How does giving up junk food affect your body? How to give up unhealthy foods without torturing yourself with strict prohibitions. How to give up eating food.

Now try to remember. Have you probably been on a diet or followed proper nutrition at least once in your life? Have you noticed that after giving up harmful foods, the condition of the skin, face, and body improves, we feel lighter and our mood improves.

Let's now take a closer look at how our body changes after giving up harmful foods.

Cleansing the body

A large amount of harmful, unhealthy food leads to the fact that the body becomes clogged and the food is slowly digested. As soon as you start eating right, a cleansing process occurs: waste and toxins are eliminated, excess weight goes away and metabolism improves.

Clear skin

Secondly, watch your skin. Many people often wonder why they have acne and rashes from time to time if they do not have bad habits and take care of their facial skin. So, the reason for this could also be junk food. Fatty, high-calorie foods lead to oily facial skin, clogged pores, which causes pimples and an unsightly oily sheen to appear on the face. Once you eliminate certain foods, you will see your skin appear fresher and your acne will go away on its own.

Weight loss

Of course, after eating junk food, all people gain pounds. But as soon as you stop consuming such products, in a few weeks you will not even notice how you will lose excess weight, and several centimeters will be removed from your waist and hips. After all, there is nothing better than feeling slim and attractive (Kate Moss talked about this a long time ago).

Poor nutrition always leads to excess weight gain. And if in your youth it seems that you can eat anything - you still won’t gain weight, then at a more mature age you begin to understand: you can’t fool the body, anyway, junk food will sooner or later lead to gaining extra pounds.

The hardest thing in the process of weight correction is to give up these harmful foods and switch to proper nutrition once and for all. But this turns out to be not so easy to do, especially if a person is accustomed to eating poorly in general, he does not know how to plan his time and easily succumbs to the opinions of others.

Often people themselves don’t understand that they have become hostages of junk food, they don’t know why they can’t pass by another fast food, and chips are again in their grocery basket.

Let's look at the main reasons for addiction to junk food and find ways to get rid of them...

Reason 1. Family traditions

Even in early childhood, we develop most of our food rituals and habits.
If your family is used to having three courses for dinner, then, as you grow up, you won’t be able to imagine dinner without the first one.

It is in childhood that the family habit of finishing everything, trying everything that is on the table, eating certain foods, and eating up on holidays is formed.

Our parents play an important role, because they are the ones who decide how to build our relationship with food: scold us for poor appetite or allow us to leave the table half-starved, allow us to eat sweets before meals or forbid it, reward us with treats for good behavior or find something else encouragement

If there were incorrect food rituals and habits in your family, then you must analyze and correct them. This can be difficult to do. Psychoanalysis will help make the task easier.

Take a piece of paper and describe in detail how you sat down at the table as a child, what your mother most often cooked, how your holidays went, how your parents treated poor appetite, reluctance to eat certain foods, playing with food, whether you ate while watching TV.

Now carefully read what has been written and think about what eating habits are not considered healthy. Start getting rid of them today. Don’t worry - you will succeed, because you can get used to something new, forgetting about the old, in just 21 days.

Reason 2. Pressure from surrounding people

“Whoever you mess with, that’s how you’ll gain.” Are you familiar with this common expression? Indeed, our environment influences our habits, thoughts and behavior patterns.

It has already been proven that if you communicate among overweight people, then you yourself will be prone to gaining excess weight, and if there are slim people around, then there will be much more motivation to lose weight.

We all subconsciously copy the accepted model in the group in which we often find ourselves. Not many people agree to be a black sheep. That's why it's important to analyze your social circle and try to get away from common eating habits if they turn out to be harmful.

Is it common among your colleagues to dine at fast food? Do your colleagues drink beer on Fridays, often chip in and buy cakes and pies, and bring sandwiches with fatty sausage to work? Yes, you won’t lose weight with such habits.

In this situation, there are two ways out: take a leadership position and try to change group eating habits to the right ones, or, despite oblique glances, start following your own healthy habits.

