Nutrition Tip Tuesday From the RD: Food Satisfaction & Cravings

Hello again BHC readers! I hope you all had nice weekends celebrating St. Paddy’s day and watching March Madness. The UVA loss crushed my bracket and the UNC loss crushed that (and well as my fiance’s heart.)

I’m back this week with our second installment of Nutrition Tip Tuesday.  I want to talk about satisfaction this week, specifically, satisfaction surrounding our food. Have you ever been craving a burger and ordered a salad instead? Or wanted a chocolate chip cookie for dessert, but chosen to eat a few chocolate chips in its place? Have you made these choices because the latter option is “healthier”? I don’t know about you, but I certainly have. I think we are programmed by our society to deny these cravings, and because of that, there is often guilt associated with listening to those cravings.

 

But what I usually find is that when I ignore my desire for a cookie and eat chocolate chips instead, I don’t feel satisfied or fulfilled by that choice. I usually end up eating more and more chocolate chips in an effort to satisfy my initial craving, when eating the damn cookie to begin with would have immediately satisfied that craving, both emotionally and physically.

I see so many articles and posts on the internet saying “if you’re craving potato chips, try kale chips or pumpkin seeds instead!” If you’re craving kale chips, by all means eat them! But if you’re craving potato chips, allow yourself to eat a portion of them, let go of any feelings of guilt, and call it a day. Don’t deny that craving, obsess about the fact that you really want those chips, and try to fulfill that craving with a less satisfying food. Think about it in another area of our lives. We would never say “I’m really in the mood to go for a walk in the sunshine” and then “but marching in place in my living room would be a good substitute.” So why should we do that with food?  Life is too short.

So my tip for you today, is to listen to your cravings. If your body is saying “that burger sounds delicious” it may be a sign that you need more protein or iron, or that your taste buds are in the mood for a burger, and not a salad. Listen to that! Because ignoring those cravings leads to feelings of deprivation. And feelings of deprivation can lead to stress, anxiety, and potentially overeating of an unsatisfying food in the future. Learning to trust our bodies to fuel us properly is a huge part of developing a healthy relationship around food, so you never feel out of control or deprived. So eat the cookie. Order the burger. Drink the beer. And then move on with your day!

If you have any questions or want to see any specific nutrition-related topic on an upcoming post, leave us a comment below!

xo,

Emily (& Bess!)

PS: If you missed the first installment of Nutrition Tip Tuesday, click here to read it!