When you are under pressure you may find yourself mysteriously drawn to that tub of ice cream in the freezer or wrestling an insatiable desire for a giant bag of potato chips. Food cravings are a familiar feeling. Many people experience them during menstrual cycles. Unfortunately, menopause doesn’t mean they will stop even if your bleeding does! Read on to find out what causes cravings and how to handle them.
Find what you need quickly
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Can menopause cause cravings?
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Why do you get cravings?
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What happens to your body when you crave something?
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What foods are you likely to crave during menopause?
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What is emotional eating – and what triggers it?
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Can emotional eating make menopause symptoms worse?
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Seven ways to reduce cravings during menopause
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Final word
Can menopause cause cravings?
It is important to know that cravings are very normal. They are signals from your body that it needs something. It could be more sleep, less stress, or a specific nutrient. Try to avoid treating cravings as something wrong or something to deny yourself. Instead, examine the craving and give your body what it needs in a way that nourishes you.
During perimenopause, your estrogen and progesterone levels can fluctuate unpredictably. These hormone imbalances can lead to cravings for comfort foods like bread and pasta. In postmenopause, you are no longer subject to fluctuations of estrogen and progesterone. That said, there are other reasons why you might still experience cravings, and understanding these reasons will help you manage them.
Why do you get cravings?
You may experience cravings for any of the following reasons:
- You have a nutritional deficiency, such as low blood sugar, iron, sodium, magnesium, or potassium
- Low energy levels, often caused by poor-quality sleep
- Feeling low and needing to improve your mood
- Feeling stressed – you might recognize this as stress eating
- You associate a situation with a specific food or drink, such as hot chocolate when it snows, or ice cream on a warm summer’s day
- Simple desire for the taste or texture of a particular type of food
- Feeling bored and needing a distraction
What happens to your body when you crave something?
Your body goes through a number of processes when you crave something:
- You start producing more saliva and stomach acid in anticipation of digesting that food. Areas of your brain that focus on reward, like the striatum, are also activated.
- Your thoughts and emotions are tied to the craving. You might focus on how the food might taste or how you might feel after eating it. You will start to plan how and when you can get your hands on the food you desire. This also might come with feelings of shame, guilt, and frustration about having the craving.
- Your brain gets a dopamine hit when you satisfy your craving. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with reward. You will also experience increased serotonin levels if your craving relates to carbohydrates like bread, rice, fries, or pasta. Serotonin is the most important neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and happiness.
What foods are you likely to crave during menopause?
You may have a variety of cravings if you are low on specific nutrients.
Stress can have an effect too. You may crave candy and chocolate if you are stressed. This is because your body is looking for ways to prop up your energy levels to keep you going through the rest of your day. Be mindful about what you have for breakfast as you may find yourself reaching for a cake or candy mid-morning if you start the day with just a cup of coffee.
Levels of serotonin, known as the ‘happy’ hormone, can shift postmenopause due to declining estrogen levels. One of the ways your body tries to increase serotonin temporarily is by signaling you to consume simple carbohydrates like white bread, rice, and pasta. This is why you might feel a little more content after a bowl of pasta or a pizza!
What is emotional eating and what triggers it?
Emotional eating is when you eat food when you are not hungry, but to help manage your emotions. Your emotions can be challenging during menopause as this is often a time when you may be dealing with big milestones, such as high levels of responsibility at work, the loss of a parent, aging parents, or your children leaving home. These test your resilience and ability to cope.
Many people manage by turning to foods high in sugar and fat because that can make you feel better quickly. This is because consuming these foods can lead to the release chemicals in the brain that cause pleasure or reduce anxiety.
The downside is the drop in neurotransmitters that follow the high. These drops are likely to make you feel hungry all over again, which can lead to further emotional eating. This cycle of spikes and crashes can harm your health long-term.
Can emotional eating make menopause symptoms worse?
