as lack of sleep and high stress amplify hunger hormones and cortisol.
10
Cravings are signals, and by understanding what your body is truly asking for, you can nourish it effectively and regain control without solely relying on willpower.
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0:01
good morning and welcome to another
0:03
edition of today's nutrition where we
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look at what's new in research what's
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out in the news or any topic that can
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help us lose weight feel great or live
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longer better almost always all three
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and today it's going to be about
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something that affects
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everybody Cravings maybe you struggle
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with cravings for chocolate bread pizza
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pasta cookies chips alcohol cigarettes
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anything really everybody's got
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something so today I've got news for you
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I'm going to give you the latest on what
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we know about controlling these impulses
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so you can stay on track with your
0:44
health goals maybe you're tired of
0:46
taking those weight loss shots and you
0:49
want to naturally control your Cravings
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I'm going to give you those tools to use
0:55
so you can change the story of your
0:57
health put you back in the driver's seat
1:03
naturally have you found yourself
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standing in front of the fridge not
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really hungry but just searching for
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something to eat I call it peckish you
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know like a chicken in the barnyard
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wanting to just Peck around eat this
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munch on that just prowling the kitchen
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for something not really hungry not Meal
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Time matter of fact you could have just
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eaten you just want something why does
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this happen well Cravings are a powerful
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force you know they drive our eating
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habits often most often beyond our cons
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conscious control you feel driven
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totally out of conscious control in fact
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I had somebody tell me that their car
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just drove into an ice cream business
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she went into autopilot but hey what
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happens if you could decode them figure
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out what's really going on and Take Back
2:02
Control today we're going to dive into
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five things to give you real power first
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to know what Cravings are second the
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difference between functional and
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dysfunctional Cravings three why
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willpower is feudal and more often than
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not it fails the six types of cravings
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and hunger that dictate why we eat and
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then lastly how to break free and
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reclaim your power so first of all what
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are
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Cravings definition is a strong desire
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to consume a particular food or drink
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often driven by things that I'm going to
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go into and give you the tools to be
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able to quickly self-correct drivers can
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be
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biological psychological and the most
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powerful ones emotional
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triggers so then what are functional
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versus dysfunction functional Cravings
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functional Cravings are can be your
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body's natural signals telling you what
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nutrients it needs that could be just
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regular thirst or hunger dysfunctional
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ones though these are artificially
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driven or learned or even worse
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manipulated by modern Food Industries by
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now we all know the cravings for sugar
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is due to addiction rather than the
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actual need for sugar there is no need
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for sugar matter of fact if your body
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never saw it again it would Rejoice but
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these dysfunctional Cravings drive us to
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highly processed unhealthy foods that
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disrupt your metabolism create food
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addictions and lead to the chronic
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health issues that that are epidemic
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today so we're going to drw dive in to
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one of the major causes of dysfunctional
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cravings and when you really get these
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drivers it's going to be liberating when
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you realize that your body and mind have
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been hijacked by faceless corporations
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that want to control you just like the
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tobacco industry did can and should make
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you a little mad and take action take
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your control back okay so the food
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industry manipulation there is a story
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that goes with this that I think you
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should know about and it goes back to
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when the food industry or the tobacco
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industry rather had a really deep
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understanding of the power of
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advertising and how to enhance physical
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addiction I love knowing the evil
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because behind that is something then
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you can really use to support change and
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it's okay so tobacco industry men were
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already smoking a lot you know they'd
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done a lot of advertising you had the
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marlb man I'd rather fight than switch
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you remember those old ads hard to
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forget those old Jingles that have been
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hardwired into our brain through
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advertising powerful but women weren't
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so willing to smoke as much as men
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because women we just naturally don't
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like it we think it's dirty okay so the
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tobacco industry really wanted to Target
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women even knowing it caused cancer heck
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they didn't care they just wanted
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corporate profits so wondered how do we
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get women to smoke they
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wondered advertising to their
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psychology you remember the ad you've
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come a long way baby independent
