I’ve noticed the specific food craving thing around my period. It needs to replace iron or whatever, so I suddenly want a hamburger.

But how does that connection happen? Is my body releasing hormones in a specific way that my brain understands before and after the burger, and then in the future, the “give me iron” hormone is translated into fantasizing about hamburgers by my brain?

https://www.parents.com/what-to-know-about-pregnancy-cravings-7507166

I figured pregnancy was when people get weird cravings the most. Hormones go so wild then, it really makes me think hormones are the culprit here, with the brain translating them as best it can.

The like three articles I looked at on this all warned about how pica (craving for nonfood items) might mean you have low iron.

https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6357/6/3/26

The connection with iron and pica makes me think there is something concrete going on here (don’t eat concrete. go see if you need iron supplements). But your hormones and brain are both flailing around trying to keep you alive, so it can get weird.

Outside eating, the craving is probably the desire to return to some feeling. Music especially seems to get associated with times and people who were around then, and specific states of mind. I permanently associated one song with a cool scene from a story I was reading, and now I get an echo of the feeling from that scene when I hear it. And when I want that reading a cool action scene feeling, I can listen to that song on purpose.

TLDR; probably brain translating desire or need by making us want things it associates with filling those needs. With food, hormones seem involved.