Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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So, many people, myself included, are of the belief that if you crave a food (I mean a good Paleo approved food, mainly fruit or sometimes bacon) that it usually means you are missing something in your diet. A vitamin, mineral, whatever.

If that is indeed true, and you're jonesing for some strawberries or raspberries or maybe a big hunk of bacon, shouldn't you just be able to pop a good multivitamin/mineral pill and watch the craving go bye-bye?

I'm curious to hear others' experiences with cravings and whether vitamins, etc. help with cravings.

flag	asked Sep 5 at 22:56 JB Primal 1,166●9

I am craving broccoli so bad right now. – ROB Sep 5 at 23:45

Dan · Answer 1 · 2012-09-05 23:23:06Z UTC

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A multivitamin or mineral covers very little of what we actually need. Amino acids, fats, trace minerals, antioxidants, electrolytes, and more.

answered Sep 5 at 23:23

Dan
4,136●5●12

Crowbar · Answer 2 · 2012-09-06 01:32:43Z UTC

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When my mother was pregnant with me, she craved rubber. She was caught hiding in the garage eating a brand new pair of flip-flops. She asked her doctor what she was missing, and he said, "Brains, nobody eats rubber."

Ah, the wonders of Pica.

answered Sep 6 at 1:32

Crowbar
7,167●2●17

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I like the doctor's response! – MathGirl72 Sep 6 at 2:23

Karma · Answer 3 · 2012-09-06 01:09:21Z UTC

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In addition to Dan's comments (+1, btw) your body does not readily absorb a lot of the vitamins that are in pill form...

answered Sep 6 at 1:09

Karma
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Very true. – Dan Sep 6 at 4:01

Lisanne · Answer 4 · 2012-09-06 02:01:26Z UTC

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Why take a supplement when you could eat real food?

answered Sep 6 at 2:01

Lisanne
31●1

I'm speaking more towards taking a vitamin/mineral complex to curb cravings for sweets. Rather than eat berries, etc and ingest the un-needed glucose, does supplementing what your body is really "craving" ward off the desire to eat a pint of strawberries and a bunch of grapes? – JB Primal Sep 6 at 19:15

PilatesGatekeeper · Answer 5 · 2013-04-11 02:56:44Z UTC

If you're craving something paleo-approved, by all means go for it! I've had paleo-approved cravings (salmon, lamb, bacon, etc.) and I yeilded to them with no shame. Like what Dan said, pills don't give us amino acids, trace minerals, fats, antioxidants, electrolytes, etc. Craving berries may mean your body needs vitamin C, craving bacon may indicate that you need more riboflavin. There might be something you may very well need from a paleo approved craving, we may not even know what yet. It's just your body telling you you need something. Hey, better (and easier) to get what you need from a clean, wholesome source than a crummy SAD source! All I can say is that there's no shame in having a paleo-approved craving.

I have found that calcium/vitamin D suppliments kept my dairy cravings away and magnesium suppliments kept my chocolate cravings away, but they're not foolproof.

Dealing With Cravings of “Healthy” Food

5 Answers