Abstract
Why do we eat junk: understanding food cravings and its effect on weight control
Siew Seen Lim
PhD candidate, Discipline of Physiology, University of Adelaide and CSIRO Human Nutrition
The most significant weight gain in women occurs in early adulthood. Co-incidentally food cravings are also most common in this age group. It is not known if cravings lead to weight gain in young women, or what causes food cravings.
To answer these questions, 206 young women aged 17 to 37 years old recruited for a 12-week weight loss trial were studied. Participants randomly received metformin (an insulin sensitising drug) plus general lifestyle advice, placebo plus general lifestyle advice or the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet. Their weight, sex hormones, stress levels and food cravings were measured before and after the treatment.
The most frequently craved foods among young women were sweets and fast foods. We found that those with higher stress levels experienced more food cravings. The foods that were craved more during stress were higher in fat. Young women with excessive male hormones also had increased cravings particularly for high fat foods. All three treatments resulted in similar reduction in food cravings. Those who started the trial with greater cravings for high fat foods or carbohydrates and those with higher stress levels were less likely to complete the program. Thus, cravings and stress may explain why young women give up on their weight loss efforts. Further studies are needed to explain why stress and excessive male hormones leads to cravings for fatty foods, and whether reducing stress and male hormones would make a difference to weight loss in young women.
