A while back, I had a chocolate addiction. I had it bad. I wanted chocolate 24 / 7. I wanted it while eating meals, I wanted it while working on the computer, I wanted it while walking the dogs. I craved chocolate all the time, the way vampires craved human blood.
Someone told me that this was a sign of magnesium deficiency. It seems that when your body is low on magnesium, you crave chocolate. Your body uses it for over 300 enzyme reactions so deficiency can lead to migraines, insomnia, anxiety, and other problems.
I started taking magnesium supplements and my cravings went away. I love chocolate and still try to eat a little bit every day, but I’m not constantly thinking about it.
Now I find I’m craving soda in the same way. Of course I like the sugar, but I also love the feel of the carbonation on the back of my throat and the surge of taste on the very back of my tongue when I swallow. There’s no real way to hold the liquid there as it travels down past your esophagus, so it’s a momentary pleasure, that you want to keep doing to prolong the sensation.
I try to limit myself to one soda a week. Most of the rest of the time I drink water, or Kool-Aid. But after I finish my soda each week, I want to grab a two-liter bottle and just chug the whole thing. Of course, that would produce one awesome belch, but that’s a topic for another time.
Doing some research, it seems your brain produces dopamine (the feel good hormone) after you eat sugar, and your brain wants to produce more dopamine, so it wants more sugar. More sugar would be bad for me in any number of ways, so I have to rein in on my consumption of it. But the craving is still there. I’m going to have to do a little more research into how to stop the cravings so it doesn’t get out of hand.
In the meantime, I’m going to have another soda. (Kidding!)
If you liked this look into the way my mind works, why not buy me a chocolate chip cookie through my Ko-Fi page? https://ko-fi.com/jhusum