The first is harder to do, but you won’t lose weight in society, but perhaps you will become everyone’s favorite and be able to change the lives of those around you for the better.

It’s easier to act according to the second plan, but then you can lose good relationships with colleagues and become a reason for secret discussions among colleagues.

In any case, maintaining the bad eating habits of those around you is more expensive for yourself, and you need to get rid of them. Try a soft tactic: start casually talking about how someone you know gave up junk food and was cured of some disease. Or, on the contrary, act on the principle of intimidation - tell horror stories about the consequences of poor nutrition. Fear is also contagious!

Reason 3. Taste tricks of manufacturers

It turns out that our addiction to junk food involves not only psychology, but also physiology. Receptors are responsible for the perception of tastes, and hormones are responsible for adherence to tastes.

For example, addiction to sweets is very easy to explain. Under the influence of sugar in the brain, dopamine receptors are irritated, which are responsible for the production of dopamine, the pleasure hormone.

Frequent consumption of sweets leads to dopamine addiction, the brain asks for more and more pleasure, and the person begins to indulge in sweets every day.

Fatty foods also affect our receptors in the brain. Research shows that fatty foods taste the best to our brains. This is where the craving for sausages, fatty meats, and fried foods comes from.

Spices added to food also interact with hormones and receptors. As a result, food seasoned with spices seems incredibly tasty to us, and we can no longer refuse spices when preparing homemade dishes.

Salt has a similar effect. We get used to salt, although we only need 5-10 g per day. Unsalted dishes seem bland and tasteless to us; the hand itself reaches for the salt shaker, which only contributes to excess weight gain.

It is also interesting that different people have different attitudes towards bitter foods. There is a gene in our body that is responsible for the perception of bitter taste. Some people's DNA contains two copies of this gene, and as a result, such people are very sensitive to bitter tastes and avoid bitter foods: radishes, onions, beer, coffee, etc.

Changing physiological food habits is the hardest thing to do, but it is still possible. To do this, you need to gradually change your eating habits: reduce the amount of sugar and sweets consumed, replace sugar with healthy analogues (for example, stevia), reduce the amount of salt, reduce the use of spices, giving preference to dried herbs.

Reason 4. Replacing emotions with food pleasure

People who cannot or do not want to express emotions, or who for various reasons lack emotions, often replace them with food pleasure.

Therefore, try to diversify your life, do what brings you positive emotions, what leaves a pleasant impression. Once your life becomes full, cravings for junk food will weaken or disappear altogether.

Have you noticed that happy people are more likely to eat healthy? Think about it!

Reason 5. Lack of control in life

Sometimes simple control makes it easy to overcome bad eating habits and cravings for unhealthy foods.

Keep a food diary and record in it what, when, in what quantity and under what circumstances you eat and drink. Now, using a calorizer, calculate the number of calories consumed per day and the B/F/U ratio. Analyze how your results differ from the norm and draw appropriate conclusions.

Now try to create a menu that meets your needs for proteins, fats and carbohydrates and does not go beyond your daily calorie needs. Again, use a calorizer.

Try to follow this menu. Even if it doesn’t work out right away, at least gradually move towards following the menu.

Advertising is the engine of trade, including trade in unhealthy food products. Marketers specifically show us chips on the entire screen, splashes from pouring cola, the golden crust of a freshly fried chop.

It looks delicious and makes you want to try it. And in the store, when you see a familiar package from an advertisement, your brain will dictate pleasant appetizing associations to you (those splashes, those crispy chips supposedly made from natural potatoes).

Advertisers know their stuff and can influence your choice. The only weapon that works against beautifully packaged advertising is your knowledge. Start carefully studying product labels, don’t be lazy to read what a particular product is made of, look for its calorie content and value in terms of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

Don’t let anyone or anything influence your eating habits, get rid of bad eating habits, act in a way that will be useful and beneficial for you. Good luck on your journey to a healthy lifestyle!

Did you find this article helpful? Then like us and write in the comments which foods you consider the most harmful, and how did you get rid of them?

