r/Paleo • u/DanielCantrell • Sep 23 '26
Can someone help me understand cravings?
I think I’m out of touch because I have a hard time understanding how people are so prone to cheating on diets or keeping a few unhealthy things in their diet. For instance some people will try a new diet and eliminate junk food but be like; “Well I can’t live without my Delight coffee creamer, can’t live without these Girl Scout cookies, wine, salad dressing, Diet Coke, etc.”
I understand that yes if they cut out most everything else while still holding on to those one or two things, it will definitely be better for them, but I feel like if you’re really trying to better yourself and eliminate all the bad food, you eliminate ALL the bad foods.
I’ve been eating a clean whole food diet, no ultra processed foods for probably the past three years now, and pretty much since then I’ve never had any craving or moment where I was so compelled to eat something unhealthy I went out and bought it.
To me it’s just simple. Yeah a donut tastes great, Doritos taste great, Little Debbie snacks taste great, but they are all negative to your health. I simply don’t partake in them because those are the facts, and like I’ve said I can’t even remember a time I’ve had a “craving” or snuck out for a guilty snack or cheat meal. My brain literally doesn’t recognize those things as food.
Eating out doesn’t really make sense for me either, because 95% of everything out there is also negative towards your health. I will literally NEVER choose to go and eat out when it’s just healthier and cheaper to cook at home. If I absolutely HAVE to if I’m on a road trip or something, then I’ll be looking for Chipotles or CAVAs, since again, I literally don’t even identify McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and other fast food restaurants as food. I will still choose not to go to Chipotle or CAVA if I can help it, it’s only a last resort. Usually I can just starve myself til I get home.
So am I just inhumanly resilient or am I too restrictive with my diet. I say diet but it’s really not a diet to me it is a lifestyle. I just don’t eat garbage. There are just a few exceptions like yeah if so go to grandmas and she made some cookies or muffins then yeah I’ll eat one, or a friend offers me some cake at their birthday party yeah I might have a slice, but those are just out of politeness. The ONLY time I ever CHOOSE to eat something unhealthy is once a year on my birthday where I will have a “cheat meal”, which is usually just a bacon egg and cheese biscuit from this local restaurant I used to like, and If someone made a pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving they yeah I might take a piece, but that really is about it.
To sum it all up it just makes zero sense to me to eat ultra processed junk or treats when you are trying to eliminate them from your diet. Is it really THAT hard to just say no? Are cravings really THAT strong?
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u/Ariya3 Sep 27 '26
I honestly think when you eat clean for a long time, your body and palate start responding differently to certain foods. I still get cravings, but the foods I crave are usually things like eggs, persimmons when they’re in season, figs, good beef, sashimi, a fresh baked homemade sourdough. I also genuinely hate eating out most of the time. I’d much rather go to a farmers market, pick out fresh vegetables and ingredients, and cook at home. At some point I think it just becomes a lifestyle and part of your identity rather than something you’re consciously trying to do.
I think eating that way for so long really does change your palate, too. Every once in a while I’ll go to a birthday or event and have a piece of cake, and I’m honestly repulsed because it tastes SO sweet that it’s almost nauseating. It’s not that I’m trying to avoid cakes … I make better versions at home, I just genuinely don’t enjoy how sweet processed food is and how it tastes anymore… i have no desire to eat a bag of doritos or fast food . I look at that stuff like poison and i wouldn’t ever put that into my body.
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u/Ill_Ticket9158 Sep 27 '26
I know when I eat real strict I crave foods that are borderline paleo like peanut butter and potatoes. It can be hard when every other commercial is papa john's.
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u/WesternOld3507 Sep 24 '26
Over time one’s gut biome changes to the point where you’ll crave what you’re used to eating. I would imagine most people don’t stick it out long enough to reach that point.
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u/CarelessWar54 Sep 24 '26
I’d eat at Chik-FIL-A before Chipotle. Grilled chicken nuggets with kale salad is better than Chipotle rice, corn,sauces
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u/DanielCantrell Sep 24 '26
The way I look at it is by overall reduction of unnecessary ingredients. While grilled chicken nuggets and a salad sounds like a better choice than a bowl of chicken rice and beans, every item on the Chick-fil-A menu (except the fruit cup) contains at least thirty ingredients. It is not a healthy restaurant. The grilled chicken has about 40 ingredients, many of those being oils, stabilizers, emulsifiers, sugars and sugar substitute, gums, flavorings, chlorine etc.
The kale salad also somehow contains oils, artificial flavorings, preservatives.
To my knowledge and the Ingredients chipotle lists on their menu, there are none of those. If they’re being 100% honest who knows, the worst thing Chipotle uses IMO are their oils, and the fact they are high sodium, but not any higher than Chick-fil-A is. When you go to Chipotle you get simply seasoned rice, beans, vegetables, cheese if you want and fresh made salsas. They really don’t have many sauces to your point but the ones they do are SIGNIFICANTLY better than Chick-fil-A sauces.
Again I dont eat out unless it’s a requirement, but when I have to its usually gonna be chipotle for those reasons until I have a reason not to think so
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u/ScarySuggestions Sep 28 '26
This sounds a lot like orthorexia; maybe on a mild scale but it is considered "abnormal". Not outright saying you have this condition, but what you describe in your post sounds similar to it.
For those unfamilar, orthorexia symptoms are:
Compulsive checking of ingredient lists and nutritional labels
An increase in concern about the health of ingredients
Cutting out an increasing number of food groups (all sugar, all carbs, all dairy, all meat, all animal products)
An inability to eat anything but a narrow group of foods that are deemed ‘healthy’ or ‘pure’
Unusual interest in the health of what others are eating
A feeling of superiority around their nutrition and intolerance of other people’s food behaviors and beliefs
High levels of perfectionism
Spending hours per day thinking about what food might be served at upcoming events
Showing high levels of distress when ‘safe’ or ‘healthy’ foods aren’t available
Obsessive following of food and ‘healthy lifestyle’ blogs on social media
Body image concerns may or may not be present
Psychosocial impairments in different areas of life
Anyway, yeah food can be genuinely addictive for some people, especially certain types of people with ADHD. My partner has the "constant snacking" type of ADHD where they always need to have access to *some* type of food despite me cooking nightly dinners for them. It's not a moral or personal failing, it just is what it is. He's lucky he has a very high metabolism because he's still at a somewhat-healthy weight as of now despite the added caloric intake.