# Why do we crave certain foods like drugs?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 7, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173 "2011-07-07T12:19:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@phantom\_lamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phantom_lamb)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/1 "2011-07-07T12:19:53Z")
I mean when we have constant uncontrollable cravings for certain foods despite not being hungry. Could that mean that the chemicals in said food are reacting with your brain in a way not unlike drugs do? I’d just like to know what’s going on there.
There are a few foods that I have a very, very strong urge to eat all the damn time. Like canned olives for example. I go to great lengths to get them (they’re not available in my country), and when I have them I can’t make them last. I have to eat them all at once. When I manage to control myself and stop, I spend a few hours thinking about them, can’t get them off my mind and then finally succumb to the urge and finish them off. And then I need more. It’s kind of scary.
I’ve seen nicotine addicts behave more composed and controlled without cigarettes than I do when I run out of canned olives. **What kind of brain chemistry is at play here?**
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### Author:  [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/2 "2011-07-07T14:34:04Z")
This is potentially a component of an eating disorder–particularly, what you’re doing it referred to as “binging.” Even if your body size is normal, you can still have an eating disorder.
Honestly, you can get addicted to _anything_, psychologically. I myself am addicted to both cigarettes and gaming. One is a drug, the other isn’t, but I’ll be damned if both aren’t equally impossible to give up, and for very different reasons.
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### Author:  [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/3 "2011-07-07T15:32:22Z")
Canned olives is all about the salt. Try eating something extremely salty and see if that settles you down.
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### Author:  [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/4 "2011-07-07T15:41:43Z")
I know a woman who said that when she was pregnant she had an uncontrollable urge to eat baby powder. I checked and the brand she mentioned was almost pure corn starch, but why would it occur to anyone to eat baby powder?
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/5 "2011-07-07T15:43:12Z")
\*\*Why do we crave certain foods like drugs? \*\*
Well, if you consider drugs to be food, it’s no surprise you’re craving them.
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### Author:  [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/6 "2011-07-07T16:12:51Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#):
>
> I know a woman who said that when she was pregnant she had an uncontrollable urge to eat baby powder. I checked and the brand she mentioned was almost pure corn starch, but why would it occur to anyone to eat baby powder?
[Pica of pregnancy](http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/unusualcravingspica.html).
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### Author:  [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/7 "2011-07-08T06:17:59Z")
Maybe your system is short of Vitamin E and K? My guess is that these are in a more available form if canned in oil.
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### Author:  [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/8 "2011-07-08T15:25:36Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#):
>
> Honestly, you can get addicted to _anything_, psychologically. I myself am addicted to both cigarettes and gaming. One is a drug, the other isn’t, but I’ll be damned if both aren’t equally impossible to give up, and for very different reasons.
The problem is that besides the physical component of “real” drugs (like heroin or nicoitine) our own body produces a high which makes the brain dependent on that. That’s how you get addicted to non-corporal things or activities: you crave the rush that your mind produces.
Scientists did an experiment where they made mice (or rats?) addicted to sugar: they let them starve one day (to make them properly hungry) and then fed them as much sugar solution as they wanted. The mice binged predictably. After a couple of weeks, they stopped and gave normal food to the mice. The mice, after getting no sugar, showed the classic withdrawal symptons of addicts (known from other studies, where mice had become addicted to alcohol or heroin).
So if you eat a lot of sugar in a short time, you can become addicted to sugar and can’t stop eating and then you get overweight.
Also puts the disdain for obese people “They just lack willpower to stop eating” on another level.
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/9 "2011-07-08T19:05:18Z")
I have always wondered if fat and sugar taste nice in their various incarnations because they’re a quick hit in the survival consumption stakes .(No pun intended)
And for that reason the human sensory system tells you that they are desirable even when you don’t need food.
As for Olives in any form,totally disgusting !
If I were actually starving to death I would definitely eat them.
Otherwise EEEEECCCCHHHHHHH!
