If you’re frequently dealing with salt, sugar, or caffeine cravings, it may signal a problem known as adrenal fatigue.
Our adrenal glands are endocrine-producing glands. These glands play a vital role in regulating metabolism, immunity, blood pressure, and our response to stress.
They’re also pivotal for the production of hormones linked with health and vitality. Our adrenal cortex produces hormones that manage the sex hormones like estrogen and androgen.
The adrenal medulla participates in the regulation of the fight-or-flight response. Considering the importance of healthy adrenal glands, it’s important to know how to keep them healthy.
Why Does Adrenal Fatigue Cause Sugar, Salt, and Caffeine Cravings?
Salt is essential for our nervous system, as well as for the contraction and relaxation of muscles. It also plays a role in maintaining the balance between water and minerals.
Salt helps keep our body hydrated and ensures the smooth functioning of the systems in the body.
With this in mind, when craving too much salt, one may be low in it or low in other minerals like iodine, potassium, and sodium chloride.
We need minerals for healthy adrenal function and the proper use of salt throughout the body.
If you’re dealing with an increase in your sugar cravings, your blood sugar levels are probably low. As a result, you’re feeling tired and weak, without energy.
This is where reaching for a fruit rich in natural sugars is a much better boost for your energy rather than artificial sugar and processed and caloric sweets.
Caffeine is an easy and fast way to stimulate our adrenal glands; however, this diuretic will deplete the body of water and other essential minerals if we consume it in excessive amounts.
And, by doing this, you’re trying to stimulate your energy, but you’re actually depleting your minerals and water.
The Addiction Factor
Take into account that we often crave caffeine, sugar, and salt because they’re addictive. They have a good taste and many products today are designed in a way to stimulate our taste buds optimally.
Since our brain likes to repeat things that make us happy, we end up wanting the same feeling from these ingredients and we end up eating more and more of them.
Sugar is known to release brain chemicals like serotonin or the feel-good hormone. If we consume too much of it, we build up our tolerance for salty and sweet, as well as for caffeine, and create a vicious cycle.
The key lies in balance: eating the right things to stay sated and never starving out and listening to the body. Sometimes, you feel like you’re craving food when in reality, you’re just thirsty!
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