Training & Nutrition - Sweet or salty

In general, which do you crave more ... sweet stuff (like chocolate, candy, cookies, etc.), or salty stuff (like potato chips, corn chips, crackers, cheese, pickles, etc.)?


I know a craving for sweet stuff means your blood sugar level is low, and you need to eat something ... preferably something substantial. In other words, it is better to eat complex carbs, fat, or protein rather than the chocolate bar.

And I know that a craving for salty stuff means ... your body needs salt.

But I've been craving salty stuff all the time for the past few weeks ... and I eat salty stuff, and salt my food, but this is getting out of hand. I don't recall craving so much salt for so long before.

Right after a good, hard ride, I want salt. Sweet things at that time just don't appeal to me. A couple of hours later, though, it's a different story.

I like Tortilla chips for my salt. I prefer Oatmeal-Raisin cookies for my sugar.

Dang. Now you've got me thinking about going down to the vending machines :)

But I've been craving salty stuff all the time for the past few weeks ... and I eat salty stuff, and salt my food, but this is getting out of hand. I don't recall craving so much salt for so long before.

I always crave salty stuff over sweets. I dunno why.

... Brad

I like sweet, my wife likes salt. We've cut the salt down in all our recipes, though. Now, when we go out to dinner we're up a pound or two the next morning - just the salt in restaurant food.

Both sometimes at the same time. :eek:
Anyone tried bulgogi beef with soft serve ice cream? Mmm delicious.

Almost always salty. I've been eating too many olives lately... and I know I'm really low on salt when I find myself buying a jar of pickled herring (the stuff grows on you).

Do i have to choose???

Potato chips rule. It started when I was a small child. A few Jewel brand chips in my lunch bag. As I got older, I discovered there were other brands. It turns out Jewel chips were just a "gateway chip". Soon I was trying Lays, Jays, Jays AND Lays, even Ruffles. For a long time I drew the line at flavored chips. Sour cream and onion, no thanks! Those things are addictive. But then a "friend" got me to try the hard stuff, kettle cooked. The ultimate salty crunch. I was hooked. A "couple of chips" became a few big handfuls. Then half a bag. Then the whole 7 oz. bag. Then the discovery...the 14OZ. BAG. All in one sitting. No problem.

I'm going to start a 12 step program at PC Anonymous, soon...but I still haven't reached step one, admitting I have a problem. I open a bag of chips, I finish a bag of chips. No problem:D

Potato chips rule. It started when I was a small child. A few Jewel brand chips in my lunch bag. As I got older, I discovered there were other brands. It turns out Jewel chips were just a "gateway chip". Soon I was trying Lays, Jays, Jays AND Lays, even Ruffles. For a long time I drew the line at flavored chips. Sour cream and onion, no thanks! Those things are addictive. But then a "friend" got me to try the hard stuff, kettle cooked. The ultimate salty crunch. I was hooked. A "couple of chips" became a few big handfuls. Then half a bag. Then the whole 7 oz. bag. Then the discovery...the 14OZ. BAG. All in one sitting. No problem.

I'm going to start a 12 step program at PC Anonymous, soon...but I still haven't reached step one, admitting I have a problem. I open a bag of chips, I finish a bag of chips. No problem:D

I'm SO glad to hear I'm not the only one! :D

In general, which do you crave more ... sweet stuff (like chocolate, candy, cookies, etc.), or salty stuff (like potato chips, corn chips, crackers, cheese, pickles, etc.)?


I know a craving for sweet stuff means your blood sugar level is low, and you need to eat something ... preferably something substantial. In other words, it is better to eat complex carbs, fat, or protein rather than the chocolate bar.

And I know that a craving for salty stuff means ... your body needs salt.

But I've been craving salty stuff all the time for the past few weeks ... and I eat salty stuff, and salt my food, but this is getting out of hand. I don't recall craving so much salt for so long before.

All of my cravings are sodium based.

Potato chips rule. It started when I was a small child. A few Jewel brand chips in my lunch bag. As I got older, I discovered there were other brands. It turns out Jewel chips were just a "gateway chip". Soon I was trying Lays, Jays, Jays AND Lays, even Ruffles. For a long time I drew the line at flavored chips. Sour cream and onion, no thanks! Those things are addictive. But then a "friend" got me to try the hard stuff, kettle cooked. The ultimate salty crunch. I was hooked. A "couple of chips" became a few big handfuls. Then half a bag. Then the whole 7 oz. bag. Then the discovery...the 14OZ. BAG. All in one sitting. No problem.

I'm going to start a 12 step program at PC Anonymous, soon...but I still haven't reached step one, admitting I have a problem. I open a bag of chips, I finish a bag of chips. No problem:D

Hell yes Kettle chips! Those things are the best!

Dark Chocolate. Not too sweet, not salty. :D

Both sometimes at the same time. :eek:
Anyone tried bulgogi beef with soft serve ice cream? Mmm delicious.

Hmm...

Gotta say salt based on the fact that Gatorade tastes damn good after a good sweat, yet as a casual beverage, the additional salt makes it taste like crap.

chocolate!!!!!!!! that is all. later.

try chocolate covered pretzels, double whammy!

False dichotomy -- both are awesome!

Can't choose, that is just cruel.

Do i have to choose???

+1. I eat plenty of both.

A good friend I had (RIP) always said "If it don't need salt, it needs sugar. If it don't need sugar, it needs salt".

I have always had a salt craving. I'd eat salt. When I was a kid, it was salt from the shaker or bullion cubes. Knowing the health effects, I sorta got out of the habit in my teens. In my twenties, I ate a lot of pickles and olives. Eventually, I'd stop buying them, because I'd go through a jar a day. I'm much smarter now, but recently, when I bought some Himalayan sea salt in a grinder with a screw off cap, I found myself taking the cap off and eating the Tic-Tac-sized crystals. I'd eat one, then ten minutes later, I'd start craving another, then another. I gave it to a family member. I just can't keep that kind of thing around or I'm gonna eat it.

I'm trying to lose weight. Oh hell, I am losing weight, and the hardest thing to pass up was a bag of buffalo bleu cheese kettle cooked chips at Big Lots yesterday. I know this brand, but I can only find it occasionally. Argh.

I'll crave sweets as well, but the drive is more rare, and much weaker. I have a genetic propensity toward mild hypoglycemia, but even when my vision goes wonky, I'm not craving sweets.

I used to crave salt. I ate more and more, and I reached a point where I could eat a palmful of pure sea salt flakes every other day, in addition to all the other salt I probably got through food.
The more salt I consumed, the more I craved it. I decided to cut my salt intake once I realised that...

I crave fried starch. Salty or sweet, depending on which I get to first - Donuts or chips.

I believe, however, that craving salty and/or sweet fried starch is not really an indicator of what your body lacks, but rather an evolutionary adaptation to fill up on things that our ancestors were less likely to come across in their hunting/gathering, and which were useful to fill up on - starch, fat, sugar, and salt. I also believe that most humans don't have an "off switch" for those cravings, since again, our ancestors prior to agriculture were unlikely to ever find too much of those things.

See, if you do it properly, you can blame the obesity epidemic on Evolution!

See, if you do it properly, you can blame the obesity epidemic on Evolution!

And if you denounce evolution, all you're left with to blame is your own lack of character! :D

i crave crunchy sometimes too like salty and crunchy crisps, or crunchy cereal

I like salty crisps very much