Cravings For PUFAs

[milk]

Getting enough salt effectively eliminates my cravings for salty junk food.

I could still go for a slice of pizza, but not with that "life is not worth living without pizza" kind of eagerness.

 

[Pet Peeve]

I don't think you're the only one who has felt that way.
Why are PUFA's Delicious?

The fact that a taste of chocolate can provoke a wild lust for more chocolate, or that once cigarette renews the addiction, does not mean that the presence of chocolate or nicotine in the blood creates a craving. Rather, it is that an organism in an unstable state perceives the availability of something which promises to partially restore the desired stability." - Raymond Peat

Well, there you have it. I must say that I'm so thoroughly impressed with Peat, what a treasure trove of information. Let a little time pass and he's always right.

 

[lindsay]

The only cravings for PUFA's that I get are whole foods cravings - meaning, I get regular cravings for sushi (specifically raw tuna) and oysters. And any seafood in general. But I'm okay eat those because I digest them more easily and they are nutrient dense. Any other PUFA cravings I realized could be replaced with saturated fat counterparts. IE, things fried in CO or cooked in butter. When you think about craving PUFA, think specifically which foods and that will likely lead to the nutrients your body wants. I believe cravings are a real biological need, which is why I eat sushi when I crave it. And eggs, and pasture raised beef and salt, sugar, etc. When the body needs something specific, it tells you. The key is to think about if it's the PUFA's or the foods/seasonings covered in them. Usually, it's the latter. And that is easily replaced with non-PUFA counterparts. Unless it's seafood - seafood is something so nutritionally amazing that I think it's always worthwhile to follow those needs. But vegetable oil is much better left in the veggies, IMO. Rapeseed flowers are much prettier looking than canola oil ;-)

 

[schultz]

Getting enough salt effectively eliminates my cravings for salty junk food.

I could still go for a slice of pizza, but not with that "life is not worth living without pizza" kind of eagerness.

I find this as well!

Sometimes foods are desirable to me based on good memories I have eating them. Getting pizza with friends or getting popcorn at the movies or sushi with my family. I associate the food with the happiness I felt doing these things.

 

[James IV]

No one craves PUFA. The body craves food, not its individual components. Thats like saying you have a wicked craving for l-arginine or a hankering for some polysaccharides.
You may crave a food that YOU associate with PUFA, but that is your interpretation of the craving, not the craving itself.

 

[Mjhl85]

No one craves PUFA. The body craves food, not its individual components. Thats like saying you have a wicked craving for l-arginine or a hankering for some polysaccharides.
You may crave a food that YOU associate with PUFA, but that is your interpretation of the craving, not the craving itself.

Not sure about that. My gf and I experimented with coconut oil potato chips and regular pufa chips. The pufa chips were for lack of a better word, "unstable" in an exciting way. They seemed more satisfying with the salt then the cocont oil ones with the salt.

 

[tobieagle]

Not sure about that. My gf and I experimented with coconut oil potato chips and regular pufa chips. The pufa chips were for lack of a better word, "unstable" in an exciting way. They seemed more satisfying with the salt then the cocont oil ones with the salt.

Did the PUFA chips have artifical flavourings added? That could be the explanation.

I am with James here, in saying that these cravings are not aimed at PUFA.

 

[James IV]

Not sure about that. My gf and I experimented with coconut oil potato chips and regular pufa chips. The pufa chips were for lack of a better word, "unstable" in an exciting way. They seemed more satisfying with the salt then the cocont oil ones with the salt.

Using the word "exciting" points to the craving being driven by emotion, not by phisiological need. Which is my point.

With any food, especially crisps, there are a number of factors besides ingredients. Potato type, thickness, how the chips are formed, grain size of the salt, type of salt, artificially create texture, etc. All of the chips made in coconut oil are "health" food types these days, which are minimally processed in general. That in itself will make them less "tasty" than a Pringle, or a Lays. Mouth feel is a big factor. The only way to really test your theory would be to have two sets of chips made from the same type of potatoes, cut in the same machine, using the same salt, but fried in the different oils. And then the taste test would have to be blind... So who's got the keys to the Frito-Lay factory?

