Eliminate Cravings For Greater Longevity

By Frances Keith


Imagine if too much of one's life is taken up by wanting or even dreaming about a certain thing. Or if one craves a thing too much for one's own good. When this happens someone will likely want to eliminate cravings.

The definition of a craving: a formidable urge or inner hunger that comes at unexpected times. A craving can be for something unusual that a man or woman does not normally want. It can also be for something that other people would not normally want.

A craving can create problems in everyday life. It can come at bad times such as while asleep or while at work. It can appear at even more troubling times such as in the middle of a crisis or during a very stressful experience.

Pregnancy is well-known to involve the appearance of cravings. Expecting mothers often report having them. They can be for highly undesirable things like horseradish, mustard seeds, and hot sauce. Women who are pregnant also report that they can come in combinations such as horseradish with ice cream, or hot sauce and pancakes. These irregular, unpredictable urges can, however, point to a nutritional need. For example, a craving for ice cream can imply a shortage of calcium. Likewise, a new-found taste for horseradish might mean the body is in need of sodium. Such tastes are usually temporary and disappear when the nutritional deficit is made back up.

Some desires are unwanted by those who experience them. For example, a woman may become addicted to lying inside a tanning booth because her body is hooked on the feeling that is created by the powerful UV radiation. Ordinary sunlight produces chemicals, hormones, and nutrients she may crave. Or she may crave the effect of ultraviolet rays on her internal sleep clock and body rhythm. A man may crave alcohol perhaps because he is becoming an alcoholic. At a social get-together he may drink in order to mask nervousness or due to stress. The same man may drink alcohol while he is alone because he longs for personal escape or because he is lonely. Regardless, someone may decide to eliminate his or her unhealthy impulses if the cost of indulging them becomes too great. If an urge or impulse produces problems with health or even financial difficulties, one may properly decide to eliminate the craving.

Usually, a craving has a physical or a psychological cause. Physical causes include malnutrition, too much stress, even disease. Psychological causes include mental illness, depression, and other problems. Eliminating an undesired urge will vary according to whether the urge has its basis in a physical or psychological cause.

A physical craving can be managed by handling its physical cause. If someone eats a deficient diet, repairing that diet can manage the unwanted urge or desire. When someone suffers from a disease or disorder, then treating that disease or disorder can produce an easing of symptoms when it comes to the unwanted urge. If a person suffers from stress, reducing the stress can surprisingly result in the removal of the urge.

A craving that has a psychological cause is best addressed in terms of that cause. If a food is craved, perhaps because it provides comfort, then finding another way to get the same comfort can eliminate the hunger. If someone is suffering from clinical depression, and as result craves a certain food or activity, then getting the proper treatment for this depression whether through counseling or getting medicated can eliminate cravings.




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