If cravings for fatty or sugary foods result in consuming too much of these foods, menopause symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, and brain fog could be made worse. Regularly eating lots of sugary candy or ice cream can cause high blood sugar levels that could make these symptoms worse.
Seven ways to reduce cravings during menopause
If you are experiencing cravings, there are a number of things you can do:
Don’t feel guilty for having cravings
Remember, they’re a sign from your body that you have a particular physical or emotional need
Keep track of your triggers
It can be helpful to use a diary to track when and how often cravings occur. You will start to see patterns after four weeks of tracking to help you come to grips with cravings. For example, you might notice you eat chocolate when you are stressed or crave toast when you have not slept well. It is important to approach tracking your cravings from a place of non-judgment – you are simply on a fact-finding mission.
Check on your nutrition
Make sure you are eating enough high-quality fat, protein, and fiber at each meal. This will help balance your blood sugar levels so that you are less likely to crave empty calories (like candy or chips) between meals. If you notice you are getting particularly strong salt cravings, try drinking a glass of water after adding a pinch of Himalayan sea salt. You could also add more leafy dark-green vegetables, nuts, and seeds to your meals to top up your sodium, magnesium, and potassium levels
Improve your sleep
Sleep can be an issue during menopause. Focus on improving your quality of sleep to reduce sugar cravings. Try getting more exposure to natural light throughout the day. This helps manage cortisol levels – your primary stress hormone – and makes it easier for the brain to produce melatonin at night. Melatonin helps you fall asleep quickly and stay asleep for longer.
Move more
Daily exercise can help manage blood sugar levels and reduce cravings for candy and complex carbohydrates like pasta. Try walking, cycling, or strength training.
Manage your stress levels
If you can tell that daily stress levels are leading to cravings, try some simple deep breathing exercises throughout the day if your cravings are caused by stress.
As a start, try some simple deep breathing exercises throughout the day if your cravings are caused by stress.
Breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your nose for one second. For the next few breaths, lengthen each inhalation and exhalation by one second until you reach four seconds. Do this for a couple of minutes before returning to your natural breathing rhythm.
Try “urge surfing”
Try and ‘ride the wave’ of your thoughts, feelings, or cravings, rather than fighting them. Allow yourself to experience the urge as it rises, crests, and eventually falls away.
Imagine standing waist-deep in the sea with large waves coming towards you. You worry you will be knocked over and feel you will tire quickly if you try to fight the waves. Eventually you will give in.
Instead, imagine welcoming the wave. Grab a surfboard, lie on it, and allow yourself to be picked up by the wave and ‘surf’ it to the shore. You will use less energy and feel more powerful this way.
The craving is the wave. It will get stronger to a peak, but if you do not act on it then it will gradually fade away without you having to eat the food at all.
Distract yourself
Use distraction to stop the drive to eat. Engage your mind in an activity that stimulates your brain and keeps you distracted or busy, but isn’t too taxing. This could be anything from simple word puzzles to knitting, or other rhythmic activities that can soothe and calm you. Worry beads help some people.
Final word
Cravings and emotional eating are normal throughout your life and menopause is no exception. Identifying your triggers and making small steps to improve your lifestyle can help you feel more in control.
Find out more about menopause on our blog or in our symptoms library.
- Meule, A. (2020). The Psychology of Food Cravings: The Role of Food Deprivation. Current Nutrition Reports, 9(3), 251-257
- Volkow, N. D., Wang, J., & Baler, R. D. (2011). Reward, dopamine and the control of food intake: Implications for obesity. Trends in cognitive sciences, 15(1), 37
- Reichenberger, J., Schnepper, R., Arend, K., & Blechert, J. (2020). Emotional eating in healthy individuals and patients with an eating disorder: Evidence from psychometric, experimental and naturalistic studies. The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 79(3), 290-299
- Aarts, E., van Holstein, M., & Cools, R. (2011). Striatal Dopamine and the Interface between Motivation and Cognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 10295
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