Major Chocolate cravings since going paleo page 2

[ChocoTaco369]

It might just be the sugar you crave. Maybe your body associates chocolate with sweetness.

Right. Chocolate is probably a metaphor for something else. Maybe it's sugar, maybe it's saturated fat, maybe it's micronutrients and antioxidants. Who knows.

The interesting thing about sugar cravings that I've found is they're your body calling out for carbohydrate. You can't crave starch because it's essentially tasteless, so you crave sugar. This manifests in your mind into things like cake, cookies, candy and chocolate. In reality, you could kill that craving with a potato because it's the carbs you want.

What I'd recommend is every time you get an intense craving for chocolate, eat a white potato or a cup of cooked white rice. I say a white potato and white rice instead of sweet potatoes or fruit because sweet potatoes and fruit are, well, sweet, and you'll continue the pattern of sugar craving. White potatoes and white rice are essentially sugarless, so it's a great test to see if it's your brain calling out for glucose. Are you putting your body through needless prolonged low-carbohydrate hell? If you are metabolically stable and at a healthy weight, there is no reason why you should be eating less than 100g of carbohydrate a day, which will afford you plenty of room for a potato or two or some rice. If you're trying to just tighten up a bit, you're better off upping your carbohydrate to boost your thyroid and circulating leptin because at this point, calories matter far more than carb count.

[sakura_girl]

What I'd recommend is every time you get an intense craving for chocolate, eat a white potato or a cup of cooked white rice. I say a white potato and white rice instead of sweet potatoes or fruit because sweet potatoes and fruit are, well, sweet, and you'll continue the pattern of sugar craving. White potatoes and white rice are essentially sugarless, so it's a great test to see if it's your brain calling out for glucose. Are you putting your body through needless prolonged low-carbohydrate hell? If you are metabolically stable and at a healthy weight, there is no reason why you should be eating less than 100g of carbohydrate a day, which will afford you plenty of room for a potato or two or some rice. If you're trying to just tighten up a bit, you're better off upping your carbohydrate to boost your thyroid and circulating leptin because at this point, calories matter far more than carb count.

I wish I knew this before, when I was going ultra low carb as an athlete and binging on chocolate because it gave me energy xD

Also magnesium helps with the craving for specifically chocolate. If the crappy kind of chocolate still appeals to you, or any other sweets for that matter, it's definitely the need to increase carbs.

[ChocoTaco369]

^^^I personally believe the ideal human diet is rich in organ meats, tubers/squashes, starches and fruit with moderate muscle meat intake and limited vegetable intake. I can't imagine Grok spending hours gathering leafy greens. They're a ridiculously inefficient source of energy and it would take more calories to gather them than you'd eat, and it's clear our digestive system is NOT meant to eat large amounts of fiber. I think the ideal human diet involves significant quantities glucose and moderate quantities of whole, natural fructose as fruits and starches are energy-rich sources of sustenance with the lowest levels of anti-nutrients (unlike, say, leafy greens, which are full of oxalates, goitrogens, insoluble fiber and other nasties with minerals bound up in fiber that can't be absorbed without heavy cooking). That's why I'll argue that low carbohydrate diets are medicinal and not optimal. People just need to know that this means 100-200g of carbohydrate a day average, not the ridiculous 300-400+g of refined sugar and flour the SAD gets you! Big difference!!

[sakura_girl]

I understand that now. I used to think you were really crazy, especially with the UD2 workouts, to be honest, but I get your food choices now. Except I still think we need fats from somewhere, and the grain-fed beef without added oils logic still ain't cutting it for me =P

[Kate_Tower]

I also find that eating coconut butter or oil helps with my cravings also. When I get a craving for chocolate I just give in and have a little square of good dark chocolate. Usually Dagoba or Green and Blacks. That little taste does the job and I am good.

Funny, I bought a mixed bag of chocolate with 82%, 70%, and 60% chocolates squares. I accidently opened one of the 60% and took a bite, blech! It was so sweet, I could not eat it. Your taste will adjust and just like they said already, once you taste the good stuff, kit katts will suck. Good luck!

[ChocoTaco369]

I understand that now. I used to think you were really crazy, especially with the UD2 workouts, to be honest, but I get your food choices now. Except I still think we need fats from somewhere, and the grain-fed beef without added oils logic still ain't cutting it for me =P

The UD2 was crazy, and I wouldn't do it again, at least right now. I actually enjoy the workouts because I must have some sort of mental problem and enjoy spending long hours in the gym, but the problem was the eating schedule. It was starve, starve, starve, starve, binge, try to eat normally for a day. It was making me develop food anxiety and I felt like I was going to give myself some type of eating disorder. I've gained a good bit of fat since the UD2 experiment, but it's not worth the mental stress. Maybe I'd do better on it now since I have experience and I have no deadlines, but I don't want to put myself through that right now.

