Hunger Vs Craving

In my last article, i spoke about health and what is the right food for optimum health. It is possible that some people might still complain about indigestion despite eating the best food. Let's understand what we might be doing wrong. There are still certain aspects we have to understand in the world we currently live. We are being constantly bombarded by advertisements everywhere, whether we are on the road or at home. The most tempting are the dead food commercials. Remember these?

There is one word you will see very often along with these: CRAVING!

So, let's understand what craving really is and what is the difference between craving and hunger.

Hunger: Basic human needs are food, water and shelter. Every single organism on this planet eats. Our body needs to be fed else it cannot function well. Its a dependency. Even if you forget to eat, your body will demand food from time to time. It will not forget. You can feel hunger as a grumbling noise your stomach makes when it is hungry. Every cell if your body will tell you it wants food. A new born cries when it is hungry. So, hunger is a uncomfortable demand of our body to feed it.

Craving: Thinking about food even when not hungry is craving. Craving is of the mind. Our mind is not the body but they are deeply interlinked. Craving happens when we are driven to food even if our body is not asking for it. These billboards, advertisements, constantly entice your thoughts and mind to act. Craving is driven by our mind's best friend - our tongues. Remember those aisles of chocolates, chips before the billing counters? They have not accidently been kept right before you checkout. Corporations and marketers know how powerful our minds are and how we can become slave to our own thought, minds, and eventually our tongues.

Mind can drive us to do crazy things which our body doesn't even need for survival. While basic human needs are simple, the needs of mind constantly evolve from more money, more prestige, more recognition, better car, better house, better everything. There is no end.

So, how does craving affect our health?

Remember, its our alimentary canal which has to do the digestion. Mind and our tongues don't play any role. Human digestion is a complex yet simple process. Digestion happens best when the right food is given when the body is ready for it. Ex: if you are making French-fries, you put the sliced potatoes only in hot oil. You don't put the potatoes in oil which is cold. If we do that, our potatoes will never cook properly and take more time then usual and the texture and taste will not be the same. Similarly, when we eat even if we are not hungry (only because we craved something), we end up causing more harm to our body then good. This is true even if we are eating the best food on the planet. Our stomach and body should be ready to digest (aka hungry) before we should put food into it.

Look at all the people who go to movies with a tub of popcorn and a huge glass of carbonated drink. They are not hungry. They are craving for those things because their minds are conditioned to eat those while watching movies. When we keep doing this to our bodies, we end up getting diseases and digestion issues in the long run.

So, always eat when your body is really hungry. Even if you are craving for your favorite meal, make sure you enjoy then when your stomach is hungry and not your mind. Stop snacking all day long. Your stomach and body needs rest too. If you keep your stomach fire running all day long, it will soon develop maintenance issues. If you don't feel hungry, skip the meal. We are not robots, who are supposed to eat every meal at a prescribed time.

Before gulping the next food item before you, ask this: Am i really hungry or is it just my mind craving for more?