Junk food cravings have the power to ruin your diet – if you give in to them. The question is, how do you NOT give in to them, when they are driving you crazy and all you want to do is go back to eating your customary, junk food favorites?
There are several great ways to curb junk food cravings:
If you are craving junk food, you may simply be thirsty! Many cravings for food are actually a misinterpreted signal of dehydration. The next time you start craving junk food, or any food that isn’t allowed on your diet, immediately drink a big glass of water, wait 10 minutes, and see how you feel. In many cases you’ll realize that you don’t have the craving any more.
Most junk foods are loaded with sugar, which only makes you crave more of them every time you eat them. When you try to give up eating junk food, you may experience withdrawal symptoms from sugar, especially if you used to eat a lot of sugar each day. To help minimize the cravings, try eating a few servings of fresh fruit each day. A banana, an apple, a handful of berries, citrus fruits – all of these supply some sugar for your body, but it’s natural sugar, not that refined white stuff that only makes you want more. An added bonus is that fruit contains fiber, which slows down your body’s absorption of the sugar, avoiding large fluctuations in your blood glucose levels, which means you are less likely to experience a sugar craving after eating fruit.
Another reason we often crave junk food is because it is usually loaded with fat. Our bodies need fat – but junk food contains the wrong kind of fat; usually trans fats and saturated fats. When you start craving junk food, your body might be trying to signal that it needs some fat, but you’ll want to supply it with healthy fats, not the artery-clogging stuff. Eat avocados, salmon, nuts and seeds, and drizzle olive oil over your salads and other vegetables. When you provide your body with adequate amounts of the good fats, you’ll find that you crave the junky fats less – and maybe not at all.
