Crave On What’s Behind The Fondest Food Desires Of Men And Women? Scientists Are Busy Trying To Find Out

Can women - with their deep, insatiable craving for chocolate - coexist with men, who long for meat and other high-fat, high-protein foods?

Researchers have long suspected that men and women do not crave the same foods. And now several unusually comprehensive studies seem to confirm that their tastes, when it comes to obsessions, really are different.

Harmony may be just over the horizon, however. One justcompleted study shows that as men and women age, their cravings become more similar. For the over-65 set, a frantic raid on the refrigerator might even be a shared experience.

In the last five years, more than 50 papers have been published on cravings, a subject that both intrigues and confounds researchers. While scientists are finding that women tend to crave sweets and men tend to crave meats, there is still no agreement on where cravings come from or what they mean.

Although specific cravings could be based on nutritional needs, most researchers suspect that foods are desired more for hormonal or other physiological reasons. By learning about cravings, researchers also hope to develop tools for dieters.

“Food cravings are fascinating simply because we don’t yet fully understand them,” said Dr. Louis Aronne, an expert on obesity at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. “But can we have an addiction to food? The answer is yes, absolutely.”

People who feel isolated by their food cravings should know they are not alone. Unless all of these scientific studies are wrong, there is really nothing unusual about driving through a blizzard in the middle of the night to find just the right flavor of ice cream.

“The specificity is important because it distinguishes a craving from general hunger,” said Dr. Harvey Weingarten, a professor of psychology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Some experts point out that the energy used to acquire a craved food is sometimes greater than the energy provided by the food itself - suggesting that people may be driven by extremely strong pleasure receptors in the brain.

They stress, too, that the desire for specific foods may be based on bodily needs of some kind, while cravings brought on by loneliness or boredom tend to be nonspecific.

Indulging nonspecific cravings often produces guilt and depression. When cravings for a particular food are gratified, however, almost all men and a majority of women in the studies report feeling better.

The monitoring of food cravings is a relatively new science, one that is particularly popular in North America. Cravings have not been studied in any organized way in other parts of the world.

But it has long been known that both sweet and salty foods seem to have universal appeal. Prehistoric drawings depict cave cravers who went to inordinate lengths to rob bees of their honey.

In one of the largest studies on food cravings ever undertaken, Weingarten surveyed 1,000 McMaster undergraduates in 1991. Of those, 97 percent of the women acknowledged specific food cravings, compared to only 67 percent of the men.

Both men and women said they experienced specific cravings between five and nine times a month.

Women craved chocolate more than any other food. Men, although they sometimes craved chocolate, reported far more frequent longings for steak, hamburger, lasagna and seafood - all high in protein and, in most cases, fat.

These desires showed up again in a new study at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. The study surveyed two groups - people aged 18 to 35 and those 65 and older.

In the younger group, women craved high-fat sweets over entrees, 2 to 1. Mostly they craved chocolate, in every form: candy, cake, cookies, ice cream. In the group of young men, just the opposite was true.

In the older group, men were still twice as likely to crave entrees over sweets, but the older women craved sweets and entrees in about equal numbers. They also reported fewer cravings than the younger women.

The findings lend support to the increasingly popular theory that women’s cravings are hormonally induced and diminish when they pass menopause. That’s explored in a new book, “Why Women Need Chocolate: Eat What You Crave to Look and Feel Great” (Hyperion), by registered dietitian Debra Waterhouse.

Waterhouse cites several studies showing that women crave chocolate and other sweets and fats when their levels of serotonin and endorphin - the “feel good” amino acids - are low.

Both chemicals are activated in the brain by fat and sugar. They are at their lowest ebb right before menstruation, when the endorphin high produced by ovulation is dropping. The ensuing ennui, crankiness and lethargy are relieved by chocolate and other sugar and fat combinations that release serotonin and endorphins into the brain.

A new diet drug being tested for Food and Drug Administration approval, called Dexfenfluramine, contains chemicals that block the effects of endorphins to reduce the likelihood of cravings.

Waterhouse says men do not crave the same foods as women because they are ruled by testosterone, not estrogen. They need more protein to build and make muscle; hence, those hankerings for hot dogs, other meats and eggs.

Men’s eating patterns have not been studied as much as those of women. Most researchers are not willing to speculate whether men are seeking protein, fat or something else altogether in craving things like hamburgers.

“We thought at first it might just be a macho thing,” said Dr. Adam Drewnowski, head of the human nutrition program at the University of Michigan. “But then we found that lab animals showed the same food preferences as humans.”

Although a food craving could signal a nutritional deficiency, most people do not report cravings for tofu, carrot sticks or spinach.

Instead, they head straight for the high-fat, sweet or salty items that, since childhood, have signaled pleasure. (Children seem to know instinctively that peanut butter and jelly satisfies all three cravings in one fell swoop.)

Food cravings can be “site-induced” - for example, while passing by a bakery - or seemingly come out of nowhere. They can strike at any time, but are most often reported in the late afternoon and early evening.

In a just-completed Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, two groups of overweight women were given a liquid diet made up of 55 percent carbohydrates (which are also believed to release serotonin), 30 percent protein and 15 percent fat.

The more successful dieters consumed most of their carbohydrates in the late afternoon and early evening. The other group, which was fed carbohydrates earlier in the day and protein later on, tended to cheat with candy bars and sugar cubes in late afternoon.

Sudden, increased desires for sweets and fats may also strike people who have recently given up tobacco or alcohol, according to a study done at Duke University.

Should a specific food craving be gratified? Some diet advisers, including Waterhouse, say women who satisfy cravings with small amounts are far less likely to binge or overeat later.

The University of Michigan’s Drewnowski says what men and women really crave is pleasure. “Fat is what people really want, because it makes you feel good,” he said.

Women, he believes, tend to crave fat-and-sugar combinations, while men want fat with protein and fat with salt.

“It’s not a nutritional need - God knows we get enough fat, sugar and salt in our diet,” he said. “But in moderation, it’s not a bad thing either.

“Studies now show that pleasure may strengthen the immune system. If you want to release those endorphins, run five miles - or eat some chocolate.”

Chocolate appears to be one of the world’s most complex foods. It contains more than 400 chemical compounds, twice as many as any other food.

Among them are caffeine and theobromine, both of which are stimulants. Chocolate also contains tyramine and phenylethylamine, which tend to be arousing, leading to greater alertness and slightly elevated blood pressure. (Phenylethylamine is the chemical released into the brain by being in love.)

And chocolate is extremely high in magnesium, an essential mineral involved in making serotonin.

All that, and fat and sugar, too. Chocolate has both, in equal and high amounts, not to mention its aroma and memorable mouth feel.

Many people fear that life without chocolate would be a dreary thing indeed, although there is no scientific evidence that serious withdrawal would follow its sudden disappearance.

A 1992 experiment at the University of Pennsylvania tried to pin down precisely why chocolate appeals to people.

Chocolate cravers’ responses were tested through an elaborate system of boxes. Each box contained one or more of the major ingredients in chocolate. When a craving hit, the craver consumed the contents of one of the boxes.

When the reports were tabulated, the winner was - not surprisingly - an actual Hershey bar.

The moral seems clear: Accept the mystery. Stand by your candy.