Why Am I Not Losing Weight After Cutting Sugar
Youre Not Timing Your Meals Correctly
If you graze constantly, youre likely consuming extra calories throughout the day that make it harder to shed fat. But waiting too long to eat or forgetting a meal entirely can also backfire because it may leave you so ravenous that you eat everything in sight.
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Find Yourself A Distraction Tactic
This is something that you do instead of your bad eating habit. You see, you cant stop one habit easily without replacing it with another one. For example, if you like to have something sweet to eat after dinner, try replacing dessert or chocolate with a flavoured herbal tea. If you get bored during a certain point in the day instead of reaching for an office fundraiser or buying a blueberry muffin, why not plan the next weeks worth of meals and exercise sessions. Maybe you need a hobby. For further reading, check out my article on boredom eating.
How To Get Rid Of Junk Food Addiction Step : Distance Yourself From Junk Food
When you have a junk food craving, attempt to keep it at bay.
You may, for example, go for a quick walk or take a shower to distract yourself. A shift in mindset and surroundings can help you not to give in to your cravings.
Chewing gum has also been demonstrated in several trials to help reduce hunger and cravings.
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Ask For Support From Friends And Family
Support from friends and family can help you overcome all sorts of addictions. Ask a loved one to remind you to make better food choices.
You should also spend time with people who maintain healthy eating habits. Its highly unlikely youll eat junk food if everyone around you is eating healthy foods.
At the same time, its hard to overcome junk food addiction if your friend or partner eats it all the time.
The Slippery Slope Of Food Addiction
Someone doesnt just that she wants to feel out of control with food. Instead, its often a slippery slope that leads a person into an addiction with a particular food. Below are some of the warning signs and common traits among people suffering from a food addiction:
- Changes in mood
- Labeling food as good and bad
- Restrictive dieting
- Thinking about food all the time
- Feeling unsatisfied even after meal times
- Weight fluctuations and/or difficulty managing weight
- Body dissatisfaction
- Feeling disgusted, guilty or upset after eating
- Feeling stressed or tension that is only relieved by eating
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How To Get Rid Of Junk Food Addiction Step : Shop For Healthy Food
The vegetable, dairy, meat, and seafood areas are usually located around the perimeter of the grocery store. This is where you’ll discover actual foods, not heavily processed stuff.
Try to buy exclusively from these areas when you go shopping. Don’t buy anything with more than a few ingredients on the label. This is an important step in converting your diet to whole foods.
Because you’ll be getting all of the nutrients you need from these nutritious meals, your junk food addiction will begin to fade.
What You Can Do To Break The Addiction
Breaking any addiction is difficult, and a junk food addiction is no different. Whilst there may be ways to make the break easier, when it comes down to it, will power and a desire to make positive changes are the key factors to a healthier diet.
Take a realistic look at your eating habits
As with any addition, identifying and admitting that there is a problem is the first step to breaking the addiction.
It may be useful to keep a food dairy, writing down all the food you eat throughout the day. This can give you a good overall picture of what you are eating throughout the day, and can often be surprising when the quantity of unhealthy food going into our bodies is written on a sheet of paper in front of us.
A diary has the added benefit of being a record showing when we are eating junk food. This can help to identify why we are making unhealthy choices and what is influencing our behaviour.
Identify when and why you are eating junk food
A food dairy can help with this. Our eating habits are often controlled by outside factors such as work and life commitments, stress, the need to relax, lack of time, or cravings. By identifying when you are turning to junk food, it is possible to see which lifestyle factors are influencing your eating choices and try to modify them.
Remove junk food from the house or your workplace
If the food is not there to tempt you, you are less likely to eat it. Avoid buying unhealthy junk food snacks and replace these with healthier options.
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The Relationship Between Alcohol & Processed Foods
A 2015 paper from the American College of Nutrition explains this relationship between addictions to alcohol and processed foods:
When processed food addiction is compared to substance-based addictions such as alcoholism and smoking, a clear, consistent disease concept emerges. The similarities between alcohol addiction and processed food addiction include neuro-dysfunction of cravings and suppression of cognitive function, genetics, impulsive and irritable behavior, mood disorders, conformance to addiction diagnostic criteria, family patterns, young age of onset, a fetal syndrome, serious consequences, disrupted careers and relationships, and food industry business practices of advertising, pricing, marketing to children and easy availability. Abstinence has also shown to be effective in treatment.
I find that to be so profound. According to this research paper, alcohol addiction in the 18th century and processed food addiction today are based on the same 5-A Equation. This includes five words that begin with the letter A that are necessary for creating highly addictive substances. Here are the 5 As:
Availability: Make the substance available everywhere 24/7
Affordability: Produce the product for as cheap as possible & make it seem like an irresistible value
Addictive properties in the product: Add components that keep people hooked and coming back for more
Advertising: Spend millions of dollars on marketing to create a new norm in society
Why Is Junk Food So Addictive
Its 3 p.m. and youre experiencing that all-too-familiar afternoon slump. It brings on a fierce sugar craving. Youre not alone. Many people deal with cravings on a frequent, even daily basis.
