Today, about an hour after eating a full dinner of cauliflower curry, brown rice, oregano chicken, and a huge salad, I felt like having a bite of chocolate. Just a bite. And a cup of water. So, I was thirsty and craving chocolate, per usual. (For the record, this happens a few times a week – sometimes I satisfy my craving with a chocolate truffle, and other times I have a date with raw pecans or another healthy sweet snack instead).

Cravings are a normal thing. Yes – it does seem weird when you can almost hear your body cry out for chocolate sometimes, but we’ve been designed this way for good reason: to have enough of the right nutrients in our bodies. Just as the body uses hunger pangs to alert you to the fact that you are hungry and in need of food for energy, it also uses cravings to suggest that you should consider foods with certain nutrients. You shouldn’t be that surprised then that pregnant women have more obvious and more frequent cravings – I guess that’s what happens when two people (one inside another) crave the same thing at the same time…

I have no idea how bad I’ll be with cravings if I’m pregnant one day, especially because now, I already crave specific things pretty often. Maybe it’s because I believe strongly in listening to my body, I am especially sensitive to any slight cravings I may be feeling at any given time. When I was younger, I always felt kind of guilty about cravings – until I read up on the subject and started to understand that they’re really my body’s way of telling me which nutrients are running low… And the amazing thing about all of this is that cravings for some unhealthy foods – such as a lot of sweets or a salty, oily snack – does not mean that you’re actually craving unhealthy foods (because these often lack nutrients entirely). It simply means that your body is craving nutrients in healthier foods with a similar taste…

So, when Sherif sent me a this site he found via StumbleUpon, I got really excited because it lists virtually every type of food we crave, the nutrients our bodies actually need, and the types of healthy meals and snacks that have these nutrients… Check out this substitution chart for some ideas:

Source: Naturopathy Works,

*This post was sponsored by Taylor Herring.*