Suggestions To Assist You Overcome Your Sugar Cravings
One of the most harmful effects of junk food on your body has to do with heart disease. Due to the level of saturated fat in most candy and other sweets, this can lead over time to plaque buildup. There are many other harmful effects of junk food such as liver disease, kidney problems, complex chronic halitosis, irritability, and others. I suggest that you try to maintain a good healthy well-balanced diet and avoid sugars and sweets as much as possible. In the long run you will be glad you did.
The term addiction is tossed around because these fatty foods effect the brain in much the same way as drugs such as heroin or cocaine. In the brain, dopamine, an opiate-like (“feel good”) neurotransmitter, is released as a response to pleasurable stimuli such as food, sex, or drugs. In the case of cocaine, the D2 receptor which normally receives dopamine is blocked by the drug. This over floods the brain and overstimulates its receptors, eventually leading to a physical change in which the way the brain reacts to the drug. In animal studies, fast foods caused the animals to completely lose control over their eating behavior, a hallmark of addiction. Axons that are used over and over, for the same task or activity, over time develop tiny bumps within the brain. These bumps junk food addiction are called bouton or buttons. The more boutons in nerve cell creates, the quicker messages can be relayed back and forth. Sorry for the science lesson, but this is important to understand, because this is how habits are formed within the brain. Any repetitive action will over time these little buttons on the end of the axons.
Contemplate the idea that from now on you will make food less and less important to you. If you think about something all the time, you’re going to do it. So if you think about junk food, ice cream and pizza a lot, you’re eventually going to eat it. It’s the way the mind works. If you honestly ask yourself how important food is in your life, your answer most likely will be that it’s very important. You think about it all the time. You eat constantly. You can never pass a candy bowl at work without grabbing a piece of candy, and taking several pieces if no one is looking. I know. I’ve been there too.
When we think of sugar the first image that comes to mind is the sweet, white granules we put in our tea or on top of our cereal. Few people think of it as an addictive drug and perhaps even fewer think of it as the underlying cause of their weight gain. The truth is that sugar addiction is rife and if you have a weight problem the chances are it is sugar in your diet – not fat – that is the real cause.
You have to take control! To simply allow the thoughts of living a healthy lifestyle to reside in the back of your mind somewhere will do you no good at all. Take control now! Dictate what you put into your mouth. The next time you’re tempted to stop by McDonald’s and buy a Big Mac, don’t do it. Eat an apple. Not good enough? OK, have a sandwich. But instead of that Big Mac, try some turkey breast on whole grain bread. Throw a little lettuce on there too. Wash it down with some fresh spring water. You can use the powerful tool to your advantage by using statements phrased in the positive. Any time you encounter a food choice you need to avoid. Instead of saying something like, “I can’t eat that candy bar,” or “I shouldn’t have that piece of cake,” try something more like, “I enjoy eating food choices that are healthy and wholesome for me.” By phrasing in the positive, you avoid sending mixed signals to your brain by giving your non-conscious mind instructions it can understand and carry out. Say it often and say it in the positive every time you feel the craving for junk food.Glycemic index is a measure of how quickly a food affects blood sugar. Foods with low glycemic index are generally healthier than foods with high glycemic index.
Trans fatty acids: The body needs fats to survive but there are good fats and bad fats; these are bad. Trans fats lower the ‘good’ cholesterol and raise the ‘bad’ cholesterol. They contribute to heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
One of the more harmful effects of junk food on your body revolves around the lack of energy that you experience when you live this sort of a life. Large amounts of sugar tend to make your glucose levels spike and as a result there is a crashing effect after you have hit a peak. That is why so many people that eat a lot of carbs or junk food tend to experience that crashing effect.
People may inherit a modified gene that weakens the brain’s reward centres. Research has shown that these people do have a greater chance of becoming addicted to things like cocaine, alcohol and junk food addiction.
I believe however, that you can stop emotional eating by doing two things in your life. Firstly, you need to realise that your stress levels are one of the biggest factors in you over-eating and not being able to maintain a healthy weight. The second thing is that over eating is an addiction just like any other substance or behaviour like alcohol, gambling and the likes.
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