Understanding your cravings is an essential step in your wellness journey. If you find yourself constantly craving fruit, you’re not alone.

This post delves into four key reasons behind these cravings, helping you gain insights into your body’s needs and emotional triggers.

The Eating Enlightenment Food Journal App can be a valuable tool. It assists you in tracking cravings, managing emotional eating, and preventing binges from supporting your overall well-being.

1) Dehydration

Dehydration is caused by not drinking enough water.

This dehydration is a common cause of fruit cravings because fruit is full of water.

Drinking more water is the easiest way to prevent this kind of craving.

When you are dehydrated, you will often crave sweet foods, too. This is your body’s way of getting the minerals it needs to function!

So why does being dehydrated cause you to want to eat fruit or drink fruit smoothies?

When dehydrated, your mouth and other parts of your body become dry. So when you start feeling those cravings, even sometimes ice cravings, your mouth has become too dry! You need more moisture, which you can get from the fruit you crave!

Of course, you can also drink more water when you have fruit cravings. 

But what happens if I overeat fruit?

Unfortunately, fruit can also harm people with high blood sugar levels.

For example, my uncle with type two diabetes can only eat certain fruits like berries, which have low sugar content.

It’s because overeating fruit for him would be dangerous, given his diagnosis.

Inquick-fix some delicate fruits. But eating tons of cravings with blood sugar levels is NOT advised.

When you eat too many fruits in wild abandon, you must realize that your actual problem is binge eating.

For more info on binge eating, read this introductory article here.

Besides dehydration, you can also crave fruit for another straightforward, non-subtle reason.

2) Low Blood Sugar

When your blood sugar level falls below usual, cravings for a quick-fix food like fruit start to happen.

Your body craves sugar and natural energy from fruits, aka glucose!

This is why people who follow a restrictive diet or eat little sugar can experience cravings for fruit.

The body needs glucose to function, which can be obtained from fruit.

If your blood sugar gets low, you can also start craving more traditional ‘binge’ foods like potato chips, cake, ice cream, and pizza. Carb cravings are highly related to low blood sugar.

See, blood sugar is like the gasoline your body vehicle runs on.

If you skip meals or only eat skimpy salads, your body will become famished. A hungry body will get a sweet tooth from any glucose source, including fruits.

3) Emotional Hunger

People often eat more sweets when they are sad, which causes them to want even more sweets!

This phenomenon is called ’emotional hunger’. 

We’ll start with why people might crave fruit: Their low blood sugar levels make them feel hungry for any glucose source, including fruits.

Low blood sugar levels mean you are probably dieting or eating restrictively. You are trying to lose weight and are restricting your daily food intake.

This leaves you depleted and craving junk food or fruit for more energy.

When depleted, you experience brain fog, emotional fatigue, and sadness…

When someone feels sad and eats more sweets, they might experience an even stronger craving for fruit because of the connection between why you crave fruit (sugar) and emotions.

If your parents taught you to manage your emotions with comfort foods, then fruit could be one of your comfort foods today.

The food craving link between why you crave fruit and emotions is prevalent.

Especially in children who have a lot of meltdowns that involve comfort foods like ice cream or cake!

It’s no secret that stress can shake up our appetite routines. This usually means more sweet food cravings. And our crazy social media culture these days is incredibly stressful!!

But why do we specifically feel the urge for fruits? It might be because they can help with ’emotional hunger.’

Fruit contains Vitamin C, yes, but it also contains ‘fructose‘ sugar. So, this sweetness may seem like a healthier alternative to a more ‘unhealthy’ choice, like pastries made from refined flour and high amounts of butter.

Fruit could be the sugar you ‘allow’ to help quench your emotional hunger, which is one reason behind sugar cravings.

We see fruit sugar as ‘healthier’ and more ‘natural’ than alternatives like soda or junk food!

4) Restrictive Diet

People on restrictive diets can also experience cravings for fruits.

People following restricted eating plans may crave fruit simply because their bodies need glucose and fructose from the natural sugars found in fruit!

This is why you might find that people on a vegan or vegetarian diet may crave fruit.

This craving can be caused by their bodies needing carbs and protein; hence, they turn to fruits that have these nutrients!

Those cravings could include more sweets because fruits contain fructose, sugar, and glucose!

So, with both restricted eating AND low blood sugar levels combined, the craving for fruit can be intense.

But why do I crave fruit?

It could be because your body needs carbohydrates to function. It gets those fructose spikes, medium-chain sugars (aka sugar).

I’m not sure why some people crave junk food and others for fruit, but I know the underlying reasons are the same.

YouReadto produces energy – so if you’re not getting enough for another list of fruit alternatives, the rain will start demanding more anyway! And we all know how much our brains rely on constant blood flow, don’t we??

When people eat too many fruits, they get an even higher fructose spike than before, and their bodies are depleted.

What should I eat if I crave fruit?

• Fruit along with some protein (such as nuts, peanut butter)
• Whole grain toast with fruit
• Drink water!

Read this blog post about ‘Fruit to Vegetable Substitutes’ for another list of fruit alternatives.

Drink lots of water to help prevent dehydration. Remember that water is the main component of a drink like lemonade.  

So you could, for example, try a tall glass of lemonade, which has potassium and vitamin C benefits.

I love fruit in a smoothie with spinach and yogurt. The fruit (usually bananas, apples, and strawberries) makes the smoothie sweeough delicious.

And then I get my green veggies, too!

Scientific Insight: Vitamin Deficiencies and Fruit Cravings

Craving fruit might be your body’s way of signaling a need for specific vitamins and nutrients, particularly vitamin C. Fruits like oranges, berries, and kiwis are rich in vitamin C, an essential nutrient for immune function, skin health, and iron absorption. A study published in the Journal of Nutrition suggests that cravings for fruits can be linked to the body’s desire to replenish low levels of vitamins, especially vitamin C. When your body is deficient in this vitamin, it may naturally prompt cravings for fruits that are rich in it, as a way to restore optimal health.

Fruit Food Cravings – Final Thoughts

So, fruit food cravings are a real thing.

But don’t worry – you’re not going to die from them!

The truth is that our bodies often need something else to feel satisfied. Some tips I’ve shared today can help us combat these cravings.

And a balanced diet is the best bang for your buck.

If any of this resonates for you or if you have questions about your food habits, please reach out via email or phone. Then, we can help answer your questions and problem-solve together on how to address your issues best!

It’s never too late to start toward a healthier lifestyle! Let us know what you think about today’s article by commenting below!