If you crave a food, should you eat it?

The next time I get a chocolate/dessert craving, I'll think about the article I just read in my American Fitness magazine about food cravings. (It was written by Nancy Clark, MS, RD.)

She talked about how a lot of athletes righteously snack on fruit and other good food while avoiding chocolate and other "bad" food like the plague. If we crave a certain food and try to ignore it, we are going to end up eating it sooner or later because our brains have a memory for the foods we crave. A lot of the time we will try to curb our appetites with apples, crackers, pretzels or a sugar-free popsicle, and then 500 calories later we finally give in to our craving and eat what we really wanted. (I've been there, done that many times.) If we just eat the chocolate in the first place, we can end up saving ourselves a lot of calories. 

Nancy goes on to explain that history shows that denial and deprivation of a desired food does not work permanently, but rather results in binge eating. One of my favorite quotes from this article was, "Athletes talk about needing "willpower" to curb their intake of the foods they crave. But most of us want to enjoy these foods. We want to be able to eat them sanely, not in what feels like an out of control pig-out. We need nutrition skill power (not will power) to learn how to manage today's food supply."

Here's some of Nancy's advice on dealing with food cravings:

1. Rule out hunger as the cause for sugar and carbohydrates. When our blood sugar is low our bodies will naturally crave sugar as a survival technique for quick energy. 

2. Ask yourself if you are eating the food for fuel or mindlessly devouring it for it's drug-like effect. (If you are eating the food to distract you from your emotions, you are using food for the wrong reason. No amount of bagels or chocolate chips will resolve the real problem. You are likely hungry for a hug.)

3. The next time you have a craving for a specific food, relax, enjoy eating it slowly, taste it, savor the flavor, and linger over the treat. Learn to enjoy the treat slowly in moderation without feeling guilty.

Her bottom line was that food is not addictive, and cravings are not bad. What's bad is trying to live hungry as well as denied and deprived of foods you enjoy. 

What do you do when you get dessert cravings? 

I've done them all: eat-500-calories-of-healthy-food, and then finally give in to my real craving, mindlessly devour my craving, and slowly enjoy my craving. I like the "slowly enjoy my craving" approach the best. Especially after reading this article. I want to work on all three of the above tips, especially number 3.