Should I learn from my food urges?

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I've always struggled with my weight and at the moment I've got it heading downwards, but winter tends to see it rise again.

I've dropped from just over 20st down to around 16 and a half. I've never been bothered about sugary foods and over recent months my diet, more by accident than design, has been mainly fruit, veg and protein and between 1500 and 2000 calories a day, which given I cycle 100-200 miles a week and go to the gym, is I feel on the low side.

The only real issue I have is an almost irresistible urge for nuts and to a lesser extent seeds.

Anybody know if this is just me adjusting in general, or is my body trying to tell me I'm lacking something, and if so, is there a diet friendly way of getting what I'm lacking?
 
depends on whether the nuts are salted or not.
if they are, then it is more likely a salt craving, otherwise it may be an essential oil issue, but without more idea on your daily diet (i.e. exact what you eat - are you vegan etc) then hard to help
 
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ClichéGuevara

ClichéGuevara

Legendary Member
Cheers TomTom. Definitely not a craving for salted nuts, more mixed nuts with a particular weakness for cashews.

On a typical day I'll have boiled eggs for breakfast, chicken breast with salad for dinner and haddock and veg for tea. Apples bananas and tangerines munched between meals.I do like salt, but use sea-salt on my egg and occasionally on the salad.

I'm wondering if it's fats to help with some fat soluble vitamins I'm lacking.
 
Could be. Cashews are one of our favourites as well (we don't have a huge amount of oil in our diet) another is roasted pumpkin seeds. though I assume that you have dairy (?) (we don't because i'm allergic to it and I recently discovered that I have been using less than 1/3 of the oil in our meals that is actually siggested).

I know this is going to sound mad, but do you find your legs ache particulaly at night and or have high blood pressure? reason i ask is that is something I get a lot (legs aching - not cramps/spasms) and it appears to be a potassium issue (lack of) and both nuts & seeds contain higher levels of them, which could be why I crave them and I know on a blood test very recently, my potassium levels were very low.

http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/food-sources-of-potassium.php
 
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ClichéGuevara

ClichéGuevara

Legendary Member
That's really interesting.

I'm not sure about my blood pressure. Historically it has always been low, even when I was very overweight, but I recall it wasn't AS low as it had been the last time I got it checked.

My legs do ache, particularly in bed. I put it down to my inefficient liver and the edema it seems to generate, but interestingly, now I think about it, my legs haven't ached since giving in to the nuts.

This is the kind of pointer I was looking for, i realise it may turn out not to be the cause for me, but it's certainly an avenue for me to look into.

Thanks, it's much appreciated.
 
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