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Curb Your Carbohydrate Cravings

Martha McKittrick, RD, CDE

You are trying to follow a strict low carb diet, but all you can think about is bread. Why does eating one cookie set off an incredible urge to finish the entire bag? You're feeling very stressed out — the candy bar in the vending machine is calling your name.

Sound familiar? Food cravings are normal and are experienced by most people at one time or another. However, many women with PCOS experience carbohydrate cravings on a daily basis. Why do women with PCOS experience frequent carb cravings and is there anything that can be done about it?

There are many possible reasons for food cravings. Lets start by looking a woman with PCOS. Since the average woman with PCOS is struggling with her weight, she is probably on a restrictive diet. Chances are she has heard that carbs are "bad" and is therefore limiting them as much as possible. In addition, she has the added curse of insulin resistance, which seems to make her hungrier — especially for carbs. And lastly, she feels very anxious and stressed out about various issues, including her PCOS condition. There are several reasons why this woman has carb cravings, including the strict dieting, the minimal intake of carbs, the insulin resistance and stress.

Eating too few calories

Cravings are a common response to skipping meals or severely limiting your caloric intake. When your intake of calories is too low, your brain senses famine and produces extra neuro peptide Y (NPY). This is a brain chemical that encourages you to eat carbs. Your brain releases another chemical, galanin, which encourages you to eat and store fat.

Eating too few carbs

Eating too few carbs can actually trigger cravings for more carbs. Carbohydrate rich foods contain tryptophan, an amino acid which leads to production of a brain chemical called serotonin. Low levels of serotonin lead to insomnia, depression, increased sensitivity to pain and cravings for carbohydrate. Once carbs are eaten, serotonin levels rise, mood improves and food cravings are decreased. However, if too many carbs are eaten, especially in the form of sugary foods, your insulin levels will rise even higher, which will make carb cravings worse. The key is moderation and selecting more whole grain carbs versus white or sugary carbs.

High insulin levels

Many women with PCOS have insulin resistance, which leads to high levels of insulin. Unfortunately, high levels of insulin can stimulate the appetite for carbohydrate rich foods. In addition, high levels of insulin can stimulate the amount of fat that is stored. This is a vicious cycle, as the more fat that is stored, the worse the insulin resistance gets, the hungrier you get, the more you eat, the more fat is stored and so on.

Stress

Stress can cause chemical imbalances. Cortisol, a stress hormone that is produced in the adrenal glands when you are under pressure, triggers production of NPY, which causes carb cravings. Eating the carb will lead to an increased production of serotonin, which has a sedating effect on many people. So, in a sense, eating carbs will have a medicating effect.

Low blood sugar

If too many hours have passed between meals, your blood sugar will drop. Your body will crave carbohydrates. These are the foods that will provide the quickest supply of energy. However, by the time your sugar has dropped and you are starting to feel symptoms such as weakness, headache or extreme carb cravings, it is often difficult to control what you eat. Instead of reaching for your planned snack of low fat cheese and crackers, the candy bar in the vending machine looks much more appealing.

Tips to help control carb cravings

To prevent the craving:

1. Do not skip meals. Eat three meals and include snacks in between meals. Try not to let more than 5 hours go between meals and snacks. This will help keep blood sugar more level.
2. Include protein, fat and carbohydrate at each meal and snack if possible. For example, instead of just having a large apple for a snack, try having 1/2 of an apple with 2 tsp of peanut butter . Instead of having a 2 oz bag of pretzels for a snack, have a mini 1 oz bag of pretzels with a stick of mozzarella string cheese. This can help keep blood sugar more level.
3. Eat your snacks whether you are hungry or not. This will help ward off the drop in blood sugar that may happen. Once your sugar drops, it is very difficult to control the sugar cravings that probably will occur.
4. Keep food records. Try to identify patterns in your food cravings. Record any emotions that may be occurring prior to or right before the craving. This can help identify the cause of the craving. You may experience sugar cravings every afternoon at 3 pm. This could mean that you need to eat an appropriate snack at 3 pm. It could also mean that what you have had for lunch is not the best choice for you. Maybe you crave carbohydrates when you are stressed out.
5. Avoid very low calorie diets. Eating less than 1200 calories on a regular basis will likely lead to food cravings.
6. Include some carbs into your diet. Ideally, include a carb rich food at each meal, of course, limiting portion sizes! Focus more on whole grain carbs such as brown rice, oatmeal, 7 grain bread, bulgur wheat?, etc.
7. If you know you have a serious "trigger" food, avoid taking the first bite. For some people, taking the first bite of certain foods can open the floodgates to uncontrolled eating! Keeping food records can help to identify a trigger food.
8. Avoid keeping trigger foods in your house or office if possible. The less temptation you have, the better.

9. If you really crave a food (ie. chocolate), you have 3 choices — avoid it totally, allow yourself a small portion when you feel the craving (ie. 2 Hershey's kisses a day) or find a substitute (ie. Swiss Miss sugar free hot chocolate).
10. Try to wait 15 minutes before giving in to a craving. Try to engage in another activity such as taking a brief walk or making a phone call. Sometimes even a 5 minute distraction can help ward off the cravings.
11. If you do give into the craving and eat more than you would have liked, do not beat yourself up. Try to learn from the craving. What could you have done differently to have prevented the craving or how could you have dealt with it differently? Let it go — we are all human. Guilt is a very useless emotion when it comes to food — it only makes things worse!