5 Unexpected Causes of Your Intense Food Cravings.
Ask anyone what foods they crave, and most people will be able to reel off at least a couple of items without hesitation.
Take me, for example. My name is Elaine Magee, and I'm a chocoholic. Just about the only food I crave is chocolate (and sometimes cake and, about once a year, cream puffs or éclairs).
I find comfort in knowing I am not alone. Surveys estimate that almost 100% of young women and nearly 70% of young men had food cravings during the past year. That covers most of us, doesn't it?
It's All In Your Head
Those who don't have food cravings might say that such cravings are "all in your head," and new research suggests they are right. It is all in our heads: several specific areas of our brains, actually. Areas of the brain responsible for memory and sensing pleasure are partially to blame for keeping those food cravings coming.
Three regions of the brain -- the hippocampus, insula, and caudate - appear to be activated during food-craving episodes, according to new research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center. Their brain tests suggest that memory areas of the brain (which are responsible for associating a specific food with a reward) are actually more important to food cravings than the brain's reward center.
This presentation contains images that were used under a Creative Commons License. Click here to see the full list of images and attributions:
https://link.attribute.to/cc/1297974
5 Unexpected Causes of Your Intense Food Cravings.