This post is for people who have perpetual chocolate cravings and let’s face it – might even kill for a piece of chocolate!
If you have an occasional chocolate craving, then this post may not be applicable to you - but please continuing reading because I’m sure you know someone that you could pass this information along to.
So I’ll get right to it – a craving for chocolate can actually be a sign that your body is craving magnesium. Why? Because chocolate contains large amounts of magnesium!
We especially see women craving chocolate before and during their menstrual cycle – why is that? Because magnesium helps mediate the symptoms of PMS by helping create a crucial hormone, progesterone. Inadequate progesterone leads to the PMS symptoms.
Here’s the catch – chocolate is high in caffeine, which can over stimulate and tire out the adrenals (see blog post Adrenal Fatigue: Do you have it?) The adrenals do much of the work in balancing the sex hormones, so an increase in adrenal fatigue can actually lead to an increase in PMS. Isn’t that crazy?
So what’s the solution? Get your source of magnesium from another source!
Easiest solution: supplement your diet with 400mg of magnesium per day.
Next, consume foods that are high in magnesium such as: kelp, almonds, cashews, nuts, sesame seeds, whole wheat, peas and beans.
Last thing to mention - this concept doesn’t only apply to cravings for chocolate. We often crave what our body is deficient in. Let me know what you’ve been craving lately and we can decipher what your body is really asking for!