5 Reasons You Crave Junk Food

We all know that junk food is bad for you, but how it does call us and when eat it, DAMN it tastes so good!!!  You are not alone, myself include, we all crave it and some us give into to it more than others. There is no judgement just stating facts.  Here are 5 reasons why you crave them. Knowing why is one the best ways to go about solving the problem. We all want to get your waistlines and health back right’

1. You Crave Junk Food Because You Are Eating Too Much Processed Foods  — Junk food has so little nutritional value that the more you eat, your body is not getting what it need to sustain you.  When you are lacking in healthy minerals and nutrition your body sends out signals that you are always hungry because it’s looking for you to eat those nutrients. Instead of reaching for the missing nutrient, you reach for something to solve the hunger problem, and you may find that’s junk food in your hand again. One of the biggest culprits of processed foods hiding as healthy foods is the “low-fat” “reduced fat” or the foods made my large diet company’s having you think that it’s healthier to eat than the tradition fat foods. Ladies, you want to do your homework — read the ingredients, if you need a college degree put it back on the shelf.
2. You Crave Junk Food Because Devil on Your Shoulder Tells You To — Believe it or not most junk food is engineered to make us eat as much as we can!! Yup, scientist know that when they combine fat an sweet or fat and salt our brains just LIGHT UP!!  Your brain tells you to get more of that thing which just made it feel so happy. Then our stomaches are like Mother of Pearl so stuffing your face, I can’t handle any more food. If you find this fascinating there a great book, called Sugar, Fat And Salt that details the science that food companies use to encourage us to eat and eat and eat. In fact some studies have link junk food ingredients to have the same effect on our brains as cocaine and other narcotics.
3. You Crave Junk Food Because You Need A Boost  — My energy use to plummet around 4:30pm I had about 1 hour left to work and I was like give me anything to get me through the next hour until I could get home to raid the fridge. Anyone else feel that way –LOL.  We love junk food because it’s packed with sugar and other sweeteners.  Just want you need to get you through that last hour or two of work. Unhealthy, sugar-filled snacks will definitely give you a quick boost. But this artificial energy leads to an inevitable crash. And it is accompanied by other unhealthy chemicals and processed ingredients that do your body and your mind more damage than good. One way to overcome this is to look at your sleep. Are you sleeping enough the average American gets less than 6 hours, telling themselves they can get by on less and they will make it up on the weekend. This fact alone will keep you stuck in the late afternoon craving cycle. Start by giving yourself a bed time by counting back 8 hours from when you need to get up. I know that may sound like crazy talk, but if you are at least in bed at the 8 hour mark you can gradually start to unwind and then at least get 7 hours of sleep. Give this a try and report back on your late afternoon cravings.
4. You Crave Junk Food Because You Just Finished Eating a Meal — This may sound a little crazy, but when you leave food particles in your mouth after eating, you can actually stimulate junk food cravings. If it is not possible for you to brush her teeth after you eat a meal, rinse your mouth out with water or chew xylitol dental gum (helps clean your mouth). Not every meal deserves desert after. You NEED that sweet treat after a meal go for a piece of fruit. There are also plenty of teas available, my favorite is mint tea love it!!!
5. You Crave Junk Food Because Your Emotions (Happy or Sad) Tell You Go For It —  Up to 75% of overeating happens as an emotional response. And this can often times mean reaching for unhealthy junk food and comfort food. One of the best tips I’ve ever read is to place a not on the jar or bottle of whatever you tend to reach for the most. The note simply says WHY ARE YOU EATING’ That is your pause. In this pause you check in with you body to determine am I  Bored’ Angry’ Tired’ Lonely’ or truly hungry” If you are someone who emotionally eats, I have another amazing book that I recommend, 50 Ways To Soothe Yourself Without Food. Great book filled with practical advice that you can actually do. I’ve also done a podcast about it.

I hope these tips were helpful for you. I’ll be spending the next month discussing emotional eating because I know it effects so many of us. I’m in the process of creating a 5 day emotional email ecourse, if you want to be notified when it’s available, click here to sign up to get on the list.