Curejoy Expert Gina Hodge Explains:
It is not just alcohol, cigarettes and drugs that people get addicted to. Moreover, one of the challenging addictions that America and most of the developed countries are facing is junk food or fast food addiction.
Nothing is in itself addictive in nature, but humans are susceptible to most of these because we most of the times unknowingly form habit out of it, which eventually turns out to be addiction. However, research now shows that some of the ingredients in fast foods can have an addictive effect.
The popular fast foods including big burgers, overstuffed burritos, fried chicken, fish sandwiches, French fries, and soft drinks are loaded with sugar, highly processed carbs, saturated fats and trans fats. And those are just the ingredients we know about.
It’s not just the weight-gain that these fast foods are responsible for but researchers also said, “We are demonstrating for the first time that the chronic consumption of palatable, high-fat diets has pro-depressive effects.”
Further, one of the main reasons that you should not get addicted to fast-food or junk food is because these are calorie-dense and nutrient-poor. Fast food contain more calories than we need in a day but fail to offer us pro-active nutrients and fiber.
How to Kick the Junk Food Habit?
There are different diet plans or will power exercises of getting rid of junk food habit, however, these regimes are pretty tough for foodies and fast food addicts. Anyway, let me tell you in brief about one of the plans.
If you want to kick junk food habits out of your life, first make sure that you only plan to amend or change one habit at a time. Give each change at least 2 weeks to become ingrained. The idea is to do it get rid of it in a smart, slow and consistent manner.
Firstly, kick the pop habit. This one’s probably the simplest, but not the easiest. Than switch from regular to diet pop and leave it at that for at least 2 weeks. Now move on to caffeine free diet. After that it’s the turn of water to come in, which will play eventual role, as it comes with no calorie.
Secondly, kick fast food now. It’s not as easy as it sounds. To motivate your resolution, here is what you should do. Start by saving all your fast food receipts for one week, place a jar by your bed and each night, empty your pants, wallet, or purse of all the fast food receipts. This will make you realize how much you have been spending on the junk food. This is the fun part now. Take that money and use it to buy food for yourself until next week. This will force you to ration and make choices. Let it sink in for 2 weeks and don’t forget to plan this out. Something has to replace all that fast food you’re suddenly not eating. Nuts and fruits would definitely be a great choice here as a substitute.
This new habit of buying a better food will replace your habit of eating junk food.
On the other hand, the other way to get rid of eating junk food habit is making better and conscious food choices. For example, instead of cookies, you can have apple and almond butter. Moreover, try distracting yourself from it and the temptation will pass. One of the most important things is to get enough sleep. A study in The Journal of Neuroscience found that your brain compensates for lack of sleep by increasing dopamine.
Too little sleep also knocks your fat-burning hormones out of whack. Couple that with sleep-deprived lack of judgment, and you’ve got a surefire strategy to overeat. Aim for seven to nine hours of high-quality sleep every night to trigger fat burning, balance dopamine levels, and reduce your urge to overeat.
