Cravings...need Or Desire?

[nailit]

What are your experiences with craving for different things?
We all crave things. We crave love and sex (needed for species survival) A heroin craves smack (not needed at all). A pregnant woman craves chalk, coal, soil, etc (needed or not, nobody seems to know).
At the moment I am craving
* a cigarette (not smoked for 2 years and my body has no need of nicotine),
* alcohol, (having vodka and coke and KNOW that I really don't need it)
* meat (have been experimenting with a vegan diet for a week and have now got the pork chop in the oven...the hunger is too much)
*sugar (ate so much fruit this week that I'm surprised that I'm craving refined sugar).

So what is the score with cravings (in your opinion)?
How do we know when a craving is really our body telling us to give it something that it NEEDS or when it is just a habit that wont go away?

Stories, anecdotes, views?
Thanks

[Jackdaw33]

I'm very lucky. I don't have cravings. If I want something I'll have it. Fags, booze, food, you name it.

[nailit]

//I'm very lucky. I don't have cravings. If I want something I'll have it. Fags, booze, food, you name it//

Beginning to think that way. Spent 50 yrs battling cravings one way or another.

[ummmm]

When I go to Ireland with the in laws we have a fry up everyday whether we like it or not. Within a few days I'll be craving veg.

[woofgang]

Hard to say really.....I have never craved love in the abstract....actually I have never craved sex in the abstract either. We know the chemistry of nicotine craving and that, I think like alcohol and some drugs, crosses the line from craving to addiction. There is research that suggests that some people are more likely to become addicted both to substances that have a clear addictive chemistry, like nicotine, but who also seem more likely to become sugar addicted or food addicted, maybe even exercise addicted. I did try a meat and fish free diet once and it was okay but not massively enjoyable, also my digestion doesn’t cope well with many kinds of fruit and veg so it was a bit limited. Oddly, the only time in my life that I have experienced real cravings (I have never smoked) was when I did Atkins and I would seriously have killed for carbs....not oily fried stuff or sugary items but things like rice, bread and pasta. I am fairly dubious about any craving being the body saying “I need this"

[jourdain2]

Desire - I know I don't need alcohol, but I crave it at certain times.
When pregnant :-
1st time, lemons - ate them like oranges, must have needed vitamin C.
2nd time, asparagus and wine-gums ( you tell me - but I sat on the floor of the Supermarket and cried when I couldn't get asparagus soup!)

Remembering this, I would say that most 'cravings' are longings.

[nailit]

Thanks for replies. Sorry late reply, forgot I'd posted it....

[Smowball]

Like ummmm when I'm abroad within days I'm absolutely craving vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, peas etc. Here when I'm thirsty I'm usually desperate for fizzy water and if there's none In the house I'll get in car and drive to shops to buy some.

[Patsy33]

Sometimes, it is our body's way of telling us we are lacking in something. I remember a few years ago craving watercress iny ham sandwiches all the time and brocolli, as soon as I got it home I would cut off the stalk wash it and eat it! Couldn't get enough. Then found out thru blood test I was lacking iron.

.

[woofgang]

Patsy that’s odd, because its nowhere near as good a source of iron as red meat or liver...so I wonder why you didn’t crave those......