How To Stop Being Addicted To Fast Food

Am I Addicted To Junk Food

To be addicted means that youâre unable to resist using or consuming something, despite the fact that itâs doing you harm â to be dependent on an activity or substance for happiness or equilibrium. Food is a primaeval driver for any living thing. Because food can change our mood for the better, it can become something to rely on when weâre stressed or anxious. And most people donât choose fruit or steamed vegetables for a quick boost. Eating large amounts of sugar and fat on a regular basis makes you crave more, which is easy to find in todayâs world of around the clock fast food.

But the sugar-laden sweets or take-away junk food most people turn to for comfort are bereft of nutritional value. The calories, sugar, salt, and trans-fat junk food does have will leave you overweight and listless, but still hungry. As the medical community never tires of repeating, there are many risks associated with obesity, such as heart disease, sore joints, diabetes, elevated blood pressure and increased probability of stroke. So this is not a trivial addiction.

Trying to derail a dependence on food alone often results in feelings of deprivation, withdrawal, and depression â itâs very difficult to realign entrenched mental and metabolic patterns at the same time. Therapy may be what you need to establish healthier eating habits over the long term. What do you have to lose if you put off taking action?

Ways To Overcome Fast Food Addiction

According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, addiction is a chronic disease of brain motivation, reward, memory and related circuitry. If functionality is impaired in these circuits it leads to characteristic psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is shown in an individual continually pursuing reward or relief by substance use and other behaviors.

When a person is addicted to fast food that is what they will crave and want to consume every day. In order for a person to stop a fast food addiction they should consider getting treatment, or at least involving themselves in therapy to help deal with the cravings for fast food.

Secondly, a person addicted to fast food should see a nutritionist to help them a find a way to start lessening their fast food intake. A nutritionist will work with them on finding a healthy balance, and find ways to make sure the individual in question is getting the proper nutrients they need. A third way to help a person overcome a fast food addiction, is to avoid fast food places. If a person does not drive by fast food places, or if they do not provide themselves as much access to fast food places, they may not be as tempted.

Change Your Mindset About Fast Food

For some, reducing their fast food intake means handling their mindset before anything else. Some people may see eating fast food as a treat, but you can spin it in a more negative way to help you overcome your cravings:

• Think about how unhealthy and processed these foods are and how they can negatively impact your body. They can even cause pain, like stomachaches and headaches.
• Tell yourself that fast food is poorly prepared and made and could give you food poisoning. This might trick your mind and cravings since youll associate fast food with getting sick.

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Is Food Addiction Real

The topic of food addiction is debated among medical experts, mental health care workers, scientists and dietitians.

Whether or not food addiction truly exists is controversial among health professionals, Ashley Hopkins, RD, LDN, director of wellness program success at Wellable tells CNET. Though it’s highly debated, she says, the concept of food addiction was examined in a systematic review of studies in 2018, to determine if certain addiction characteristics — such as preoccupation and impaired control — can be associated with food.

The findings did, in fact, support the idea that food addiction is possible. Additionally, some scientists argue that ignoring the potential addictiveness of foods can lead to public health issues just like other addictions.

Susan Masterson, a health psychologist, tells CNET that much of the debate about food addiction arises because food doesn’t pack the chemical “punch” that alcohol and drugs do, but the effect can still be emotionally powerful.

“Contrary to what most people think, it’s not the actual substance people become addicted to, it’s the chemical emotional response within us that hooks us,”Masterson says. “The temporary pleasure and emotional relief stems from the release of neurotransmitters in combination with other cognitive factors such as our expectations of our experience being met.”

Practice Mindful And Intuitive Eating

Becoming aware of the thoughts and feelings we have is half the battle of shifting to a more beneficial mindset.

Consciousness or awareness is a powerful tool, simply put it’s the act of being conscious of something or an action.

With less and less time to take a moment to check-in with ourselves and how we are feeling, developing mindful practices will help us understand when we are feeling satisfied and connect with our internal hunger cues to prevent over eating.

Eating consciously means adopting more mindful or intuitive practices in your life and getting curious about how you feel when you are craving a particular food.

Research suggests that mindful and intuitive eating may help you learn to trust your body by slowing down and checking in with yourself, your environment, and your food .

Building conscious awareness around your relationship with food also means checking in with other areas that affect your wellness.

This is one of the reasons mindful eating and intuitive eating practices are being used as tools in eating disorder recovery, as they help increase self-awareness .

