I just found this article that deals with cravings and thought it would be helpful:
UNDERSTANDING CRAVINGS
Dr. Ayaz Samadani, M.D., is a licensed family physician. Ayaz holds many international credentials such as being Advisor to the President's Task Force on Human Development in Pakistan, serving as a member of the American Medical Association, and performing duties as the former president of the State Medical Society of Wisconsin.
What Are Cravings?
Cravings are a desire to do something that one is used to doing. Cravings are driven by habits, addictions, and emotional factors. These cravings could be for food, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, or even exercise.
A food craving is not all bad. To desire food and enjoy it are normal feelings. It is overindulgence that is harmful. To overcome cravings, one has to eat a balanced
diet including all essential ingredients, including fats, proteins, and carbohydrates that contain necessary minerals and vitamins.
Physiological Reasons for Cravings
Physiologically, it is usually the deprivation of the craved substance that makes one want to it. For example, if carbohydrates are eliminated from the diet, it results in a drop of easily available sugar, causing feelings of weakness or hunger. A brain neurotransmitter called serotonin is necessary in the metabolism of carbohydrates. Reduced carbohydrates result in low levels of serotonin, which stimulates hunger.
Food Cravings
Taste plays an important role in developing habits regarding food consumption. Sometimes the sight and smell of food causes the mouth to
water, resulting in the desire to eat. In cases where food does not have much taste, no craving for it exists. Exposure to mouth-watering foods, especially sweets, develops in infancy and become a habit as the child grows into adulthood.
Other Cravings
Alcohol acts on the nervous system to develop a habit or an addiction. The same is true for drugs and painkillers. Smoking cigarettes increases nicotine levels in the blood. When deprived, the lack of nicotine in the body causes body chemicals and the nervous system to seek the deprived ingredients. These habits develop from exposure, availability, and environment.
How to Control Cravings
The best method to control any craving is to develop a strong mental determination. When an effort is made to change harmful habits, one needs to develop self-discipline skills. It is this self-control that is needed to give a person the power necessary to kick the habit.
First, recognize that there is a problem—especially if this problem is causing any physiological or psychological problems in the body or one’s behavior.
Second, find the best solution to deal with the problem, whether it is abstinence, modification in the behavior, developing new and healthy routines, or improving self-control and discipline skills.
Lastly, realize what has been accomplished after such behavior changes. Making lifelong and healthy changes should be celebrated and rewarded.