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Staying away from junk food can be a challenge for anyone trying to eat more healthy. Try this easy trick to break the junk food junkie label.
Junk food.
Who doesnt love it?
Potato chips, candy, soda, fried foods, french fries Twinkies.
Lets face it: If it wasnt junk and terrible for our health and waistline, wed eat it all day. Even the most fitness-conscious person will admit that if we could instantly make Snickers and Mountain Dew a health food, they be downing candy bars and soda in a second.
Problem is, you cant lose fat or stay healthy on a diet of soda, snack cakes and fried potato products.
So how do you break the cycle?
Simple: You learn the fine art of substitution.
Why We Love Junk Food
There are a number of reasons we like junk food. These include the taste, the texture and even the way our genes have been coded. Our bodies have been hardwired over time to crave certain foods by nearly 200,000 years of evolutionary adaptation.
Junk foods typically are loaded with simple carbs and sugars, fats and sodium. At a very primitive level, our bodies love these things (as well as amino acids, often in the form of meat or eggs.)
When we were hunters and gatherers, simple carbs and sugars gave us quick energy, fats provided us with long-term energy stores and prevented hunger, and sodium ensured that our cells regulated internal and external pressure. Amino acids from game helped build strength and muscle, which came in handy when hunting. Sodium also enhanced the flavor of foods and made them more palatable, which helped when your diet was primarily wild game, root vegetables or whatever else you could forage.
These factors were critical for our survival thousands of years ago, when our food supply was spotty, people needed sources of quick energy to hunt down game, vitamins and minerals were limited by geography (for example, if you didnt live near an ocean, salt could be hard to come by) and foods were bland because of the scarcity of herbs and spices.
So our cravings for salty, fatty and sugary foods may actually be our bodys mechanism to ensure that we get enough calories and macro- and micro-nutrients to survive.
Im not suggesting that we are genetically predisposed to eating junk food. There was no junk food available when our ancestors were hunting and gathering. But the reason that we find junk foods pleasurable today may be because they contain substances like sugar, salt and fat that our bodies require in varying amounts to survive, based on our activity levels. Remember that pleasure is natures way of encouraging a behavior, and pain is its way of discouraging it.
What Was Good for Us Then, Is Killing Us Now
Jump forward to 2008, and we face an obesity epidemic fueled by overly-processed snacks, junk food and fast foods that are high in simple carbs, fats and sugar.
We still have the tastes of our ancestors, but we are not nearly as active as they were. That means that the excess calories we consume in the form of sugars and fats from junk food get stored away as body fat (instead of being used for energy), contributing to a wide-range of serious health problems from diabetes, to heart disease, to cancer.
Instead of helping us survive, our primal taste for sugars, salt and fat is killing us.
Our environment and activity levels have changed, but we continue to eat like its 200,000 BP.
DID YOU KNOW? A February 2005 Wall Street Journal poll found that 83 percent of American adults believe public schools need to do a better job of limiting childrens access to unhealthy foods like snack foods, sugary soft drinks and fast food.
Why Junk Food Is Empty
Fighting your innate biological drive to enjoy more sugars, fats, and sodium is difficult. After all, your body has adapted over thousands of years to encourage it.
You can condition yourself to get used to eating less of these foods (which will reduce cravings over time), but at a primitive level, restricting yourself for prolonged periods of time is generally ineffective. Each individual is different, as well, and some people have less cravings for fat or sugar than others. Others find it very difficult to give up junk food, even when highly motivated.
The real problem with junk food is not necessarily that it contains sugar, fat or salt, but that modern food production techniques have stripped out many of the nutrients and fiber that exist in the whole food. So these processed foods contain extra sugar, salt and fat to make them more satisfying and flavorful. They also contain artificial flavorings or flavor enhancers to make them even more palatable.
The result is a food that tastes great, but is nutritionally incomplete. This is why soda, cakes, and potato chips are called empty calories.
Kicking The Junk Food Junkie Syndrome The Easy Way
The trick to ditching junk food is to substitute healthier, whole foods that mimic the flavors and textures of junk food. The foods that you substitute will still have certain attributes of junk food (saltiness, sweetness and fat), but they will be in a form that is more nutritionally dense.
For example, if you love potato chips or french fries with a sandwich or burger, you can substitute foods like salted almonds or salted mixed nuts.
Although the sodium content and fat content will still be fairly high in nuts, youll have shifted from consuming empty calories in the form of chips or french fries, to a nutritionally dense food that contains healthy fats and is rich in minerals. The saltiness and crunchiness of nuts can substitute for the same characteristics that you enjoy in a less-nutrient rich food like potato chips.
