Cravings are not exclusive to pregnant women but they are much more evident, frequent and strong in them. They are as varied as you can imagine, and can be one of the first symptoms of pregnancy. But, Is it necessary to control cravings? Can you get it?
Perhaps the key is to concentrate to form the mental image of something else. Although, if they are not harmful to health, there is no impediment to satisfy it, even if they are not too recommended but they would not affect us if we take them in moderation (sweets, for example), nothing would happen to please the craving.
The problem could come if what we feel becomes an obsession that ends in an impulsive binge, or if satisfying cravings gives us a feeling of guilt or shame for having succumbed to temptation (something that should not be too frequent among pregnant women).
So, to control them you would have to know where exactly cravings come from, what is the mechanism that activates within us that uncontrollable desire.
Recently the origin of cravings has begun to be studied. Psychologists Eva Kemps and Marika Tiggemann of the University of Flinders (Australia) have reviewed the latest research on cravings and how they can be controlled. The study has appeared in the latest issue of the journal of the Association of Piscological Science "Psychological Science".
What the latest research suggests is that the mental images we make of food They can be key. The force with which those who crave wanted a food was directly related to the sharpness with which they imagined the food.
As we are imagining a specific food, much of our brain capacity is focused on that desire and it is difficult for us to perform other tasks. Come on, like when we fall in love or the arrival of the baby is coming: we have the head "somewhere else."
That is, while we imagine something forming our mental image, we lose abilities to complete other cognitive tasks, we find the explanation for possible "delays" or mental slowness at times, during pregnancy, or at any other time when worries move our mind away. of what we are doing.
Studies have shown that when you are imagining something you have difficulties to complete various cognitive tasks. In one experiment, volunteers who craved chocolate remembered fewer words and took longer to solve math problems, than volunteers who didn't have chocolate cravings.
The new research led by Eva Kemps and Marika Tiggemann suggests that this relationship may also work in the opposite direction: it would be possible to use cognitive resources to reduce cravings. There are several ways to do it.
Participants who had experienced a craving reduced desire after they imagined common places, for example, they were asked to visualize the appearance of a rainbow in their mind.
The craving also decreases if we concentrate on imagining odors, although I imagine that in this case, not the aroma of the food in question (they were asked to imagine the smell of eucalyptus).
Staring at a thin screen: volunteers who had a craving were asked to stare at a screen with black and white dots (like a timed television). According to their testimonies, they experienced a decrease in the intensity of the images on the desired food and therefore a reduction in craving.
The truth is that I do not believe that the finding deserves a prize, nothing more logical than turning our mind away from what obsesses us to calm desire, or worry ...
For the researchers, these findings indicate that visualizing certain images in the mind could not only become a promising method to curb food cravings but also have implications for reducing the cravings for other substances such as drugs and alcohol.
In any case, you know, if cravings give you problems, you have to form other mental images to control them, objects, landscapes, smells or simply concentrate on a screen. Until other tempting food or drink images get in our mind, we will keep cravings at bay.