Believe it or not, food manufacturers often create foods with the goal of igniting that cycle of addiction in consumers. They aim for the bliss point in a product. This is the point at which the eater experiences the ultimate pleasure, with not too much and not too little salty, sweet, and fatty flavors. These combinations are particularly hard to resist, and your brain reacts in a similar way as with cocaine and other drug addictions .
While succumbing to cravings may seem inevitable in the moment, there are a few simple things you can do to control them. Here are 10 ideas to get you started.
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A Toxicology Report Found High Levels Of Prescription Drugs In Elvis Presleys Bloodstream
Getty307613 36: Singer Elvis Presley poses for a studio portrait.
According to USA Today, a toxicology report showed that Elvis Presleys blood was found to have had extremely high levels of the opiates Dilaudid, Percodan, Demerol and codeine, as well as Quaaludes.
You can read a transcription of Elvis Presleys autopsy report here. It gives his cause of death as H.C.V.D. associated with ASHD or Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease associated with Arteriosclerotic Heart Disease.
The report says he was found on floor of dressing room by a person who had been sleeping in adjoining room. According to the autopsy report, there was no indication of foul play. Had been ok in early AM.
The report also notes that he had been playing racquetball recently.
What Are The 10 Harmful Effects Of Junk Food
Facts of Eating Junk Foods
- It can cause memory and learning problems.
- It can cause type 2 diabetes.
- It can trigger digestive problems.
- It causes fatigue and weakness.
- Causes depression among teenagers.
- It causes fluctuations in blood sugar levels.
- It affects the brain function.
- It increases the risk of heart disease.
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How To Prevent Or Overcome Food Addiction
Food addiction is difficult to prevent because its impossible to avoid food. However, one of the best strategies is to avoid overexposure to palatable foods by eating a healthy, balanced diet thats rich in natural, unprocessed foods. Eating a balanced diet and understanding the warning signs of food addiction will help you to act quickly if you suspect a problem.
Overcoming food addiction typically involves following the same model thats used to treat other types of addictionsand youll need a solid plan and plenty of support.
- First, youll need to detoxify your body by avoiding trigger foods, such as fast food or foods with processed sugar. During this time, you may experience withdrawal symptoms that can range from mild to severe.
- After you detoxify your body, youll need to work on changing your eating behaviors. You may need to avoid certain people, places , situations and foods that intensify cravings or make you more likely to consume the problem food. You also may need to break associations between food and routines or events, such as eating ice cream before bed or having buttery popcorn at the movie theater.
- Other strategies that can help include tracking your food consumption, preplanning your meals and eating mindfully.
If you need professional support to help you lose weight, talk to your primary care physician to see what options may be right for you.
Know The Type Of Eater You Are
According to Brian Wansink, Ph.D., there are 5 types of junk food eaters:
Snack grazers: These people eat junk food just because its available. Sometimes they snack when bored, nervous, or idle.
Restaurant indulgers: This type frequents restaurants and overindulges in junk food.
Meal stuffers: They eat during mealtimes but they overindulge.
Multitasking diner: These people eat while doing different tasks like driving, using the computer, walking, and so on.
Party bingers: These are usually professionals, who overeat in social events.
Itll be easier for you to overcome junk food addiction once you discover the type of eater you are. For instance, if youre a party binger, eating a healthy meal before the party can prevent snacking.
Restaurant indulgers can benefit from cooking healthy meals at home. If youre too busy to cook every day, use these meal prepping ideas.
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Repeating An Eating Disorder Habit Despite Feeling Guilty
It is normal to feel guilty when one notices that they are overeating. The feeling should then trigger the individual to embrace good eating habits. However, it is unfortunate that some people fail to stop overeating even when they know it is wrong. They find that they have no control over this habit. They go against their inner voice, continually reminding them to stop overeating. Such individuals should seek help from nutrition clinics and have their eating habits monitored by a health specialist.
Know The Truth About Junk Food
Most of us eat junk food without really knowing what we are eating. Finding out the ingredients in your favorite junk food can gross you out and make you crave it less.
For instance, processed foods like sausages and Tang contain carcinogens, which have been shown to increase the risk of cancer.
A quick google search will show you all the gross ingredients in your favorite food. You may even want to go farther and research how these foods are prepared.
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Tips To Beat Food Addiction
Are you are self confessed chocoholic? Are you addicted to sweet foods? Its a pretty common assumption that sugar is addictive, just like substance or alcohol abuse, but is this actually the case?