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powerful stylish women with that special
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cigarette longer and Slimmer than men
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well boy that worked but then you know
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the cancer Point started getting a lot
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more attention doctors started warning
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against it and so people starting to
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quit the profits began to fall so these
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tobacco people needed to
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diversify so they bought into the food
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industry and along with them they
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brought all their knowledge of addiction
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and Powerful advertising again just like
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with tobacco the disregard for the known
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associations the big food industry
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doesn't care about causing obesity and
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cancer and diabetes and heart disease
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not to mention the psychologically
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disempowering effect it has on telling
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all of us that we're emotional eaters
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that we need comfort food you know all
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of those terms they've come up with so
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you would buy more and more and feel
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okay about it and the food industry
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engineered super processed foods that
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override willpower sugar sugar sugar
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what they call hyper palatable Foods
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processed hydrogenated fats
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Etc processed food manufacturers spent
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decades engineering foods that hijack
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the brain's reward system you've heard
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of the medical MRI machine that
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hospitals use well they have one that
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looks at the brain function it's called
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the functional MRI machine they use it
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to see what foods are the most addictive
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by what is called the Bliss Point effect
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these food scientists I call the Mad
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scientists create the perfect ratio of
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salt and sugar and fat and they want
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them to be hyper palatable and addictive
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they love that word hyper palatable so
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delicious
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irresistible and they even have a whole
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Handbook of additives to enhance flavor
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to TI trick the brain into craving more
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and more you ever notice how you can't
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eat just one potato chip there's even
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that advertisement I'll bet you can't
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eat just one that's by Design hit the
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Bliss point and the thing with the Bliss
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point the dopamine Center
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that receptor wears out and you need
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more and more to get the same feel-good
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response when you eat it then there's
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the actual sugar and processed food
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addiction reaction knowing sugar is
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eight times more addictive than cocaine
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in lab studies yeah the first ones were
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done in France and and it was it was
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horrible the studies they did on these
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rats but man oh man they showed how it
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lit the brain's pleasure Center up in a
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way similar to cocaine we need to be mad
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you know and then you've got refined
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carbs muffins breads pastries all of
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those cakes and cookies everything
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ground tweet and processed they're the
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same thing they turn quickly into sugar
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keeping this cycle going there is no
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wonder that all the bakeries and morning
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shops are filled with these sugary quote
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Foods you know an example is you have a
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muffin or cereal for breakfast you get a
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little Russian energy and less than 2
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hours later blood sugar crashes you
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crave another something sugary snack
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caffeine the cycle repeats all day long
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have it an effect on the stress response
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you know you get irritable hangry the
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immune response and even can have an
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effect on your bone Health there's just
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so much that goes wrong with all this
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you know not just being manipulated by
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the food industry and the addictiveness
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of sugar then there's the emotional
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triggers and the psychological
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conditioning because many Cravings are
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not about food at all they're about
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emotions they're about habits you know
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from childhood you know in our culture
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we kind of associate certain foods with
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comfort with reward with celebration
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birthday cake ice cream after a breakup
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you know the old pav laav effect that
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conditioned response ring the bell give
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them some whatever you know you always
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eat popcorn when you watch movies your
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brain links the two making you crave it
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even when you're not hungry you just had
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supper you know in the theater just
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isn't complete with that horrible
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overpriced chemical Laden
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popcorn oh there's so much more you know
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but the key to understanding Why We
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crave rather than try to fight it
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against the Cravings you know fighting
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against it doesn't work the solution
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must include knowing Why We crave we
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must understand and address those root
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causes you rely on on Willpower it
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doesn't work because all the studies
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show self-control is limited and it gets
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depleted throughout the day you may
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start out in the morning with good solid
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healthy intentions but as the day goes
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on you use up the resource of
