Standard Advice about nutrition puts a lot of emphasis on fruits and vegetables. Now, “vegetable” is a pretty terribly overbroad category, and “fruit or vegetable” is even more so, but put that aside for a moment. In observational studies, eating more fruits and vegetables correlates with good health outcomes. This is usually explained in terms of micronutrients. But I think there’s a simpler explanation.
People instinctively seek nutrients—water, calories, protein, and other things—in something that approximates a priority ordering. You can think of it as a hierarchy of needs; it wouldn’t make sense to eat lettuce while you’re starved for protein, or beans while you’re dehydrated, and people’s cravings reflect that.
I have started calling this Maslow’s Hierarchy of Foods.
Vegetables do not rank highly in this priority ordering, so eating salads is pretty good evidence that all of someone’s higher-priority nutritional needs are met. I believe this explains most of the claimed health benefits from eating vegetables, as seen in observational studies.
Conversely, sugar is the fastest way to get calories (all other calorie sources have a longer digestion-delay), so craving sugar is evidence that someone has *not* satisfied their high-priority nutritional needs. Someone who eats a lot of candy bars is likely to be undereating in general, and not getting enough protein/fat/salt/micronutrients. I believe this explains most of the claimed health harms from eating sugar, as seen in observational studies.
A lot of people seem to think of cravings as a negative force, shifting people away from whatever optimal diet they would have chosen and towards superstimulus junk food. I think that’s a huge mistake, and that understanding how to eat well, and figuring out what’s going wrong in the modern food environment, requires making use of the information our food-related instincts provide.
iirc there was at least one study that showed that people don’t crave to eat what nutrients they are missing (I am guessing apart from drinking when you are dehydrated but that’s not really a nutrient)
Weight loss studies provide additional arguments against the “nutrient deficiency” theory.
In one weight loss study, participants following a low-carb diet for two years reported much lower cravings for carb-rich foods than those following a low-fat diet.
Similarly, participants put on low-fat diets during the same period reported fewer cravings for high-fat foods (18).
In another study, very low-calorie liquid diets decreased the frequency of cravings overall (19).
If cravings were truly caused by a low intake of certain nutrients, the opposite effect would be expected.
Someone who eats a lot of candy bars is likely to be undereating in general, and not getting enough protein/fat/salt/micronutrients.
No matter how much I eat, there is always a place for extra chocolate. (Verified experimentally in an all-you-can-eat restaurant.) Doesn’t work the other way round; if I eat a lot of chocolate first, then I am full and no longer interested in food… unless it is another piece of chocolate.
So I’ll stay with the “sugar is addictive” model. Maybe it works differently for different people, though.
Is there a place for unsweetened chocolate or alternately raw cacao, if you can make the palate adjustment to munch on something that bitter? I usually mix the nibs into something, but if my chocolate craving is high enough they grow worth the effort to eat straight. (Ie, rule out the sugar vs chocolate craving difference. In the case of chocolate or coffee, sugar/sweetener’s just serving the role of making what I’m actually craving more palatable.)
Worth trying, but I am afraid that the likely outcome would be “I consume all the unsweetened chocolate, and then still go looking for something else”. Though recently I partially substituted sweets by peanuts (peeled, unsalted), which is almost healthy… considering the likely alternatives.
Someone who eats a lot of candy bars is likely to be undereating in general, and not getting enough protein/fat/salt/micronutrients. I believe this explains most of the claimed health harms from eating sugar, as seen in observational studies.
It seems to me that we are a pretty good gear model that eating a lot of sugar leads to insulin swings that are unhealthy. Apart from honey there’s little sugar in the ancestary enviroment so it’s not surprising that the body isn’t well adapted to producing insulin in those contexts.
Standard Advice about nutrition puts a lot of emphasis on fruits and vegetables. Now, “vegetable” is a pretty terribly overbroad category, and “fruit or vegetable” is even more so, but put that aside for a moment. In observational studies, eating more fruits and vegetables correlates with good health outcomes. This is usually explained in terms of micronutrients. But I think there’s a simpler explanation.
People instinctively seek nutrients—water, calories, protein, and other things—in something that approximates a priority ordering. You can think of it as a hierarchy of needs; it wouldn’t make sense to eat lettuce while you’re starved for protein, or beans while you’re dehydrated, and people’s cravings reflect that.
I have started calling this Maslow’s Hierarchy of Foods.
Vegetables do not rank highly in this priority ordering, so eating salads is pretty good evidence that all of someone’s higher-priority nutritional needs are met. I believe this explains most of the claimed health benefits from eating vegetables, as seen in observational studies.
Conversely, sugar is the fastest way to get calories (all other calorie sources have a longer digestion-delay), so craving sugar is evidence that someone has *not* satisfied their high-priority nutritional needs. Someone who eats a lot of candy bars is likely to be undereating in general, and not getting enough protein/fat/salt/micronutrients. I believe this explains most of the claimed health harms from eating sugar, as seen in observational studies.
A lot of people seem to think of cravings as a negative force, shifting people away from whatever optimal diet they would have chosen and towards superstimulus junk food. I think that’s a huge mistake, and that understanding how to eat well, and figuring out what’s going wrong in the modern food environment, requires making use of the information our food-related instincts provide.
(Crossposted on Facebook)
iirc there was at least one study that showed that people don’t crave to eat what nutrients they are missing (I am guessing apart from drinking when you are dehydrated but that’s not really a nutrient)
someone found this: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/nutrient-deficiencies-cravings https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190524-food-cravings-are-they-a-sign-of-nutritional-deficit
From the first article:
No matter how much I eat, there is always a place for extra chocolate. (Verified experimentally in an all-you-can-eat restaurant.) Doesn’t work the other way round; if I eat a lot of chocolate first, then I am full and no longer interested in food… unless it is another piece of chocolate.
So I’ll stay with the “sugar is addictive” model. Maybe it works differently for different people, though.
Is there a place for unsweetened chocolate or alternately raw cacao, if you can make the palate adjustment to munch on something that bitter? I usually mix the nibs into something, but if my chocolate craving is high enough they grow worth the effort to eat straight. (Ie, rule out the sugar vs chocolate craving difference. In the case of chocolate or coffee, sugar/sweetener’s
justserving the role of making what I’m actually craving more palatable.)Worth trying, but I am afraid that the likely outcome would be “I consume all the unsweetened chocolate, and then still go looking for something else”. Though recently I partially substituted sweets by peanuts (peeled, unsalted), which is almost healthy… considering the likely alternatives.
It seems to me that we are a pretty good gear model that eating a lot of sugar leads to insulin swings that are unhealthy. Apart from honey there’s little sugar in the ancestary enviroment so it’s not surprising that the body isn’t well adapted to producing insulin in those contexts.