Cravings Aren’t Weakness: What Your Brain Is Really Trying to Tell You

If you’ve ever felt ashamed of your cravings, this is for you!

Too often, we treat cravings as a personal failing, a lack of willpower, a sign we’re out of control, or proof that we’re doing something wrong. It can feel like we are broken, but cravings aren’t a character flaw. They’re a form of communication. And when we understand what’s really going on in the brain and body, the whole picture changes.

Your Cravings Are Rooted in Memory

At the centre of this process is your hippocampus, the part of your brain responsible for memory, especially emotionally charged memories. It stores vivid associations between certain foods and experiences like comfort, stress, or loneliness. The hippocampus learns fast and remembers well. That’s why a smell, a song, or even a moment of anxiety can trigger a sudden urge to eat a specific food.

It’s not weakness, it’s neural wiring.

Your Brain’s CEO Goes Offline

The prefrontal cortex is often called the brain’s CEO. It helps you pause, reflect, weigh up consequences, and make thoughtful choices. But this system is easily disrupted. Sugar and ultra-processed foods blunt its function over time, and when you're under stress, it can go completely offline.

In its place, a more primitive system takes control...The Lizard Brain.

The Lizard Brain Takes Over

Enter the amygdala: your emotional brain and ancient survival centre.

It doesn’t do nuance.

It does danger, threat, and fight-or-flight.

When you're under pressure, the amygdala takes charge and logic and long-term thinking are shoved aside. You may feel a sense of urgency, like you need to eat now.

Willpower stands no chance when your brain is in survival mode.

Stress Imbalance: GABA and Glutamate

Stress also affects your brain’s chemical balance.

GABA is your calming neurotransmitter, like the brake pedal.

Under stress, GABA is depleted. At the same time, glutamate, the excitatory chemical (your accelerator pedal), goes into overdrive.

The result?

You feel wired, restless, agitated.

Your brain looks for something...

anything, to take the edge off and junk is a fast, familiar option.

The Dopamine Reward Hijack

Your brain is wired to seek dopamine, the neurotransmitter behind motivation, pursuit, and reward. But when your cells become insulin resistant, fuel doesn’t reach where it’s needed. Your brain gets the message that energy is scarce and starts hunting for a fast fix. Sugar and ultra-processed foods create a rapid dopamine spike, far quicker than a nourishing, balanced meal.

This has nothing to do with greed or gluttony. It's just neurobiology.

Blood Sugar Chaos Creates Cravings

When you eat something high in sugar or carbs, your blood sugar rises quickly. In response, your body releases a surge of insulin to bring it back down. But frequently, it overcorrects, causing blood sugar to crash.

That’s when your hypothalamus, the part of your brain that monitors energy, sounds the alarm. Hunger hormones spike. Your mood dips. You can’t think straight. And you feel an urgent need to eat again.

As I said before, this isn’t about weak willpower, greed or gluttony.

It’s a chain reaction, and a metabolic imbalance, not a personal flaw.

Don't Play The Blame & Shame Game

Shame doesn’t quiet your cravings.

It amplifies them!

When you blame yourself, you re-activate the same amygdala-driven stress circuits as fear or threat. The emotional brain goes into overdrive. The body doesn’t distinguish between the shame of eating cake, or the fear of being chased by a lion.

Self-blame keeps the stress response burning, and with it, the cravings.

Sugar addiction is NOT your fault, but it is your responsibility.

Cravings Are Feedback, Not Failure

Cravings may feel like your enemy...something you are in constant battle with and when you succumb to them...you fail. But really they are signals, data from your body, that hormones and metabolic health is 'off'.

With the right tools and support, it is possible to break the cycle.

It’s not about “eating intuitively” or "being mindful" when your system is dysregulated.

It’s about creating safety, structure and support.

With a clear plan, stable routines, nervous system support, compassion and the right guidance, you can shift from chaos to calm.

You are not broken.

If you are ready to finally tackle those cravings and your negative relationship with food, click the link below,

love, Ali xxx

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