Why cravings are good for you

When you’re pregnant, cravings are a bit of fun. Everyone has a bit of a laugh about what crazy combinations or concoctions you’re funnelling into your system, and whether it’s a boy or girl causing it.

But outside of growing a person, cravings can be the undoing of all our best intentions when it comes to being healthy. That said, cravings can be good for you.

Hang on, hang on, put the chocolate down for a second. They’re a good thing but don’t give in to them straight away.

Your cravings are your body’s way of trying to talk to you. It’s constantly telling you what it needs, but we often don’t understand the language it’s speaking and misinterpret the signals. So we think we’re craving some chocolate in the afternoon when instead our body is perhaps telling us it’s running out of puff because we didn’t feed it properly at lunch time or we overdid the coffee and the body has become worn out processing it.

Cravings can indicate a mineral or nutrient deficiency – particularly if you’re craving salty foods – or it could simply be that you haven’t been drinking enough water. Mild dehydration sometimes shows itself up as hunger, so if you get a hankering for something not so nice, have a glass of water first and wait to see if your body is happy with that.

Sometimes your cravings have nothing to do with what you’ve been feeding yourself, but come from another area of your life. Emotional turmoil, stress, or boredom among other things, can have you searching the cupboards for something to plug a gap that has nothing to do with physical nutrition.

So before you give in to your craving, stop and try to listen to your body. And eat the chocolate when all is quiet!