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### Author:  [@phantom\_lamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phantom_lamb)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/10 "2011-07-08T21:28:04Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#):
>
> Canned olives is all about the salt. Try eating something extremely salty and see if that settles you down.
I gave it some thought, but it’s really the overall taste that I crave, doesn’t seem to be the salt or vitamins. Weird. :dubious:
> [@constanze](#):
>
> The problem is that besides the physical component of “real” drugs (like heroin or nicoitine) our own body produces a high which makes the brain dependent on that. That’s how you get addicted to non-corporal things or activities: you crave the rush that your mind produces.
>
> Scientists did an experiment where they made mice (or rats?) addicted to sugar: they let them starve one day (to make them properly hungry) and then fed them as much sugar solution as they wanted. The mice binged predictably. After a couple of weeks, they stopped and gave normal food to the mice. The mice, after getting no sugar, showed the classic withdrawal symptons of addicts (known from other studies, where mice had become addicted to alcohol or heroin).
>
> So if you eat a lot of sugar in a short time, you can become addicted to sugar and can’t stop eating and then you get overweight.
>
> Also puts the disdain for obese people “They just lack willpower to stop eating” on another level.
Hmm. This just _might_ explain some food “addictions” I have.
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### Author:  [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/11 "2011-07-09T15:56:11Z")
Isn’t it possible that this is just OCD? The typical symptoms involve obsessing over and feeling compelled to perform some ritualistic behavior. While the behavior is often stereotyped as hand-washing or compulsive counting, eating olives would not be the strangest OCD manifestation out there.
Might be worth having a medical professional evaluate the situation.
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### Author:  [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/12 "2011-07-09T16:51:20Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#):
>
> Canned olives is all about the salt. Try eating something extremely salty and see if that settles you down.
“Salt! I need salt!” [(video)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeomnzdli1M)
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/13 "2011-07-09T18:22:57Z")
How odd, I’m not a picky eater (by any stretch) but a jar of olives in my pantry would be safe forever, or until guests arrive. A tin of cashews on the other hand would not last all that long.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/14 "2011-07-10T15:17:13Z")
“constant uncontrollable cravings” are OCD or really poor management of bad habits. Not a physiological need being satisfied.
this is especially likely if someone suffers from more than one such craving as the OP says (s)he does.
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### Author:  [@AntiCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AntiCoyote)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/15 "2011-07-10T16:24:20Z")
I have seen a lot of drug addicts in my day and I’ve never seen anyone crave food like drug addicts crave heroin or Valium or crack.
I’ve known people driven to rob people, hold up stores and pharmacies, I’ve never heard of anyone going to that extreme distress to obtain a particular food.
I think there are levels and people certainly use food to feel better the way that some people might pop Valium but the addiction level isn’t the same, except in a few rare cases, as there is always a few people that have extreme cases
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### Author:  [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2011, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/16 "2011-07-11T07:48:09Z")
> [@AntiCoyote](#):
>
> I have seen a lot of drug addicts in my day and I’ve never seen anyone crave food like drug addicts crave heroin or Valium or crack.
>
> I’ve known people driven to rob people, hold up stores and pharmacies, I’ve never heard of anyone going to that extreme distress to obtain a particular food.
Of course, with foods outside a lab experiment, you’ll never see the level of withdrawal that Valium or heroin addicts get, because food is everywhere. Also, if somebody gets the shakes when hungry, people will assume it’s a normal hunger reaction of low blood sugar, not a sign of withdrawal, unless they’re experienced scientists.
And people don’t have to rob stores to get food because food is much cheaper and easier to buy than heroin.
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### Author:  [@Lips\_Obsession](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lips_Obsession)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-crave-certain-foods-like-drugs/588173/17 "2011-07-12T15:56:20Z")
Apparently a recent study suggests that the brain reacts to fat-laden foods similarly to pot…
[http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20110712/HEALTH/107120320/Addiction-comfort-foods-linked-survival-instinct](http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20110712/HEALTH/107120320/Addiction-comfort-foods-linked-survival-instinct)