 

[Mjhl85]

Did the PUFA chips have artifical flavourings added? That could be the explanation.

I am with James here, in saying that these cravings are not aimed at PUFA.

no artificial anything or flavorings. We made sure of that to make things fair.

Using the word "exciting" points to the craving being driven by emotion, not by phisiological need. Which is my point.

With any food, especially crisps, there are a number of factors besides ingredients. Potato type, thickness, how the chips are formed, grain size of the salt, type of salt, artificially create texture, etc. All of the chips made in coconut oil are "health" food types these days, which are minimally processed in general. That in itself will make them less "tasty" than a Pringle, or a Lays. Mouth feel is a big factor. The only way to really test your theory would be to have two sets of chips made from the same type of potatoes, cut in the same machine, using the same salt, but fried in the different oils. And then the taste test would have to be blind... So who's got the keys to the Frito-Lay factory?

Are those variables you listed not emotional as well? Certainly texture must be evoking something.
Since when we do distinguish between emotional and physiological here on this forum any way? Isn't the
craving theory of Ray's exactly denoting that? That the emotional is a physiological need met by the craving
or substance that ceases the said need?

 

[James IV]

no artificial anything or flavorings. We made sure of that to make things fair.



Are those variables you listed not emotional as well? Certainly texture must be evoking something.
Since when we do distinguish between emotional and physiological here on this forum any way? Isn't the
craving theory of Ray's exactly denoting that? That the emotional is a physiological need met by the craving
or substance that ceases the said need?

Emotional may not be the right word. Since like you point out, emotion is based on chemical reactions. I'm at a loss to find the word I'm looking for in this case. Perhaps a "biased" craving may be a better fit.

 

[Ukall]

I thought about putting this here:

From WaiDiet - Smoking and Food:

" Heating protein (together with carbohydrates) originates new substances, HeteroCyclic Amines (HCAs), which can have mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. Some of these HCAs are beta-carbolines, and many of these beta-carbolines also inhibit enzymes that decompose opioid peptides. (5) Beta-carbolines are also addictive, directly (6) or indirectly. (7)​

Taste enhancers for example are concentrated dehydrated proteins, containing lots of beta-carbolines. They therefore don't exactly 'enhance taste' but feed addiction, by influencing neurotransmitter receptors. (8) To create very effective 'taste enhancers', some protein (preferably wheat or milk protein) is mixed with sugars, and then heated thoroughly.​

Food manufacturers of course know all this. Years ago, a Nestlé spokesman declared that "food manufacturers could use this information to sell more food". (9) "
​

Not specifically talking about PUFAs, but I bet the mechanism is probably the same.

 

[lvysaur]

Not sure about that. My gf and I experimented with coconut oil potato chips and regular pufa chips. The pufa chips were for lack of a better word, "unstable" in an exciting way.

I think that PUFA food is definitely more addicting than equivalent SFA food.

Mayonnaise, tartar sauce, fried foods, etc. taste great to me, and to most other people, in amounts much higher than what is recommended by Peat.

It is way easier to binge on chicken tenders than on burgers or steak. Even if you fried all your food in coconut oil, it would taste different, and have a more "wholesome" mouthfeel.

Just compare the Jackson's Honest chips to similarly thick-cut, unflavored, kettle-cooked chips fried in pufa/mufa oil.

 

[Luann]

Why do I have cravings for pufas? I try to keep a strict no pufa diet however usually give in after 5 days or so due to extreme hunger that saturated/meat fats don't satiate, only when having some pufas does my hunger go away. However, if I keep eating them negative symptoms start to appear, mainly brain fog, cold extremities and edema.

My first thought is that you're not meeting your metabolic needs so your body is driven by instinct to slow its own metabolism down. That way it doesn't feel the discomfort of its own deficiencies. I mean, given the choice between being starved of something and not being starved, of course the body will choose to slow its metabolism and decrease its needs.

I know this is old but it's an opportunity to bring up the fact that a fast metabolism will kill you just as fast as a slow one if you don't meet your requirements.