What deficiency causes junk food cravings?

For instance, chocolate cravings are often blamed on low magnesium levels, whereas cravings for meat or cheese are often seen as a sign of low iron or calcium levels. Fulfilling your cravings is believed to help your body meet its nutrient needs and correct the nutrient deficiency.

healthline.com - Do Nutrient Deficiencies Cause Cravings? - Healthline

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Cravings have been anecdotally linked to nutrient deficiencies for quite some time.

However, when looking at the evidence, several arguments can be made against this “nutrient deficiency” theory. The following arguments are the most compelling.

Cravings Are Gender Specific

According to research, a person’s cravings and their frequency are partly influenced by gender. For example, women seem to be up to twice as likely to experience food cravings as men ( 9 , 10 , 11 ). Women are also more likely to crave sweet foods, such as chocolate, whereas men are more likely to crave savory foods ( 11 , 12 , 13 ). Those who believe that nutrient deficiencies cause cravings often propose that chocolate cravings result from a magnesium deficiency, while savory foods are often linked to insufficient intakes of sodium or protein. However, there is little evidence to support gender differences in the risk of deficiency for any of these nutrients. One study reports that men generally meet 66–84% of their recommended daily intake (RDI) for magnesium, while women meet around 63–80% of their RDI ( 14 ). Moreover, there’s little evidence to support that men are more likely deficient in either sodium or protein than women. In fact, deficiencies in either of these nutrients are very rare in developed parts of the world.

Limited Link Between Cravings and Nutrient Needs

The assumption behind the “nutrient deficiency” theory is that those with low intakes of certain nutrients are more likely to crave foods containing those nutrients ( 15 ).

However, there is evidence that this is not always the case.

One example is pregnancy, during which the baby’s development can double requirements of certain nutrients. The “nutrient deficiency” hypothesis would predict that pregnant women would crave nutrient-rich foods, especially during the later stages of the baby’s development when nutrient needs are highest. Yet, studies report that women tend to crave high-carb, high-fat and fast foods during pregnancy, rather than nutrient-rich alternatives ( 16 ).

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What’s more, food cravings tend to emerge during the first half of pregnancy, which makes it unlikely that they are caused by an increased caloric need ( 17 ).

Weight loss studies provide additional arguments against the “nutrient deficiency” theory.

In one weight loss study, participants following a low-carb diet for two years reported much lower cravings for carb-rich foods than those following a low-fat diet. Similarly, participants put on low-fat diets during the same period reported fewer cravings for high-fat foods ( 18 ). In another study, very low-calorie liquid diets decreased the frequency of cravings overall ( 19 ). If cravings were truly caused by a low intake of certain nutrients, the opposite effect would be expected.

Specific and Nutrient-Poor Food Cravings

Cravings are generally very specific and often not satisfied by eating anything other than the craved food. However, most people tend to crave high-carb, high-fat foods, rather than nutritious whole foods ( 20 ). Consequently, the craved foods are often not the best source of the nutrient commonly associated with the craving. For instance, cheese cravings are often viewed as the body’s way to compensate for an insufficient calcium intake. However, craving foods like tofu would be more likely to correct a calcium deficiency, since it offers up to twice as much calcium per 1-ounce (28-gram) portion (21). Moreover, it could be argued that people with nutrient deficiencies would benefit from craving a wider variety of foods containing the required nutrient, rather than a single source. For instance, it’d be more effective for those deficient in magnesium to also crave magnesium-rich nuts and beans, rather than chocolate alone (22, 23, 24).

healthline.com - Do Nutrient Deficiencies Cause Cravings? - Healthline

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