the arithmetic of food cravings

Food cravings can be a battleground of wanting, worry, overthinking, and conditional permission plus the reaction to all of that busy thinking…

I want chips. I shouldn’t have chips. Okay, I can have them, but only 1 portion. A portion is 12 chips?! That’s preposterous!

In one type of reaction, some folks experience the self-inflicted rule of one portion and a rebellious part comes forward to lead an eating experience that feels compulsive or out of control.

In another type of reaction, others may experience that rule and instead decides to remove all permission—A restrictive part coming forward to talk them out of eating the food at all.

In our culture, to clearly feel your desires and to seek pleasure is generally frowned upon. Choices, especially food choices, are to be optimized for fuel or nutrition.

I do not agree with this.

I have snorkeled through the minds of enough clients to know that the rules/expectations around food can lead to extreme reactions (see above) that feel emotionally draining and challenging.

If we want a different outcome, we need to approach the experience before the reaction takes place. In the before, we are examining fears (My body will change), assumptions (I won’t stop), or worries (I am out of control). What if arithmetic could help?

When I read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa, I was struck by the math equations embedded in the text. It got me thinking about how formulas and familiar algebraic rules could help clarify the sometimes confusing experience of a food craving.

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We’ll start with a basic formula that will get more complicated as we go along. Boiling down a food craving to its most simple, a craving is simply a food you prefer with a sense of urgency:

You like a food and you notice you want it (ideally right now). This is familiar to all of us.

Of course, it is not that simple. Because the above doesn’t capture all that someone encounters when they notice they would really like some chocolate, or cheesy crackers, or steamy croissant.

No, they notice the craving, then they are bombarded with a cultural story about that food. This could look positive:

If they feel positively about that food and are free from food rules, that excitement can make the craving sharper, and likely will make the experience of eating even more delightful.

However, if the cultural message about the food is negative or feels like something they “shouldn’t do”…well, that could look like:

These two experiences lead to a significant change in the way someone experiences a craving. One may feel insecure about the craving, feel that the food must be “perfect” in order to say yes, or they start to overthink whether or not it is “appropriate” or “moderate” to have the food (i.e. looking outside of themselves for conditions that make eating “ok”).

Cravings also can be intertwined in experiences of emotional eating. For this, let’s imagine someone encounters a trigger (loneliness, overwhelm, stress, etc.); this trigger will bounce against their current emotional state. If food is a primary coping tool, that intense emotional energy could wake up a preference, leading to a craving.

Of course, no individual experience can be alchemized in a math equation, but there is value in slowing down and exploring how your emotional experience impacts the way you experience the desire for food and how multiple elements can compound together to intensify the experience of the craving. Self-compassion is more accessible if we can understand the buzzing energy instead of blaming it.

Already, you can see how quickly emotions or rules can complicate cravings.

We also must acknowledge that the current physiological state of the body (when the craving arises) also will impact how the craving is experienced.

I frequently talk with my clients about the impact of restricting their caloric intake. Namely how it will lead to rumination about food (i.e. “food noise”), fatigue, poor emotional regulation, and physical impacts such as malnutrition, alteration to hormones, and altered gastrointestinal function.

If restriction is present, food cravings will be one of the first changes that someone notices…

Caloric deprivation multiplies hunger. Add in a food preference and the craving can become very strong (the strength of the craving is directly related to the level of restriction!).

Hunger naturally multiplies the intensity of our food preferences. Hunger itself can help facilitate cravings; it is a biological push to ensure we eat!

Finally, I want to talk about the #1 thing I work on with clients: practicing giving them permission to eat.

People assume that permission changes the equation like this:

People assume permission to eat multiplies the craving.

In the beginning, this can be a phase someone experiences. There can be an uptick in cravings as the mind/body builds trust that the food it loves will be regularly available.

Over time, here is what happens when there is permission:

Permission actually makes the urgency of a craving smaller. Permission eradicates novelty (multiplies cravings), reduces urgency (reduces scarcity), and creates an environment of neutrality (see above equations about how stories impact cravings).

• Give yourself full permission to eat foods you crave.

• As you explore the above, notice if there is any “Conditional permission” present in your life (i.e. “I can have dessert X times per week” or “I can have X food if I exercise”) as conditional permission also makes cravings confusing to navigate.

• Eat the food you are craving. This works most of the time.

• Practice trusting your body and your cravings. The more your body knows you will feed it when it is hungry (ideally what sounds good if accessible), the less intense your cravings will feel. (Alongside this is trusting your fullness!)

I am so curious how this idea landed - how can arithmetic help you clarify your experience with food cravings?

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This post was inspired by Ogawa’s book and my first post on Substack which was about the math of meaning…specifically wonder and awe. You can read the poem here:

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