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How To Know If You Are Craving Junk Food And Mindless Eating

Look at the statements below and check off any that apply to you:

• I often zone out when I am eating and graze on food, especially eating late at night.
• I ignore my hunger until I am ‘hangry’ or famished and try to skip meals.
• I often do other things when I eat and multitask.
• I eat in front of the TV and usually ignore the taste of the food.
• I go for a lot of convenient foods, and fast-foods nothing else seems to satisfy.
• When I’m emotional I tend to eat or skip meals.

If any of the statements above resonated with you then you probably understand what its like to crave junk food or eat mindlessly if none of them resonated but you still feel like you struggle what you eat thats 100% valid as well, we all have unwanted habits we want to change.

There is no universal right way to eat we all metabolize food differently and have individualized lifestyles. We can explore what works well for our bodies and build a meal plan to suite our personal health and wellness goals.

Cravings can often be the result of food restriction or from not eating enough in general poor nutrition intake, emotions, and stress can also impact your cravings .

If we are not consciously connected to how we feel, our motivation, and our strengths then our actions and choices become mindless cravings can be a manifestation of mindless eating.

Healing My Relationship With Food

A while back I told you of my story, my journey of food, wellness, and getting myself healthy. The response was incredible and I thank you for allowing me the space to be open and vulnerable with my experience.

However, Ive done you wrong, I havent told you the whole story.

Now, Im ready. Ive been sitting on this for over a decade, and even if one person is inspired to think differently about their body and health, it will be worth it.

It began at 15, the brewing of quiet desperation, the feelings came on like a wave taking over my body. This was the age I began to really become conscious of myself.

I have felt like Ive always been tuned in or perhaps a highly sensitive person, and around this time I started to see just how raw and vulnerable we all are I saw all the dreams and aspirations I had for my life and felt overwhelmed with the mission to make them happen, I had fire in my eyes.

I began to see my parents as human, not as the all-knowing, almighty entities I had made them out to be, , I knew my older brother would be leaving for college that year and my leader and mentor wouldnt be there for me every day, , I watched in terror as the twin towers crumbled to the ground on September 11th, , and for the first time, the beautiful dream world I constructed began to breakdown.

Life got real, real fast. And I didnt know how to cope.

And from this place, I turned to food.

And I couldnt have just one. It was one, then three, then the whole damn box.

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The Most Addictive Foods

The foods that people are most likely to compulsively overeat tend to have something in common: A powerful combination of carbohydrates and fat.

You wont find many examples of this irresistible combo in nature. For example, rice is high in carbohydrates but low in fat, while nuts are high in fat but have minimal carbs. But processed food companies can mix ingredients and chemically exaggerate flavors to create taste sensations so appealing that you keep wanting more.

In a study where researchers asked people what foods they were most likely to overeat, some of the most common responses were:

• Chocolate.
• Cheeseburgers.

This Past Year Perhaps More Than Ever People Were Looking To Fast Food For Its Convenience And Comfort

This past year, perhaps more than ever, people were looking to fast food for its convenience and comfort. But did this create a fast food habit in your daily or weekly routine? Or were you already struggling with a fast food addiction before quarantine? To determine if you need to take a break from the drive-thru, here are some questions to think about:

• Is it your morning habit to grab coffee from the local shop or corner store?
• Do you get fast food as a pick-me-up when you’re stressed or having a bad day?
• Once you start eating the meal, do you eat more than you had intended?
• Do you spend more on fast food each week than you do on groceries?
• Do you try to hide fast-food wrappers or eat it in secret from others?

If you answered yes to these questions or even just a few of them you may need to rethink your fast food choices. Something as simple or innocent as grabbing your morning coffee at your favorite spot can indicate a troublesome habit or dependence on fast, convenient food. And the idea of hiding the containers and wrappers suggests that there’s an underlying shame in the food being eaten. And ignoring that discomfort seems easier than facing it.

If you or your family has a fast food addiction that needs to be broken, it’s never too late to make positive changes! Here are three simple hacks you can use to let go of your fast food habit.

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What Are The 4 Types Of Eating Habits

The Four Types Of Eating

• The four types of eating are: Fuel, Fun, Fog, and Storm.
• Fuel Eating is when you are eating foods that support your body and its needs.
• Fun Eating is eating any foods that you love to eat that dont necessarily give you anything back.
• Fog Eating is anytime you eat without awareness.

Can You Recover From Food Addiction

Food addiction can be overcome by following the Food Addiction Institutes recommendations. In the same way as with other addictions, the condition may not be cured through a single treatment program. The treatment can, however, bring the condition into remission and help you to repair any psychological, social, or economic damage caused by it.