Ive definitely had moments when Ive craved chocolate or needed something sweet after dinner so I can relate to the notion of needing a fix.
How To Overcome Food Addiction
The effects of certain foods on the brain make it hard for some people to avoid them.
Food addiction operates similarly to other addictions, which explains why some people cant control themselves around certain foods no matter how hard they try.
Despite not wanting to, they may repeatedly find themselves eating large amounts of unhealthy foods knowing that doing so may cause harm.
This article examines food addiction and provides tips to overcome it.
Food addiction is an addiction to junk food and comparable to drug addiction.
Its a relatively new and controversial term, and high quality statistics on its prevalence are lacking .
Food addiction is similar to several other disorders, including binge eating disorder, bulimia, compulsive overeating, and other feeding and eating disorders.
SUMMARY
Food addiction is a highly controversial concept, though most studies suggest it exists. It works similarly to drug addiction.
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Processed junk foods have a powerful effect on the reward centers of the brain. These effects are caused by brain neurotransmitters like dopamine .
The most problematic foods include typical junk foods like candy, sugary soda, and high fat fried foods.
Food addiction is not caused by a lack of willpower but believed to be caused by a dopamine signal that affects the biochemistry of the brain .
SUMMARY
Food addiction is thought to involve the same neurotransmitters and areas of the brain as drug addiction.
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A Culpable Food Industry
Many people believe the food industry spikes food with processed sugars and flours knowing this will lead to food addiction.
Indeed, many supermarket premade dishes contain more sugar than a bar of chocolate! The sweetness of these dishes is often hidden by an infusion of salt and spices.
In fact, some even say processed sugar is more addictive than cocaine!
I recommend you read the book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss.
Studies conducted on rats exposed to junk food prove the rats suffer withdrawal symptoms when the junk food is removed similar to that suffered by rats addicted to drugs or alcohol.
This was particularly the case for rats addicted to sugar. When sugar was withdrawn, the rats suffered several withdrawal symptoms: shaking, anxiety and a change in body temperature.
Scientists say youre least likely to become addicted to unprocessed natural foods such as vegetables, nuts, beans and seeds.
Also Check: How To Get Rid Of Sugar Addiction
Why Do College Students Eat So Poorly
Busy class schedules and late nights often lead to inconsistent college student eating habits. Without time to eat, meals are often skipped, especially breakfast. Late night study sessions lead to binge eating of less than healthy food in an attempt to compensate for skipped meals or the need to stay awake.
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Out Of Sight Out Of Mind
Ever notice how quickly and easily you can finish a bowl of M& Ms when theyre right in front of you? One of the ways to help manage those cravings is to remove yourself from seeing the culprit in the first place.
A study looked at how the proximity of food relates to how quickly one consumes it. It showed that people consumed fewer chocolates, crackers, and grapes when they were located 20 feet away compared to at arms length.
Its probably unrealistic to put a complete ban on junk food in the house, especially if you live with other people who arent willing to join your crusade. However, you can store your tempting food in areas that require some effort to get to. For instance, on the top shelf, in the basement, or even in the trunk of your car.
Craving For Sweet Or Salty Foods When Hungry
Situations arise where individuals cannot consume food without sugar. Medical research shows that such a condition is as by stress, lack of sleep, boredom, excessive sweating, or Premenstrual syndrome . For instance, women experience the craving for sweet and salty food because of hormonal imbalance. To recover from this symptom, they should consume supplements having Calcium and vitamin B-6, apply acupuncture and herb as well as using oral contraceptives that work according to research studies.
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There Is A Spectrum Of Susceptibility To Junk Food And Refined Food
Telling yourself to just have a little bit of toxic trigger food is like telling a drug addict to have a little bit of heroin or telling an addicted smoker to smoke less, or telling an alcoholic to just drink one drink per day.
For some people, this would work to ration the amount of toxic food. If they have had a healthy diet most of their life and are genetically just not inclined to notice food very much some people can eat only one potato chip or just one cookie and be slim all their lives. But this is at the low end of the bell curve.
Most people fall somewhere in the middle. Medium to high susceptibility. When you look at who is still slender, it is either young people who are not fat yet or a few rare individuals who are not sensitive.
If you are not an alcoholic, for instance, you can have one drink a day, and it is no big deal. If you are not sensitive to refined foods, you might be able to have refined foods once in a while.
There are a few people who are not that interested in food, and they stay thin eating a mostly healthy diet with little bits of junk food thrown in.
Moderation doesnt work for many people
If you look around any place there are humans, you will see many fat people who cannot use restraint when it comes to junk food and just a few thin people who may be on diets, or they may still be young enough and active enough that it hasnt caught up with them yet.
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