I eat quite a lot of fat versus the average person. I just don't consume 150-200g a day like I used to when I first started and had a carb phobia. I also eat almost exclusively red meat and eggs anymore with less pork and little poultry. I don't buy grassfed meat because it's $15+/lb where I'm at, and I'm not paying double the money of wild caught salmon for a steak. Grain fed beef isn't inherently bad for you, anyway, it's just not ideal. I keep an eye out for "a product of Australia" meats at Shop Rite. In my freezer, I have several pounds of beef tenderloin, 5 lamb steaks and I just went through a package of ribeyes, all from Australia, and I never pay more than $4.99/lb because they're not labeled as grass-fed, even though they likely are since they're Australian (they're a TOTALLY different color than all the other beef, deep red instead of orange/red). I just picked up 2 pounds of New Zealand lamb shoulder steaks for $3.99/lb. Win?

[sakura_girl]

I eat quite a lot of fat versus the average person. I just don't consume 150-200g a day like I used to when I first started and had a carb phobia. I also eat almost exclusively red meat and eggs anymore with less pork and little poultry. I don't buy grassfed meat because it's $15+/lb where I'm at, and I'm not paying double the money of wild caught salmon for a steak. Grain fed beef isn't inherently bad for you, anyway, it's just not ideal. I keep an eye out for "a product of Australia" meats at Shop Rite. In my freezer, I have several pounds of beef tenderloin, 5 lamb steaks and I just went through a package of ribeyes, all from Australia, and I never pay more than $4.99/lb because they're not labeled as grass-fed, even though they likely are since they're Australian (they're a TOTALLY different color than all the other beef, deep red instead of orange/red). I just picked up 2 pounds of New Zealand lamb shoulder steaks for $3.99/lb. Win?

Holy crap, that's some cheap lamb shoulder! So jealous I don't even know where to find NZ lamb (other than Whole Paycheck), much less at a super cheap price. I thought that some of the Australian meats are partially grain-fed as well since the laws there aren't as stringent as NZ's though? And I wish wild caught salmon was that cheap on my end. I would actually prefer to eat fish almost every day, but grass-fed meat is actually a lot cheaper than wild-caught fish on my end. Boo.

[ChocoTaco369]

Holy crap, that's some cheap lamb shoulder! So jealous I don't even know where to find NZ lamb (other than Whole Paycheck), much less at a super cheap price. I thought that some of the Australian meats are partially grain-fed as well since the laws there aren't as stringent as NZ's though? And I wish wild caught salmon was that cheap on my end. I would actually prefer to eat fish almost every day, but grass-fed meat is actually a lot cheaper than wild-caught fish on my end. Boo.

I'll tell you where. Shop Rite sells New Zealand lamb shoulder in the freezer at all times. They're not fresh - they are frozen and imported - but they sell the New Zealand lamb for $3.99/lb and Australian lamb for $4.19/lb normal price. If you don't mind frozen lamb chops, there's hardly a better deal out there.

Now, if you check the Superfresh sales ads, they have Australian lamb on sale frequently (the nice thing about Superfresh is they put "grain fed" on their labels and if they're imported from anywhere or from the US, I won't waste my money on US lamb). I can often get fresh Australian lamb for $4-5/lb. Just recently I bought 6 large shoulder steaks for $4.49/lb. I rubbed them down with salt, pepper and rosemary, left them out on the counter for two hours to warm up, baked a cast iron skillet at 500*F for 30 minutes, tossed it on the stove at maximum heat, tossed in some ghee, hit the lamb for 90 seconds on each side, then it went into the oven for 3 minutes. AWESOME. If you want to cook a mean steak, follow that procedure. Heating cast iron at 500*F in the oven for a sear will be the best thing you've ever done for your steak!

[patski]

I'm also going to chime in and say this may be a sign of magnesium deficiency.

[J_walking_jonny]

The UD2 was crazy, and I wouldn't do it again, at least right now. I actually enjoy the workouts because I must have some sort of mental problem and enjoy spending long hours in the gym, but the problem was the eating schedule. It was starve, starve, starve, starve, binge, try to eat normally for a day. It was making me develop food anxiety and I felt like I was going to give myself some type of eating disorder. I've gained a good bit of fat since the UD2 experiment, but it's not worth the mental stress. Maybe I'd do better on it now since I have experience and I have no deadlines, but I don't want to put myself through that right now.

I eat quite a lot of fat versus the average person. I just don't consume 150-200g a day like I used to when I first started and had a carb phobia. I also eat almost exclusively red meat and eggs anymore with less pork and little poultry. I don't buy grassfed meat because it's $15+/lb where I'm at, and I'm not paying double the money of wild caught salmon for a steak. Grain fed beef isn't inherently bad for you, anyway, it's just not ideal. I keep an eye out for "a product of Australia" meats at Shop Rite. In my freezer, I have several pounds of beef tenderloin, 5 lamb steaks and I just went through a package of ribeyes, all from Australia, and I never pay more than $4.99/lb because they're not labeled as grass-fed, even though they likely are since they're Australian (they're a TOTALLY different color than all the other beef, deep red instead of orange/red). I just picked up 2 pounds of New Zealand lamb shoulder steaks for $3.99/lb. Win?

Most supermarket meat from Australia is usually advertised as 'hormone free', which is all the rage right now. It is usually grain finished but people don't seem to care if it's grass or grain fed. Actually, at some restaurants they proudly advertise that their beef is grain-fed. lol.
Depending on the weather conditions and location they can usually spend from anywhere to a few days to a few months in a feedlot. Same goes for dairy, if you were to buy average supermarket butter you can notice the color change depending on the season.