Have you ever found yourself itching for a piece of chocolate? Or a handful of salty, greasy potato chips? It’s not all in your head—food cravings are one of the ways your body tells you it needs something. Being low or deficient in certain micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) can cause you to crave everything from chocolate and fries to cheese or a burger or good steak.
Sometimes cravings are intuitive meaning you crave what you actually need— and sometimes they are counter-intuitive meaning you crave sugar or processed foods when you actually need something more nutrient dense.
Being low in these specific micronutrients can make you feel totally out of control when it comes to eating. Knowledge is power - so let’s take a looks at some common cravings and what they might be trying to tell you.
Let’s start with an easy one:
The salty stuff: cravings for high-sodium, salty foods might mean that the body requires more sodium OR is dehydrated. Sodium plays a critical role in maintaining the body’s fluid balance and is necessary for survival.
Similarly, people whose blood sodium levels have been purposefully lowered, either through diuretics or exercise, also generally report an increased preference for salty foods or drinks. Replenish with an electrolyte supplement like LMNT.
Another common / more widely known correlation -
Read meat: Wonder why you crave that steak or burger when you're PMS'ing? Being low in iron, which is especially common among premenopausal women, vegetarians, and vegans, is notorious for causing meat cravings.
You can get a good dose of iron from meat, poultry, and even fish. Plant-based sources of iron aren't as readily used by the body, but your best bets include dried fruits, cashews, pumpkin seeds, legumes, and iron-enriched pastas and grains. For optimal absorption, make sure you eat your iron with a source of vitamin C: Think steak with spinach.
Craving chocolate or sugary / processed foods? You might need more calcium and magnesium. Low levels of these two minerals—which often go hand in hand—prime you for sugar and salt cravings. Low magnesium levels, specifically, are known to trigger chocolate cravings. This one can be a catch-22 which is why it’s important to understand. Stress and eating too much sugar can deplete your calcium and magnesium stores further worsening cravings & increasing your tendency to want to stress-eat.
Hit your magnesium quota by proactively eating more nuts, seeds, potato skin, dairy, and broccoli.
Get your calcium fix from minimally processed dairy products like greek yogurt, kefir, and cheese and dark leafy greens.
Certain vitamin and mineral deficiencies can also cause more generalized cravings.
B Vitamins help your body deal with stress. In periods of high stress, your body uses up this category of vitamins more quickly, making you prone to the effects of stress—like overeating or stress-eating by reaching for those less-nutrient dense comfort foods. Other B vitamin depleters include caffeine, alcohol, added & refined sugars, and medications like birth control pills and NSAIDs.
Boost your stress-fighting B vitamins by eating more meats, chicken, salmon, seafood, dairy, egg yolks, and veggies & fruit such as dark leafy greens, bananas, potatoes, and avocados. Eat the rainbow - variety is key.
Zinc: This mineral tends to be low in elderly people and anyone under a lot of stress. It's not so much that low zinc causes a specific craving, but it does significantly dull your sense of taste, prompting you to want to add more salt or sugar to foods and seek out extra sugary and salty foods to satisfy.
Zinc is harder to find, but it's most prevalent in some animal sources like oysters, crab, liver, dark chicken meat, and to a lesser extent, eggs, green peas, and nuts.
Omega-3s: If you’re craving pizza or just straight cheese, you may be low in essential fatty acids AKA omega-3s. EPA and DHA are your best bets for squashing these cravings and they are most abundant in fatty fish like salmon, sardines, and canned tuna if it's processed appropriately (or are trust-worthy brands). Even pasture-raised eggs from chickens that have spent time in the sun can pack as much as 600 mg of omega-3s per egg—about a third of your recommended daily value. If you’re not a fan of salmon or tuna, this would be a good one to get through a supplement like Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega.
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