Pickles are one of those underrated foods IMHO.
Macrobiotics also talks about balancing flavours or tastes, salty, sweet, sour, bitter and uname (if I spelt that correctly, it is 'meaty' taste).
I do think when you also consider this in your diet, cravings are minimised.
Ever notice when you eat something really salty, you crave sweet after, or vice versa, that is the basic premise, to balance these flavours.
I would check the ingredients in pickles though, a lot of the processed ones have sugar in them. There are natural/clean brands that will not use sugar and reduced or good quality salt.
You can pickle a lot of foods yourself. Pickled beet root is a very traditional food in the UK and really YUM.