Do you ever crave for pizza, potato chips, or coke? All of us occasionally have an irresistible urge for certain food or beverage. People often make the mistake of trying to deny a craving. Some individuals may succeed, but more often than not, denial fosters an even stronger desire for the food. Unless the objects of craving poses a serious health risk (for instance, a person with high blood pressure craving salty foods), experts say it is better to satisfy the longing, but to do so in moderation.

Causes:

• Hormonal changes. When the body experiences menstruation, pregnancy or menopause, fluctuating testosterone and estrogen levels may cause strange cravings.
• Stress and sadness. Being dissatisfied your present situation may cause emotional eating.
• Specific illness, addiction, or deep-seated psychological problem.
• Some medications, particularly steroids and other hormonal preparations, can promote food cravings.
• Dehydration occurs as mild hunger, so the first thing to do when you get a strange craving is to drink a full glass of water.
• Lack of nutrients. If the body has inadequate nutrients, it will produce odd cravings.
• Excessive training or exercise can also cause emotional eating.
• Season and Climate. Often the body craves foods that represent the season and climate. Like during summer people crave for cooling foods like fruits, and ice cream.

Prevention:

• Eating a diet high in starchy foods along with moderate amounts of protein may prevent the intense craving for sweets because these complex carbohydrates and protein are metabolized more slowly than sugars, thus providing a steady supply of glucose.
• Avoid becoming overly hungry, which can lead to overindulgence.Hunger is the body's way of letting you know it's running short of fuel; it's a powerful instinct that is almost impossible to deny for any length of time. Eating small, frequent meals on a regular schedule is the best way to avoid feeling hungry.
• Inadequate mineral levels produce salt cravings; overall inadequate nutrition produces cravings for non-nutritional forms of energy like caffeine. Try adding a daily vitamin supplement to your diet to stave off those odd cravings.

Pregnancy cravings: Pregnant women often develop strange food cravings, especially for sour and salty foods. In this case, the craving reflects a physical need because during pregnancy, a woman's volume of blood doubles, and as a result she needs extra sodium to maintain a proper fluid balance. Normally, adding salt to food to taste supplies the necessary sodium. As for other cravings, there's usually no harm in satisfying them in moderation, provided overall nutritional needs are met. But if the cravings are for bizarre indigestible items like laundry starch, soil, clay, and ice, it constitutes pica (PICA a bizarre phenomenon) and may reflect a serious medical or psychological problem.

Pica: Pica is a bizarre phenomenon wherein a person craves for non-food items such as dirt, ashes, clay, chalk, ice, laundry starch, baking soda, soap, toothpaste, paint chips, plaster, wax, hair, etc. The word Pica comes from the Latin term magpie - a bird that will eat almost anything.

• Childhood pica should be distinguished from a child's natural curiosity about objects in his environment. It is normal for a young child to learn about new things by putting them in his mouth, but he's not obsessive about it. But a child with pica craves certain non-dietary substances, often paint chips, soil, or clay, and will go to great lengths to get them. Young children with pica are sometimes mentally retarded or emotionally disturbed; others are normal, but they may lack appropriate intellectual stimulation or love and nurturing.
• Adult pica sometimes develops during pregnancy; it may also reflect an emotional problem or nutritional deficiency problem or nutritional deficiency. In any event, pica at any age requires treatment to overcome it.