9 Things Your Food Cravings Are Telling You

It’s 10 p.m. and you’re on the prowl for potato chips. A deadline looms and all you can think about is chocolate. You’ve sworn off pastries and now you dream exclusively of croissants.

If food cravings have taken hold, chances are you’re in conflict with yourself over them.

“We use the word ‘craving’ to describe an intense level of desire, which we usually think of as negative,” says Mark Schatzker, writer in residence at the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center at McGill University. “We associate it with things like addiction.”

Indeed, many of us distrust, deny, or try to vanquish our cravings, particularly for foods deemed “bad.” But experts argue that cravings are a natural part of being human. They serve an evolutionary purpose and send us important messages — if only we understand what they’re trying to say.

Craving is the first in a two-step ­motivation-and-reward system, ­Schatzker explains in The End of Craving: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of Eating Well. Craving is the dopamine-fueled motivation that is satisfied by the opioid-­releasing reward of enjoyment.

By coupling a specific desire for something we need — say, water — with a pleasurable sense of ahhh when we gulp it down, we’re invoking a system that has supported our survival as a species.

So, what’s going on when we crave foods we don’t truly need, or when we fail to experience pleasure from eating foods we crave?

“Craving always delivers information,” says Marc David, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. “It delivers information about our nutrition, our mind, and our emotions. When we experience cravings, it’s our job to be curious and ask what our cravings are trying to tell us.”

What’s the Message?

We spoke with several experts about what might be driving your food cravings.

1) You’re not sleeping enough.

We think of serotonin as our “happiness” hormone, but it’s also one of our wakefulness hormones, Haas explains. Early-morning light cues the pineal gland in your brain to signal the circadian system, which triggers a cascade of hormone secretion, including serotonin.

“When serotonin levels are low because your circadian rhythm is imbalanced from insufficient or disrupted sleep, this will increase appetite,” she says. “Specifically, it will increase cravings for carbohydrates and sugars.”

2) Your senses have been hijacked.

Your brain is a reward-predicting machine, explains Schatzker. When you smell and taste food, the brain anticipates the nutrition your body will receive. “But we live in a world where what we sense no longer matches what we get,” he adds.

Artificial sweeteners, additives that mimic the creaminess of fat, and flavors that bear no connection to the foods they imitate all create uncertainty in your brain about whether the body will actually receive the expected nutrition. (To learn more about these ever-ubiquitous products and their impact on your health, check out “The Truth About Ultraprocessed Foods.”)

“In the face of uncertainty, the brain is designed to work harder and strive for more,” he notes. If sweetness doesn’t always mean sugar and creaminess doesn’t always mean fat, your brain may continue to crave what it thinks it has missed.

3) You’re undernourished.

It’s hard to prove whether cravings can point to specific deficiencies, both because of our ultraprocessed foodscape and the ethical challenges of researching nutritional deficiencies in humans. After all, scientists can’t force participants to become nutrient deficient for the sake of a study.

Still, some evidence suggests you may crave nutrients your diet is lacking. In a 1939 paper, researchers reported that 15 newly weaned infants, when presented with a range of whole foods and given unrestricted choice, self-selected diets that met their nutritional requirements during the six months or more they were monitored. Several infants were undernourished and suffering from rickets when they entered the study; all chose foods that brought them back to health.

4) Your gut microbiome is out of balance.

Gut dysbiosis — an imbalance of microorganisms in the microbiome — can create cravings in a couple of different ways, says Haas.

“First, when a population of a potentially pathogenic microorganism, such as candida, strep, staph, or salmonella, becomes overgrown, it can drive cravings for foods that are beneficial to that microorganism,” she explains. These may include cravings for sugar and fat.

An out-of-balance microbiome also affects your hormones. “Dysbiosis can increase insulin, and high insulin levels increase cravings,” she adds. Downstream, this affects serotonin levels, which can also drive cravings. (Learn how to protect and strengthen your microbiome at “How to Build Your Microbiome.”)

5) You’re not present.

Perhaps you’re preoccupied or multitasking at mealtime. If you’re not paying attention, you’re likely to overconsume, David explains. It will take more for your brain to notice it’s satisfied.

“A lot of times, people are in overdrive when they have a craving,” he explains. “They’re in devouring mode, almost self-abandoned. They’re not registering taste, pleasure, aroma, or satisfaction. So they’re not actually getting what they want.”

6) You’re caught in a habit loop.

If you consistently crave foods in certain situations — diet soda at your desk, popcorn while watching TV, ice cream before bed — your cravings could be part of a habit loop.

“The context triggers a craving, which causes a behavior to occur that delivers a rewarding experience of some kind,” explains Erin Laverone, cofounder and CEO of the Habit Coach Professionals.

7) Your emotional needs aren’t being met.

“When I ask people what they’re really craving, it takes about 30 seconds for them to realize it’s not food,” says Geneen Roth, author of several books, including Women Food and God.

“There’s a craving beneath the craving,” says Roth. “We crave our own attention. We crave a sense of coming home to ourselves. We crave being on our own side. Food has become a way of giving to ourselves.” (To learn more about this type of craving, see “How to Recognize and Satisfy ‘Heart Hunger.’“)

How to Respond

Whether your cravings stem from physiological or emotional sources, experts offer similar counsel: Practice mindful, nonjudgmental awareness that empowers you to make choices that serve you.

“Anytime we want to change an eating pattern, mindfulness is a great place to start,” says Haas. “When we bring curiosity to a craving, it’s no longer good or bad. It’s just information.”

Laverone recommends mindfulness techniques such as “urge-surfing,” in which you gradually build tolerance for emotional discomfort without acting on impulses.

Meanwhile, David sometimes advises people to relax into the craving and mindfully enjoy the food. “Sometimes we have to take the fight away from the craving,” he says. “When you’re fighting yourself, you can’t possibly win.”

This article originally appeared as “What Your Food Cravings Are Trying to Tell You” in the March/April 2025 issue of Experience Life.