What causes food cravings and how to control them – expert tips, including ‘urge surfing’
Whether it’s chocolate, cheeseburgers or Chinese food, experts explain what causes food cravings and give advice on how to control them
For some people, it is chocolate. For others, pizza. Or perhaps it is Chinese food, cheeseburgers or fries.
Most people experience food cravings of some type. But where do those cravings come from? And what, if anything, can be done to control them?
Cravings are nothing more than a desire for something that is rewarding, said Dr Rajita Sinha, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Yale’s School of Medicine in the US state of Connecticut.
“Different things can trigger them – smells or visual cues, for example,” she said. “In the case of food, our sensory systems trigger the motivational or reward pathways in the brain. You don’t need to see the food per se, but people, places and things that remind you of a food that is rewarding will do it. That motivational signal will fire up our brains.”
