Don’t Let This Common Food Ingredient Take Hold of Your Brain!

Has it ever happened to you that you don’t really feel hungry, but out of habit you take a bowl of cereal, or a cookie, or a small piece of cake, you know, any kind of sugary foods. Then something magical happens. Your eyes roll inside your head. Your primitive brain pops up in full attention. You’d put a raving hungry dog to shame. You have to eat some more, and right NOW! Everything in sight becomes fair game so watch out!

OK, so I might be exaggerating just a little bit (you think?), but I know I feel like it’s happened to me like that before – and I wasn’t even on a diet! There’s something about sugar that triggers something deep inside of us. With our modern diet, we are used to a constant roller coaster ride of sugar levels, just as addicts ride the highs and lows of their chosen drugs. In fact, some studies have hinted that sugar is more addictive than cocaine! I know one bowl of cereal can do me in!

The best advice then is to rid your cupboards and fridge of these foods, as otherwise we simply can’t resist them. A new trend in the last few years in the industry is to sell us “100 calorie” packets of cookies, crackers and other such snacks. Of course, eating a little bit of these soothing foods can’t hurt right? In theory, no. But I’m sure I’m not alone in having opened way more than one of these suckers! Come on, admit it. It’ll feel good. The first step in solving a problem is to admit you have a problem :)

And if you’re trying to lose weight and are eating a bit less than you usually are, then the tendency to binge out once you begin those “snacks” is a lot greater. We can resist 95% of the day, or the week for that matter, then lose it all in a few seconds. Let’s face it: it’s against our instinct to not eat everything we can. We still have the bodies of our hunter/gatherer ancestors of the last few millenia. Famine used to be the danger then, not an overabundance of calorie dense processed foods!

We know we have a problem – again admit you do if you haven’t done so already. That’s the first step.

Then, here are some quick solutions

• Resist at the grocery store: the less junk you have in your house the less you’ll eat some even if you crack and suddenly want to eat these junk foods

• If you eat watching TV, only bring a pre determined portion with you. Otherwise there’s a good chance you’ll binge out

• On a low calorie eating plan, eat some protein and veggies to begin your meal

• At a buffet, realize you’re in a danger zone! Then as above, eat some protein and veggies first. Veggies will make you chew for a while being very low in calories

• Use good fat burning supplements that will control your appetite