Day 7 - June 2009 30 Day Self Challenge

7. Chocolate Craving Fix!

More women find themselves craving chocolate than men. Eating chocolate doesn’t always make you feel good, with those guilty after pangs and the physical side effects: weight gain, blood sugar imbalance and coming down after the high. Satisfaction can be very short lived. How can we cure our craving for chocolate?

So what is the cause of chocolate craving?
Recent research shows that craving for chocolate can indicate a nutritional deficiency. Chocolate cravings may be caused by a deficiency in magnesium. Many women crave chocolate with PMS; when magnesium levels are usually lower.

Chocolate contains not only caffeine (obviously addictive) but also alkaloids; the same addictive compounds found in alcohol and cocaine.

Chocolate can give a high similar to orgasm. Why? It contains mood enhancing substances which precipitate the release of super feel-good neurotransmitters. As the chemicals stream though your body you experience great pleasure: for some it’s better than sex.

People may self-medicate with chocolate, when they do not have other effective of reducing anxiety. This is because tryptophan, an amino acid, is essential in the production of the calming hormone serotonin.

The power of your chocolate craving may be increased by ‘psychological reversal’. You know theoretically that too much is not good for you, but feel helpless to resist.A complicated network of neural pathways, (habitual thought patterns), reinforce the action of getting chocolate, over resisting.

How to cure chocolate craving

Eating chocolate is only a problem if you are trapped in a cycle of binge eating. You know there’s a problem if you can’t resist, even if you want to, and if you feel guilty afterwards.
What can you do about it?

1) Look at the emotional states and thoughts which accompany the craving; are you feeling anxious, frustrated, sad? How do you feel afterwards? Use an emotional healing technique like EFT to release these emotions which trigger cravings.

2) Visit a naturopath, kinesiologist, or specialist doctor who can test for allergies and nutritional deficiencies like magnesium.