At work in China, I sat next to a woman who was pregnant and seemingly always eating fruit. She liked to “teach” me her understanding of nutrition since I apparently needed the help. One of the first things she told me was to avoid eating rice. Rice is a staple in China and almost always served during meals. I learned, however, that it was not common for people to eat all, if any, rice out of their bowls.

Food was served family style and each person would pick a few pieces of food (like chicken or vegetables) out of the communal bowls and place them on their bowls of rice. They would then eat the food with maybe a few grains of rice with it. At the end of the meal many rice bowls would still be full and individuals would pour the uneaten rice into a food container to save for the next meal. My co-worker also told me to avoid bread and sweets and to try and make the majority of my diet fruits and vegetables.

I enthusiastically tried to cut down my starch intake according to my coworker’s advice and thought it would be easy for me since I had already followed a diet avoiding grains and sweets back in the United States. I soon found that for some reason it was different, harder, for me to try and reduce my intake of starches in China. After a few meals of eating mostly fruits and vegetables I would get seemingly uncontrollable food cravings and end up eating large quantities of food later on. It seemed like the more I tried to eat healthy foods the stronger my food cravings. This was very confusing for me because I followed a similar diet before and didn’t have the same experience, what was different for me in Shanghai compared to the U.S.?

China does not regulate the chemicals and hormones used in the food supply the same way other countries do. For example, I would pass fruit carts with grapes the size of apples, exploding watermelons and various other disfigured food items. These pollutants used to disfigure foods also deplete vitamins and minerals from our body as we are exposed to them. Since I was exposed to more pollutants in the environment and directly in the food supply in China I experienced more extreme food cravings due to the depletion of necessary vitamins and minerals. Right after meals my body was telling me that there was something wrong, it didn’t get the nutrients it needed from that meal and needed more food. It turns out that there is something called “hidden hunger” which explains what I was going through.

According to a report published in 2014 by the International Food Policy Research Institute “Hidden hunger is a form of undernutrition that occurs when intake and absorption of vitamins and minerals (such as zinc, iodine, and iron) are too low to sustain good health and development” (1). We may experience food cravings when our body is undernourished with hidden hunger. If we eat organic food without processing, pollutants, or chemicals then just eating healthy should be enough to replenish the body of depleted nutrients. Food, even fruits and vegetables, treated with poisons, hormones, pollutants, pesticides, and other forms of chemicals or synthetic alterations then we do not get the same number of nutrients. Additionally, these pollutants may actually deplete nutrients from your body more so than if you didn’t eat them. I believe that my problem with uncontrollable food cravings was a result of hidden hunger and just eating healthy was not enough to replenish the nutrients my body needed.

For years I thought that there was nothing I could do about food cravings until I spoke to a nutritionist who told me about hidden hunger and how nutrition supplements may be used to replenish nutrients. I have since found I don’t get uncontrollable food cravings by taking high-quality, organically sourced nutrition supplements daily. Each person has a different nutritional need and taking one multi-vitamin a day is not enough for me. I take a variety of supplements including a protein powder, fiber powder, magnesium, calcium, zinc, choline sulfate, salmon oil, carotenoid, tre-en-en, formula IV Plus, buffered c, vitamin D, and a stress pack with vitamins B, C, E, M, and K.

I am eager to share what I have learned with others in case someone else has a similar experience with uncontrollable food cravings with seemingly no organic treatment. I hope my story can encourage you to try holistic ways to maintain your health.

References

1) Grebmer, Klaus von. Saltzman, Amy. Birol, Ekin. Wiesmann, Doris. Prasai, Nilam. Yin, Sandra. Yohannes, Yisehac. Menon, Purnima. “Global Hunger Index The Challenge of Hidden Hungers.” Report. International Food Policy Research Institute. October 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/ghi/2014/feature_1818.html.

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