5 Ways To Trick Your Brain Into Avoiding Junk Food Cravings

Everyone loves indulging in junk food once in a while. The problem arises when it takes over your life instead of playing just a small part in it. Although everything is good in moderation, junk food is never good in any variation. It is difficult for some to avoid opening up a bag of chips or bite into a fresh hot donut. After all, they are the ultimate comfort food which makes us feel good, even if it causes long-term health risks. But there are ways to trick your brain into skipping that big juicy burger and eat something more nutritious. 

Here are a few ways you can train your brain to avoid the epidemic called “junk food”. 

5 Ingredients Are More Than Enough

If a product that you are looking at in the grocery store has more than 5 ingredients, drop it and walk away slowly. Any consumer product with more than 5 ingredients is a huge red flag for food processing. 

Break Your Habits

Good habits can be developed and bad habits can be broken. All it requires is some effort. Bad habits like eating late or at a specific time develops into something which could be difficult to break. So, if you associate 11pm as the time for a late-night snack, turn that into the time for a walk around the neighbourhood. It can help cure your cravings. 

Trigger Foods Should Not Enter The House

We all love eating that sinful bowl of ice-cream. Next time you go grocery shopping, leave the ice cream in the store’s freezer. Identifying your trigger foods and making a conscious effort to avoid them will help you ease up on your junk food cravings. 

Lovely Tri-Colors

A study conducted in 2012 by Cornell University concluded that people prefer three food items with three different colour on plates. So, instead of snacking on that one color donut, try snacking on a mix of nuts, fruits and dark chocolates.

Chew until your jaws hurt

Chewing your food slowly and deliberately helps in consumption of less food. According to a research study, people who eat slowly consume much fewer calories. Fast eating leads to significant weight gain because of our body’s slower response to the idea of “fullness”. The gut hormone in our body does not have the necessary time to signal to the brain that we are full, leading to more binge eating.