Seratonin and Food Cravings
One of the most common types of food cravings, especially amongst women, is for foods, or drinks, containing sugar, carbohydrates or alcohol. This leads to the well-known cravings for some kind of candy bar, chocolate, or any type of sweet thing. What most people do not understand is that these cravings are often not the result of some kind of psychological problem, but rather of physical triggers, such as hormonal imbalances, stress ? that could even be caused by an ill-conceived diet ? or insomnia.
One of the most common of these physical triggers is some kind of hormonal imbalance, especially a lack of a substance called serotonin. One of the most common causes of a lack of serotonin is, in fact, poor nutrition ? not necessarily little food, but food that is not particularly nutritious. Seratonin is a substance that makes us feel happy, so a lack of it can lead to sadness or depression, which in turn often leads to a desire for food, especially something sweet, to counteract the feeling of sadness.
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