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self-control and willpower it's called
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decision fatigue leads you right back
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into surrendering to the Cravings the
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longer the day goes
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on so Cravings are not just about
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willpower they're really rooted in
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biology and
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psychology so we need to know about the
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six types of hunger why we eat you know
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imagine this you've just had a full meal
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had all the good stuff stuff in there
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but suddenly you have an
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irresistible urge for something sweet
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you know you tell yourself you shouldn't
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but before you know it you've reached
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for that food that you know you don't
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need why does this happen leads to a
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thought-provoking question are we really
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in control of our Cravings or our
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Cravings controlling us so one 1 through
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six here we've got nutritional hunger
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you know that's your body's signal that
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it needs essential
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nutrients like you know craving red meat
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or ice when you really need iron or have
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a B12 deficiency that's nutritional
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hunger not very common second thing low
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blood sugar hunger you know a relative
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drop in blood sugar triggers Cravings
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you know you just had that high muff
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high sugar muffin for breakfast crashing
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2 hours later you're going to want
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something else and the more sugar you
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have the worse it gets as the years and
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decades go by really bad you know know
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feeling shaky or irritable and you just
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naturally reach for that candy bar or
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that soda then you've got the emotional
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hunger Hunger and eating to soothe
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emotions stress loneliness boredom
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sadness that's a biggie you know eating
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the ice cream after a breakup or
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snacking when you're watching TV when
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you're just bored then fourth you've got
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the empty stomach hunger that physical
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sens
14:00
of just having an empty stomach which is
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often mistaken for immediate need but
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you know it's really not you're just
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feel hungry because your stomach's empty
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even if you don't need food you know
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it's dinner time and the fact that you
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just ate 2,000 calories at lunch 4 hours
14:17
ago but you hear your stomach growling
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and you think you should
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eat the fifth thing and this one's
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really common thirst dehydration often
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mimics hunger signals I get this a lot
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you know it's it's just you're about 20%
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dehydrated before thirst ever kicks in
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so you got to keep ahead of the thirst
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and just have a glass of water that's
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going to satisfy your hunger and then
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the sixth thing it's just habitual
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hunger eating due to routine environment
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or or those social cues like eating
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popcorn at the movie even if you just
15:00
had dinner or another thing having a
15:03
cigarette after a meal was used was an
15:05
oldtime one or a glass of wine at night
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or pizza after a ball game it's just
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social cues routine or just having
15:14
breakfast even if you're not hungry
15:17
finally what you've been waiting
15:19
for how to really understand what's
15:22
driving those dysfunctional Cravings you
15:25
know Breaking Free regaining
15:28
control you know you don't want to just
15:31
land on Willpower because you know that
15:34
is going to fail you need the right
15:36
strategies so knowing those six so you
15:39
can identify them will number one help
15:42
you retrain your brain you got to work
15:46
this that's nothing magical you got to
15:49
shift your mindset with
15:51
mindfulness mindfulness it's like being
15:54
in control that's what you got to do
15:58
okay so the craving do not control you
16:01
your brain is simply responding to years
16:03
of conditioning habits and that food
16:07
industry the biggie is to realize that
16:10
whatever you reinforce you're going to
16:12
repeat the more you do something the
16:15
more you will do something so you can
16:17
rewire that brain to Crave what it
16:20
nourishes start by thinking about that
16:23
unhealthy food you're reaching for for
16:26
its real effects not just the momentary
16:28
pleasure and instead of thinking of soda
16:30
as a refreshing treat like they want you
16:34
to think see it for what it really is
16:36
liquid sugar that fuels inflammation
16:38
disrupts your metabolism promotes toxic
16:41
waistline fat and leaves you more
16:43
exhausted than before that helps or even
16:46
better get mad at the companies that
16:48
have hijacked you pick up that box of
16:50
Kelloggs look at the ingredients see the
16:53
hydrogenated fats the dyes the
16:55
preservatives the sugar and get mad at
16:58
Kelloggs every time you pause before
17:02
putting it in your mouth you are
17:03
strengthening your ability to make
17:05
conscious choices instead of reactive
17:08
ones maybe drink a full glass of water
17:11
wait a few minutes if the craving
17:12
disappears you were thirsty body
17:15
constantly sending signals it's up to
17:18
you to listen to the right ones and
17:20
maybe it's your sleep and stress your
17:23
hormones just need a reset they are
17:25
those two are giant drivers of cravings
17:29
when you don't get enough sleep your
17:31
body produces more grin the hunger
17:33
hormone less leptin the fullness hormone
17:36
this makes you constantly hungry even
17:38
when you don't need food and stress is a
17:42
Cravings amplifier high stress raises
17:45
cortisol making you crave sugary fatty
17:47
things for a quick fix so the solution
17:51
prioritize sleep as unsexy as it is aim
17:55
for 8 hours of Deep Sleep practice l
17:59
sleep NSE stress reduction meditation
18:02
deep breathing a walk reduce
18:06
caffeine Cravings are not the enemy
18:09
they're just a signal signal when you
18:12
understand what your body is really
18:13
acting asking for you know you can
18:16
nourish it in a way that makes you
18:18
strong vibrant and in control and the
18:21
good news is once you identify your
18:23
Cravings you can retrain your body your
18:26
mind to nourish it instead of harming it
18:30
you know when we decode those Cravings
18:33
you don't need to rely on that weak
18:34
willpower you can work with the body
18:37
rather than against it next time you
18:39
feel a craving pause and ask what's my
18:42
body really
18:43
wanting maybe the answer may not be food
18:46
at all thanks for listening to another
18:49
edition of today's nutrition I hope it
18:51
helped you or someone you love as always
18:54
you can listen again on my website Deb
18:56
for.com or on YouTube under Dr Deb Ford
19:00
or any place you listen to podcasts have
19:03
a great day and remember you have the
19:06
power in yourself but if you need help
19:09
let me know we'll work through it
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Cravings
Deb Ford DCN RDN
24 views
Feb 16, 2025
19:13
Maybe you struggle with cravings for chocolate, bread, pizza, pasta, cookies, chips, alcohol, - anything really. Well, today is the day for you! I am going to give you the latest on what we know about controlling those impulses so you can stay on track with your health goals. Or maybe you are tired of taking the weight loss shot and you want to naturally control your cravings. Today I am going to give you the tools to use to change the story of your health- put you back in the driver’s seat- naturally.