Other common junk food substitutes include:
- Low fat or non fat yogurt or Quark instead of high-fat sour cream
- Flavored sparkling or mineral water instead of sugary soda
- Naturally flavored instant oatmeal (try adding a tbs of natural peanut butter) instead of a cookie
- Lightly sweetened organic dark sipping cocoa instead of hot chocolate
- A scoop of chocolate whey powder with skim milk instead of chocolate milk
- Baked potato wedges with olive oil and sea salt instead of french fries
- Apple slices or bananas with natural peanut butter instead of a snack cake after dinner
- Fresh or frozen berries or banana slices on whole grain cereal instead of sugary cereals
- Homemade healthy no bake cookies instead of the sugary, full-fat kind (or as a healthy alternative to expensive and sugary sports or nutrition bars)
- Low-sugar granola like Bear Naked fit granola or homemade granola instead of a brownie
- Kashi Chewy Go-Lean Bars instead of a candy bars
- Healthy pizzas made with whole grain Lawash or flatbread, 2% mozzarella, jarred pizza sauce and low-fat ham instead of pepperoni cheese pizza
- Meatless burger like Boca Burger instead of hamburger
- Healthy nachos made with baked tortilla chips, vegetarian or low-fat refried beans, extra-lean ground turkey, avocado slices and low-fat or 2% sharp cheddar cheese instead of Taco Bell nachos
- Natural popcorn with a few sprays of butter flavored canola oil and seasoned salt instead of the full-fat version
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: In general, processed foods are more “energy dense” than fresh foods: they contain less water and fiber but more added fat and sugar, which makes them both less filling and more fattening.
What About Artificial Sweeteners and Fat Substitutes?
Since we are talking about substitutions for sugary, fat or salty foods, lets quickly discuss artificial sweeteners and fat substitutes.
On the surface, artificial sweeteners like NutraSweet® (aspertame), Sucralose, saccharine and acesulfame potassium would seem to be a good fit as a substitute for sugar.
However, the goal of healthy substitution with junk food is the replacement of empty calories, with nutritionally-dense foods.
Even if you set aside the health and safety concerns associates with artificial sweeteners, you are still left with a food produced in a lab that has no nutritional value. Indeed, recent research has shown that consumption of artificial sweeteners may actually encourage people to gain fat, versus lose it.
In terms of fat substitutes like Olestra, the same principle applies.
Olestra is a fat substitute that passes through the body undigested. This means that doesnt contribute any fat calories or nutritive value to the diet. Because it is nutritionally-empty, it doesnt meet the criteria of a good substitute food. Indeed, because Olestra has a tendency to pull fat-soluble vitamins, undigested, along with it, manufacturers have to put additives in the food to facilitate the natural absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.
Olestra (not unlike artificial sweeteners) may encourage people to over-eat, because they believe that without any fat, they can eat as much food as they want. However, because its frequently used in conjunction with highly-processed foods like snack chips, you still are consuming high-glycemic carbohydrates and calories, regardless of the fact that it contains no fat.
The Takeaway: Say Goodbye to Junk Food and Hello To Healthy Food
Fooling you taste buds with nutritionally-dense substitutes for the pleasurable flavors and textures you find in junk food is one of the more effective long-term solutions for breaking your junk food habit once and for all.
Comments (13)
i absolutely loved this and it helped me a lot, i mean ive already lost 52lbs. off of this page which i can make delicious and exceptionally nutritious meals with, and lose weight and stay healthier and feel more energetic than i ever have in my life!just wanted 2 say thank you for publishing this and i appreciate it with everything i have from the bottom of my heart.
Thanks again,
KiKi Miller
Kiki, you made my day. Im thrilled that this was able to help you out. 52 lbs is an incredible achivement. You should be proud of yourself. The best part is that the fat youve lost was lost by eating healthier, and not by starving yourself with a crash diet. I bet youll find that you are able to keep the fat off much easier this way. Stop by again and keep us posted. Best of luck!
Hiya, i have seen your site when searching a few weeks ago and i really love the design! I just bought a new 3 character domain (cost me a packet) for a niche review blog, and i was wondering if your design is a free or paid one? Im new to WordPress and about to set it up, and i would really like to get something with a similar look to yours. Any ideas where i could download or buy something similar? Thanks for your help!
You, Matt, have definitely helped me on my road to losing weight. I always was curious how I exercised hard, trained (I do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and krav Maga) just as hard, and went ran extra mile (literally), yet I gained weight and had a more stocky look. I know my diet was definitely a factor. Your substitution idea works, and it works great. Its been about two months since I first read your article, and now Im not embarassed to take my shirt off when me and my buddies go out to play volleyball on the beach. Thanks.
I admit that I have a horrible diet. I live off of caffeine and snack food. I am always craving a salty snack, thus I grab chips etc. I never thought to substitute nuts for chips. Is it still ok if you eat the salted instead of the unsalted? This is great advice. Coupled with a great Karate work out this is the ultimate way to loss weight.
I am 13 years old, and i wanted to find a way to help myself lose some of the weight i gained over the winter. i tend to eat alot when it is cold, and sadly, when it gets to be hot in the summer, i dont like to exercise because i become really uncomfortable and overheated. we are starting to eliminate alot of junk food from our home, and my whole family is seeing a slight difference in themselves. My mom has lost 40 lbs. in the last few months, and i am so proud of her. My dad has lost 20, just from giving up soda and those stupid snack pies he used to eat on the way to and from work. Now its my turn, and this website is just the beginning!
i have a really good idea instead of the chips.
you can buy lebanese bread as known as pita bread.
spray abit of olive oil and sprinkle some spices and put in the oven till golden brown
when u take it out its like chips but healthier and not fried but baked.
i have alot of awesome recipes I got from the cookinglight website. i love crunch so so far i have substitued carrots for crunch
Thanks.I have lost 20lbs.from this page alone I am thrilled I have not drank a soda in 2 months.