Have you ever heard of Pavlov’s Dog?

In 1904, Ivan Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for his work in studying the digestive process in dogs. In the famous study that birthed Pavlov’s Theory of Classical Conditioning, Pavlov noticed that after a time, his dog subjects would begin to salivate whenever a lab assistant entered the room, regardless of whether they brought edible or non-edible items. The dogs reacted each time they saw the assistants' white lab coats, “which the animals had come to associate with the presentation of food. Unlike the salivary response to the presentation of food, which is an unconditioned reflex, salivating to the expectation of food is a conditioned reflex.”

Why do we bring up Pavlov’s Dogs? Because these famous canines illustrate how unconscious we can be when it comes to the triggers that cause our cravings.

The Science of Cravings

First, let’s talk about the difference between hunger and cravings.

As you get further away from your last meal and your blood sugar levels begin to lower, your body releases Ghrelin, which is also known as the “Hunger Hormone.”

Ghrelin signals your brain that you need to resupply calories and consequently increases your appetite and readies your digestive system to receive and process food.

Once you’ve eaten a sufficient amount of food and nutrients, Ghrelin production stops, and we feel satiated.

Hunger is turned on to drive us toward nourishment, then turned off when we are nourished.

A perfect system, right?

Well, unfortunately, there is more to it than that when it comes to cravings.

Cravings are driven by the release of dopamine in the brain. The more concentrated foods are in starch, sugar and fat, the larger the surge of dopamine will be. The larger the surge of dopamine released, the more desirous you will be the next time you come across cues and triggers associated with that food you crave.

“The brain dopamine system is really activated by cues,” says Kent Berridge, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan.

So what exactly are those cues and triggers?

Availability

Have you ever committed to losing weight and eating better, only to continue to succumb to the same, ultra-processed craving foods over and over again? The convenience of those foods may be the problem.

Having foods you crave around you all the time not only keeps them top of mind, but may constantly activate powerful sensory cues like sight and smell. You can only use willpower for so long before your environment overwhelms you.

“Eating hyperpalatable foods too often might interfere with how the brain processes hormonal signals so that one may feel continued cravings despite having eaten enough food,” says the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Source. “Animal studies have shown that brain signals can become disrupted when eating a very high sugar or high fat diet, which may trigger the release of hormones that reduce stressful emotions and therefore lead to a habitual desire for these “comforting” foods.”

Basically, cravings have a snowball effect - they will gain momentum and strength the more frequently you indulge them. And when these hyperpalatable foods are always in your environment - your house, the break room at your work, your car or even on a route you commonly drive - it makes it that much harder to break the momentum and stop the cravings.

This is where you can refer back to Week 6, “Environment Matters!” and shape the world around you to make cravings easier to avoid. Willpower is a finite resource, and you’ll want to save it in reserve by keeping your environment in line with your goals.

Lack of Sleep

About one-third of Americans suffer from poor/insuffient sleep according to the CDC. As we have stated in previous lessons, we are more likely to make poor decisions when we are tired, but the effects of poor sleep on weight management or fat loss go beyond that.

A Nurse’s Health Study found a strong correlation between those who slept 5 hours or less a night and weight gain and high BMI. This may be because of the effect sleep deprivation has on appetite hormones.

“Ghrelin levels (the hunger hormone) rise while leptin levels (the satiety hormone) drop with lack of sleep; this can cause higher calories to be consumed due to experiencing strong hunger at the same time that one feels less satiated after eating.” says the Harvard School of Public Health.

There is also the problem of being awake longer. Many clients have reported late night snacking as one of their biggest roadblocks on their fitness journey. Not only does this incur the hormonal effects mentioned above, but simply leaves you with more time awake to feel hungry and eat.

Stress, Trauma and other Emotional Eating

This is the big one.

Emotional eating may be the biggest nutritional challenge we encounter in the people we coach. Whether it’s triggered by the stress of job, relationships, grief or past traumas, falling back on food to soothe one’s self is often a daily cue or trigger.

As you know by now, one of our main principles of nutrition success is practicing awareness. This is your strongest weapon against emotional eating.

At the bottom of the page, you will see a button to download an “Emotions Wheel”. Author and Motivational Speaker Mel Robbins tells us that the average person only names 3 emotions when describing how they feel: Happy, Sad and Angry.

“But our emotions are actually much deeper and more complex,” says Robbins. “And the secret to getting unstuck, untriggered or freed up in any situation is to find the words that describe what you are truly feeling.”

This wheel is designed to help you start with core emotions and to be able to:

-Identify what you are feeling

-Ask why you are reaching for this if you are not hungry

-Recognize and address the feeling with something healthy (walk, breathing, water, etc)

Download the Emotions Wheel and the Notice and Name Worksheet. These materials are meant to be used in concert with one another.

Don’t think of these as items only to use at the end of this week, but to revisit and go back to any time you are struggling with cravings.

They will continuously help you get down to what your cravings are really about so that you can free yourself from them!