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How Can I Stop Being Addicted To Screens / My Phone

When it comes to technology consumption, typically the problem can be defined two ways: idolatry or outright addiction. You may be experiencing one or both definitions when it comes to you and your devices. Examine how you use your tech and how often you use it. Do you allow your device-use to get in the way of your relationships with friends, family, or God? How you would feel if it got broken or taken away? What would your response be? Would you get angry or go crazy? Or would you just find something else to do?

The Bible says idolatry is the worship of false gods and that we should run from it . Today, idolatry can be anything that takes precedence in your life over God or other people. Relationships, grades, jobs, devices, possessions, fandoms, sports, etc…all of these things have the potential to take the #1 spot in our lives if we aren’t careful.

Addiction is defined as a compulsive need for a habit-forming substance, or a “persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful” . Is “addiction” too strong of a word for your compulsion for screen time? Perhaps you just need to take a step back and refocus your priorities. Or is compulsive device usage something you have zero self-control over?

Strategies To Instantly Stop Your Fast Food Addiction

Why does fast food have to be so delicious and not nutritious.

We all love fast food, for so many reasons.

Its tasty, thanks to all the additives that are high in sugar and fat. And there are so many options. If theres something you dont like, all you have to do is continue down the menu until youve found another item. Fast food is also cheap, in comparison to other choices you may be contemplating. While prices have risen over the years, a pizza will forever cost less than a steak.

Taste, choice and cost are only the beginning, with a lot of other perks pertaining to junk food!

Its super convenient. You dont necessarily see drive-through salad bars on every corner, and its nice not to have to jump out of your car when youre on the go. Then theres the benefit of not having to cook, which can take too long when you set aside time for shopping, chopping, cleaning and washing.

The harsh reality is that junk food is processed which means your brain is much more likely to crave it. Even though the conscious mind knows theyre unhealthy, some other part of the brain seems to disagree. Some lucky people dont experience this and can easily control the types of foods they eat, while others cant. This isnt due to a lack of willpower its a much more complex situation.

If you feel you are addicted to sweets and junk food, what should you do?

Here are six strategies you can try, to overcome an addiction to sugar and junk food.

Plan ahead

Shop the perimeter

Try Fruit

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Eating In Places That No One Can Monitor

Sometimes people who overeat hide so that nobody can notice them. Some people prefer to eat in the car or when nobody is around or within the vicinity. When they are alone, they tend to consume excessive amounts of food that can be detrimental to their health. The human mind is a way such that people are always at liberty of doing a bad thing when no one is watching them. People suffering from this problem embrace interacting with many people and be social to avoid eating excess food.

Eating Much More Than Intended

For some people, there is no such thing as a bite of chocolate or single piece of cake. One bite turns into 20, and one slice of cake turns into half a cake.

This all-or-nothing approach is common with addiction of any kind. There is no such thing as moderation it simply does not work .

Telling someone with food addiction to eat junk food in moderation is almost like telling someone with alcoholism to drink beer in moderation. Its just not possible.

Summary

When giving in to a craving, someone with food addiction may not stop eating until the urge is satisfied. They might then realize that they have eaten so much that their stomach feels completely stuffed.

Summary

Eating until feeling excessively stuffed either frequently or all the time may be classified as binge eating.

Trying to exert control over the consumption of unhealthy foods and then giving in to a craving can lead to feelings of guilt.

A person may feel that they are doing something wrong or even cheating themselves.

Despite these unpleasant feelings, a person with food addiction will repeat the pattern.

Summary

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Your Body On Fast Food

A steady diet of fast food not only leads to a bulging waistline and more vulnerability to a range of serious health problems, but experts say it can also cause the following:

• Constipation. The standard fast-food fare is low in fiber and tends to bog down your digestive process.
• Flatulence. In addition to the gassy effect of the aforementioned challenge, food intolerances to many of the ingredients in fast food gluten, dairy and corn, for example can also lead to unwelcome emissions.
• Buildup of pesticides, heavy metals and other chemical/environmental toxins. Toxic chemicals picked up through nonorganic feedlot meats and heavily processed grains can impede weight loss by disrupting the endocrine system, depressing metabolism, and increasing inflammation and oxidative stress.
• Body odor. When the body has a hard time eliminating wastes through the bowel, it tries to rid itself of some of the toxins from junk food through your sweat glands and breath.
• Acne. The surge of insulin that follows a meal high in refined carbs and sugar leads to an increase of sebum on the skin, which can cause acne. Delayed food allergies can also contribute to skin inflammation and acne.
• Brain fog and fatigue. You might feel initially hyped up after munching a sugary, fat-laden fast-food breakfast, but when your blood sugar crashes several hours later, both your brain and your body will have trouble working properly.

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