8 strategies to beat junk food addiction

Junk food addiction is a reality that millions of people suffer from. What’s more, there’s plenty of research describing how food industries craft their products in ways that hijack your brain reward circuits. If you are currently experiencing this same situation, we will tell you that there are approaches that allow you to address the problem.

The most important strategy is to understand the emotions that drive such behavior. Many times, your stress or anxiety hides behind the need to eat fried foods or industrial pastries. Differentiating physiological hunger from emotional hunger is a very successful first tool. We suggest you delve deeper into the topic.

Keys to overcoming junk food addiction

We call junk food unhealthy foods with high caloric value and few nutrients. The truth is that nothing happens if you consume them sporadically and punctually. The problem comes when these products are a regular part of your diet. And what’s worse, you can’t stop resorting to them because you develop addictive behavior.

A few years ago, the journalist and prize Pulitzer, Michael Moss published a book on the subject. Junk food addicts (2016) is a work that details shocking data. According to the author, The food industry deliberately uses certain components to generate an addiction similar to cocaine. We explain how to address this unhealthy reality.

1. Differentiate physiological hunger from emotional hunger

Addiction to junk food starts, in many cases, from emotional hunger. That is, an attempt to relieve anxiety, stress or worries through that peak of serotonin and endorphins that these foods produce. It is essential to decode the signals of this reality, to use mechanisms other than food. We share some indicators with you:

emotional hunger

Desire for a specific product: Your brain exclusively requests one type of craving, such as that industrial pastry, a bag of chips, an ice cream or going to a hamburger restaurant.Negatively valenced emotions: Emotional hunger appears when you feel bad. Above all, in those moments when sadness, worry, anxiety, stress, etc. catches you.There is a sense of urgency: You experience an intense, almost obsessive urge to consume certain types of unhealthy foods. So much so that the mind cannot think of anything else.

Physiological hunger

Desire for food diversity: When this type of natural need is awakened, you do not become obsessed with a specific product. Your body and brain accept several proposals.It’s gradual: Hunger does not appear suddenly, it arises progressively and with the passing of hours. Little by little you notice yourself with less energy. It is a type of need that you can control; contrary to the emotional.Sensations in the stomach: Physiological hunger is accompanied by numerous organic signals, ranging from the classic emptiness in the stomach and its noises, to the feeling of dizziness, headache or weakness due to lack of nutrients, etc.

2. Regulate your emotions

What do you do when you become aware that part of your diet is motivated by your negative emotional states? Foods magazine concluded in an investigation the need to educate the population to manage different emotional states, to regulate this type of counterproductive behavior. Write down some proposals:

Relaxation, yoga or mindfulness can help you. Sports, such as going for a walk, are a good regulator of anxiety or stress. Talk to people close to you about your emotions and your relationship with food. Understand what situations lead you to this behavior and balance them with other mechanisms.Write down what triggers drive you to have a desire to consume junk foods.Develop adequate emotional self-awareness to get in touch with what you feel.

3. Control your environment

Addiction to junk food is conditioned, in part, by your personal, cultural and social environment. It is important that you become aware that unhealthy foods are always the most accessible. You will see them anywhere in supermarkets. Likewise, they are the most common in university cafeterias, workplaces and even hospitals.

Works such as the one published in The Journal of Nutrition echo this reality. A greater political effort to generate healthier food environments would reduce this type of addiction and we would gain well-being. Therefore, it is useful to keep these tips in mind:

Bring your own healthy menus to work. If you don’t have these types of products at home, you won’t consume them. Understand that advertising wants you to buy these proposals. Avoid putting too much junk food in your shopping cart. Also reflect on the type of food education you have received. Analyze how your environment feeds and do not imitate unhealthy patterns.

4. Understand the mechanism of addiction

Eating junk or low-nutritive products occasionally is not negative. Addiction to junk food comes when it becomes your habitual diet. This eating behavior not only takes its toll on your physical and psychological health. Besides, The brain changes when you habituate it to these options rich in sugars, salt and saturated fats.

In the International Review of Neurobiology they describe the process. These foods activate the brain’s reward circuits, in addition to regions such as the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, insula and nucleus accumbens. Such areas are related to addiction mechanisms, similar to that of drugs.

What’s more, an alteration is also seen in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which increases the desire to consume these tastier options and even alters satiety. That is to say, Each time you will need to eat higher amounts to feel full.

It is estimated that between 16 and 20% of the adult population could suffer from food addiction. The treatment in these cases is similar to that of eating disorders (ED). We must find the roots of the problem to solve it and provide guidelines for healthy eating.

5. Educate yourself on food matters

Society would have higher levels of health and well-being if it had better education in this matter. However, culture, education and even the food industry itself condition you in many ways. An ideal mechanism to overcome your addiction is, without a doubt, training yourself on how to eat better. Here we list some ideas:

Plan varied and balanced meals. Learn to read product labels. Learn about the healthiest foods. Follow nutritionists on social networks who help educate you.

6. Master impulses

When it comes to overcoming junk food addiction, it is important that you develop good impulse control. Keep in mind that your brain has become accustomed to preferring these types of products. Also, he will ask you for them more and more and it is possible that your general health will be affected as a result of this behavior. We suggest applying a series of changes in this regard:

Routines and habits avoid impulsive behaviors. Visualize the consequences of letting yourself be carried away by said behavior. Pause and breathe deeply to reduce that desire. Distract your mind, start activities other than eating. The cooling technique helps: Wash your face, put your hands in cold water. Practice frustration tolerance: nothing happens if you don’t drink that soda. Create awareness of when the impulse to consume these products appears.

7. Prohibit no; regular, yes

There are many people who, to address their addiction to junk food, choose to eliminate it from their diet completely. Keep in mind that when you prohibit the brain from a product, the more it craves it. The best thing to do is to reduce your consumption gradually and not eliminate these foods abruptly and radically.

There is no problem if you drink a soda once a week. A processed product can be consumed sporadically and occasionally. Doing it under these conditions will not have negative consequences on your body and brain. Try not to fall into extremes, which would lead to a rebound effect.

8. Resort to psychological therapy

According to an article in Behavioral Sciences, food addiction could affect between 16 and 20% of the adult population. The data is significant and the most appropriate thing, in most cases, is to have professional support. There are very effective therapies to detect the triggers and manage this clinical condition. They are the following:

Behavior modification therapy: It is a very useful model to address those specific actions related to impulsive and emotional eating. It provides you with techniques based on self-observation, meal planning and stimulus control.Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): It is one of the most used approaches to treat eating disorders and addictions. It focuses on identifying and changing negative thought patterns and dysfunctional behaviors related to food.Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): will give you tools to become aware of your own difficult emotions and thoughts. It will guide you so that you accept your experiences without resorting to food as an escape. It also focuses on setting personal goals and commitments.

Emotions and food, a direct relationship

Overcoming food addiction is a multifaceted challenge that almost always requires going deeper into your emotional universe. Life is full of demands, pressures and uncertainties that harm internal balance. In these contexts, less healthy but stimulating foods act as a double-edged safety valve.

Apply the strategies suggested here and learn to relate to food in a healthier way. If you address the triggers, you will gradually achieve greater well-being. In addition, Do not hesitate to ask for specialized help if you see that you cannot deactivate this addictive behavioral pattern. You deserve to be well.

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