{"id":28542,"date":"2021-03-01T14:26:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T18:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=28542"},"modified":"2021-03-15T21:29:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T01:29:35","slug":"why-do-we-have-cravings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why do we have cravings? What causes cravings and is there a way to stop them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question “why do we have cravings” is asked often by people who are trying to kick a food craving. But there’s a simple answer to why we have cravings, and it has to do with the brain’s rewards system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why do we have cravings? Keep reading to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Why Do We Have Cravings?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So why do we have cravings? The seminal work in understanding cravings was done in monkeys. The monkey was set in front of a blank computer screen. Periodically, a colored shape would appear on the screen. The monkey\u2019s job was to press a lever when this shape appeared, and it\u2019d get a drop of grape juice (which the monkey loved).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When measuring activity in the monkey\u2019s dopamine neurons, a predictable pattern appeared \u2013 when the monkey got a reward (R), its brain activity spiked, indicating pleasure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After many iterations of this loop, the monkey got really good at pulling the lever and getting the grape juice. It was good at recognizing the cue, doing the routine of pulling the lever, and getting the reward of juice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But interestingly, over time, the monkey began anticipating<\/em> the reward. The brain activity spiked when the cue appeared, well in advance of actually getting the reward<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notice that the peak area of brain activity happens when the cue is sensed (CS). This is the craving that happens when you sense a cue.<\/strong> The activity no longer appears when getting the reward \u2013 in some senses, the brain is no longer pleasantly surprised at getting the reward, it just gets what is expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the scientist tried a different experiment \u2013 give the monkey the cue, activate the routine, but give it no reward. Below, you\u2019ll see a spike of activity when the cue is sensed \u2013 anticipating the reward, but when no reward actually comes, the brain activity flatlines, indicating disappointment<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what happens when you get a cue (like smelling French fries), develop a craving, but end up not satisfying the craving. (Biologically, this serves the purpose of giving negative feedback<\/a> to the behavioral circuit \u2013 if you sense a cue and execute a behavior and don\u2019t get the reward, then maybe in the future you<\/a> shouldn\u2019t execute the behavior again.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spike in activity when you sense a cue is the craving<\/strong>. This craving, this eager anticipation of the reward, kicks your habit into gear \u2013 you execute the routine, without even thinking hard about it, so you can get that sweet reward at the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why do we have cravings? What causes cravings and is there a way to stop them? The question “why do we have cravings” is asked often by people who are trying to kick a food craving. But there’s a simple answer to why we have cravings, and it has to do with the brain’s rewards system. So why do we have cravings? Keep reading to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,9],"tags":[226],"class_list":["post-28542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-psychology","tag-the-power-of-habit","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why do we have cravings? Our brains are wired for a systems of cravings and rewards, which has been studied in monkeys. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why do we have cravings? Our brains are wired for a systems of cravings and rewards, which has been studied in monkeys. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-01T18:26:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-16T01:29:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"827\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"509\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-01T18:26:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-16T01:29:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/\"},\"wordCount\":455,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Power of Habit\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/\",\"name\":\"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-01T18:26:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-16T01:29:35+00:00\",\"description\":\"Why do we have cravings? Our brains are wired for a systems of cravings and rewards, which has been studied in monkeys. Read more.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg\",\"width\":827,\"height\":509,\"caption\":\"The Link Between Depression and Obesity\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\",\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carrie Cabral\"},\"description\":\"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues - Shortform Books","description":"Why do we have cravings? Our brains are wired for a systems of cravings and rewards, which has been studied in monkeys. Read more.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues","og_description":"Why do we have cravings? Our brains are wired for a systems of cravings and rewards, which has been studied in monkeys. Read more.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-03-01T18:26:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-03-16T01:29:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":827,"height":509,"url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carrie Cabral","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carrie Cabral","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/"},"author":{"name":"Carrie Cabral","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56"},"headline":"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues","datePublished":"2021-03-01T18:26:37+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-16T01:29:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/"},"wordCount":455,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg","keywords":["The Power of Habit"],"articleSection":["Health","Psychology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/","name":"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg","datePublished":"2021-03-01T18:26:37+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-16T01:29:35+00:00","description":"Why do we have cravings? Our brains are wired for a systems of cravings and rewards, which has been studied in monkeys. Read more.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg","width":827,"height":509,"caption":"The Link Between Depression and Obesity"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-cravings\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why Do We Have Cravings? Monkeys Offer Clues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56","name":"Carrie Cabral","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carrie Cabral"},"description":"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/china-study-why-are-americans-so-fat.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28542"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28594,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28542\/revisions\/28594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}