Do you like eating chicken or do you often crave chicken at any time, day or night? Are you worried about what you desire?
You need to know that chicken cravings can occur due to various factors in your body. It’s possible that you are craving chicken because your body is lacking protein or other substances provided by chicken, for example protein, zinc and iron.
It could also be that cravings for chicken occur because your body has a certain disease that requires you to eat chicken to prevent nausea, improve digestion and so on.
In this article, we will discuss about why do i crave the chicken, especially why someone craves chicken and how to overcome these cravings.
Why Do I Crave Chicken
There are several reasons why we crave chicken all the time. Are as follows:
1. Protein Deficiency
Chicken cravings sometimes appear when our bodies don’t get enough protein or iron. At that time the desire arises to eat chicken or something rich in other protein such as eggs and nuts.
So, if the body lacks protein, our body will send signals and messages to the brain about these cravings so that we get food that contains protein to eat. Protein is a very important mineral for our body.
Some benefits of protein for the body:
- Repairs and builds muscle tissue so it is good for increasing muscle mass.
- Maintain healthy nails, hair and skin
- Makes hormones such as insulin whose function is to regulate blood sugar.
Well, we know that protein is a nutrient that is very important for the body to continue carrying out its functions. The biggest craving for chicken is caused by a lack of protein in the body.
So, why do we lack protein? Maybe these are some of the things that cause the body to experience a lack of protein.
- You don’t eat enough
- You have just finished a hard workout and your body is now experiencing a lack of protein.
- You eat too many carbohydrates and neglect protein, this will only make you full but not get enough nutrients such as protein.
- You feel like you have eaten a lot of protein-rich foods, even though you haven’t.
What does craving meat mean?
In general, craving meat shows that you are lacking protein, so you develop a desire for foods that can provide you with protein.
When you want to eat any meat (not specifically chicken), this is a strong sign that you are lacking protein. So, as long as you like to eat any meat, regardless of the type, then your body at that time really needs protein or iron or zinc intake.
For example, when you are craving chicken, but when you hear steak or beef, for you it is just as delicious as chicken. So your cute desire to eat shows that you are lacking protein.
Tips to Eat More Protein
When you feel like you are lacking protein, pay attention to these simple tips and strategies:
- Increase your consumption of protein-rich foods, this will help stop your cravings.
- You can add nuts, seeds, or legumes to your daily diet. This food will provide the body with lots of protein and as you eat it, your cravings for chicken will decrease.
- You can also add several other sources of protein such as beef, chicken, turkey, eggs, lentils and nuts.
Grains not only contribute a lot of protein but they are fiber-rich foods which are also important to eat. Fiber functions to facilitate digestion and make you full, so it can reduce or even eliminate chicken cravings.
However, meat is one of the best sources of protein to consume. So, make meat a menu in your daily diet. You don’t have to eat a lot, but just eat a little regularly every day.
Indeed, among many types of meat, the protein content varies, in fact each part of the chicken contains different proteins. For example chicken breast and chicken wings. Of course the protein content is different, and the one with the most protein is chicken breast.
You can try eating meat by cooking it with green vegetables. Chicken is a source of lean protein which is important for the production of amino acids such as tryptophan, this substance functions to increase serotonin in the brain.
2. Want Full Satisfied Feeling
Satisfaction after eating is what everyone wants. However, various things have made many people feel dissatisfied even though they have eaten a lot.
So, when you eat hastily, carbohydrate-rich, sweet foods, you usually won’t be satisfied and will still want to eat more, for example if you want to eat red meat or chicken, and you may even suddenly develop a craving for chicken.
Check out more:
– Why Am I Craving Watermelon? Here are 6 Reasons
– Why Am I Craving Chocolate Milk? Top 5 Reasons
Another reason is because when you eat, you still don’t get adequate protein. Lack of protein in your diet will cause you to continue to crave other foods, such as cravings for chicken or various types of nuts.
3. Chicken Comfort Food
If you’re craving chicken and don’t like other meats, what does that mean?
Yes, this is called emotional eating or crave chicken because of emotional factors, not because of physical factors.
For example, if you just want to eat fried chicken, or just KFC chicken, then that shows you are craving chicken, not because you lack protein.
It’s true that you’re craving chicken, but not to fulfill your protein intake, this is emotional eating or cravings because you want to fulfill your emotional needs.
Well, this can be marked when you want to eat chicken or other foods to find peace, to relieve stress or to make you feel more comfortable.
So, crave chicken can also occur because chicken is a pleasant food for you.
4. Vitamin B
Crave Chicken can also occur because the body needs vitamin B, and chicken is a food rich in vitamin B and this is important for producing energy.
When you are deficient in vitamin B, your body sends a message to you to eat chicken or other foods that contain vitamin B.
What foods contain vitamin B? The following is a list of foods rich in B vitamins
- Chicken meat
- Green vegetables such as spinach and broccoli
- Legumes and beans
- Nuts and seeds
Try to pay attention to whether you often consume these foods, if not then you should make them part of your daily diet. This is also one way to avoid chicken cravings.
Why do you crave meat on your period?
It seems simple to talk about cravings during menstruation.
OK, before we go any further, it’s important to talk about iron. Let’s look at this explanation about iron.
In the bloodstream, we need iron whose purpose is to help make hemoglobin.
What is hemoglobin? This is a protein in blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to all parts of your body, and also carries a lot of carbon dioxide to be expelled from the body through breathing.
So, because of this iron we emit carbon dioxide. That’s why we expel CO2 after inhaling a lot of O, that’s our respiratory cycle, it’s very complete, isn’t it!
When we lose blood, the iron levels in the body automatically decrease. You need to know that iron is an important mineral, when there is not enough of it in the body, your body will make you crave iron-rich foods so you look for these foods for your body’s needs.
So, cravings for certain foods including chicken, dark green leafy vegetables are just your body’s way of communicating with you to meet your iron needs.
Usually, vegetarians experience anemia or HB deficiency, this is because they do not consume meat, and also do not eat vegetables that are rich in iron such as sweet potato leaves, spinach and others.
These are the causes and reasons why someone craves meat or other foods. We hope this explanation can increase your knowledge and make you understand the condition of cravings. So, when you have cravings, there is nothing to worry about, please follow these desires in a relaxed manner so that you get adequate nutrition for your body.
