BackStage Utah

Anemia!  I wonder...  Man!  What if I need multivitamin pills?  Like a dumb grown up?  Aww, crap!

JingleBeq wrote on May 19^th, 2010 at 10:56am:


THAT'S IT!  Thank you.

I crave salt all the time. I just love the flavor. I crave it more often than sweet or sour or umami (savory). I try to keep a little something salty in the house. My current favorite is dry roasted peanuts (unshelled). Slightly more healthy for me than chips.

I've often found that when my body is craving a food item to the point where I'm able to identify exactly the item, right down to the other sensory inputs (like feeling it crunch in my mouth, or the sensation of it as I swallow), then I need to listen. In those moments for me, I know there is something my body is not just craving, but needing; even if it's unhealthy for me to have it. In which case, I try to identify the exact need (like you did when you realized you weren't craving necessarily school lunch, but the salt) so I can pick a (hopefully) healthier alternative.

Just to throw a little pepper into the salty soup here... our bodies can be really stupid sometimes and don't always crave what we need.

People who have yeast infections often crave sugar which is the worst thing for a yeast infection, because it causes it to grow.  And people with high insulin and low blood-sugar (me) crave sugar, which can throw us into a hypo attack and kill us if we eat it as much as we crave it.  We also crave addictive substances like tobacco, which we don't need, and actually cause us harm. 

Something I learned while studying Health Psych last year:

There is some interesting evidence that salt, fat, and sugar stimulate the brain to release dopamine, (a kind of neurotransmitter connected to the "pleasure center" of the brain) and the release of opioids (which bring emotional relief and decrease the perception of pain).� �So if this really is going on, those foods can act like addictive substances and your body can crave them, even if it doesn't "need" them. 

So I guess I'm just saying that Mr. A. might need more sodium or something in his diet, or it might be a craving connected to something else.� Hell, even emotional stuff causes us to crave things that we don't need.� Like holidays that set off certain traditional cravings, or sad days that cause us to crave "comfort foods" that made us feel cared for or happy in the past. So don't worry too much!

And my suggestion for salty stuff is...

Eat pickled eggs!  Remember the time you came to my house and I was making stinky pickled eggs?  THOSE are full of sodium.  Make pickled boiled eggs or other pickled things (all kinds of nummy veggies taste good pickled) and eat them!

Krumpson wrote on May 21^st, 2010 at 12:19pm:


PICKLED EGGS!!  OM NOM NOM!

Yeah, emotions make me crave hamburgers, which is why I didn't think it was a stress craving.  I've have vegetable cravings before, and there've been times when I just wanted a salad to PUT IN MY WHOLE MOUTH!  And this was more like that.

The corn chips I found at my mom's house ended up being just the thing and one handful seemed to be enough  *crunch crunch* no more craving.

However, I think what everybody has been saying was really smart, and I love all the saltilicious ideas people have give, because they sound WONDERFUL and make my mouth water.

Especially MRCs beets.  Beets and pickles.  Pickled beets and beat pickles.  I know what's on the menu for my lunch now.