Let's figure out what exactly prevents us from coping with the desire to eat something harmful and how to get rid of this craving.

If every Monday you promise yourself to eat only healthy food and not even look at chocolate and burgers, but the very next day you find this “forbidden fruit” in your hands, then you need to look for the reason not in your willpower, but in something than another. There are 6 factors that can hinder the transition to proper nutrition and we will now describe them.

Reason 1: You are dehydrated

You are probably familiar with this situation: sitting in the office, your hand involuntarily reaches for a muffin or cookie, but looking at this yummy, you simply cannot say a categorical “no” to yourself, even if you promised yourself that this week you will reduce your sugar intake. Now remember how much time has passed since you drank water (not tea or coffee). Sometimes simple dehydration can cause us to move.

Lack of water in the body is often perceived as a sign of hunger. And when this happens, our body desperately tries to find a source of energy, including junk food. Dehydration can also make us want to drink sodas filled with artificial sugars.

Reason 2: You feel tired

If you stay at work longer than you planned, if you're caught up in late-night TV shows or social media, then don't be surprised if your willpower isn't enough the next morning.

Lack of enough sleep can be the main reason why you start eating junk food. Lack of sleep interferes with the hormones that regulate our eating behavior.

says nutritionist Kim Pearson.

You're also less likely to feel hungry while you sleep, which in turn prevents you from being tempted to eat unhealthy foods.

Sleep regulates how much leptin, the satiety hormone, the body produces. This hormone lets us know when we are full enough and sends signals to the brain that we are hungry. Lack of sleep lowers leptin levels and means that messages to stop eating are not effective.

Additionally, recent research from Northwestern University has shown that lack of sleep gives us an "enhanced" response to junk food, meaning we actually find the smell of sweet, salty and fatty foods more enticing when we're tired.

Reason 3: Effect of alcohol

Anyone who's ever stood in line at 3am for shawarma or burgers after a wild party can tell you that alcohol has a big impact on what you want to eat.

Your sense of environmental awareness is impaired when you're drunk, and you're more likely to reach for fast-acting carbohydrates, like a fatty slice of pizza or French fries, to help balance your blood sugar and satisfy your hunger. Even worse, drinking alcohol increases levels of galanin, a brain chemical that triggers the need or craving for fatty foods.

says nutritionist Alix Woods.

Reason 4: You are addicted to sugar

Excessive sugar consumption can lead to a number of health problems. A healthy dose of sugar—no more than 30 grams (6 teaspoons) per day—can help combat a range of health problems, including diabetes and heart disease.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that we know this, it is quite difficult for us to give up sugar. This often leads to poor sugar control, as one candy bar causes your blood sugar levels to drop, while your brain loses all sense of control and craves to restore its sugar balance.

Reason 5: Your hormonal levels are out of whack

Are you familiar with the situation when you experience PMS and immediately want to eat a bar of chocolate or a bucket of ice cream? There is a scientific explanation for this that has almost nothing to do with your willpower. During the “hormonal surge” during the menstrual cycle, your need for chocolate may increase because the level of the happy hormone, serotonin, drops. Accordingly, chocolate “these days” can balance hormone levels.

Chocolate contains a natural tranquilizer, magnesium, which can help ease menstrual cramps and promote blood circulation.

Avoiding harmful and depressing foods will also help increase happiness and joy in your life. New opportunities and new channels for obtaining pleasure not only from food will open up. Change your diet and you will change your life!

Proper nutrition will help you avoid unpleasant strict diets and the gym if you don't like this kind of activity.
You will be able to maintain weight at a certain level, without subsequent rapid gain.
You will learn to hear the needs of your body, its desires, and not close its mouth by excessively absorbing unnecessary food.

You will never experience unpleasant discomfort and heaviness in your stomach after eating.
You will become more conscious; fresh vegetable salad is not interesting to eat in front of the computer and TV. It should be eaten on a beautiful plate, preferably with a knife and fork.
Learn not to eat problems, but to enjoy food.
Your sense of smell will sharpen and your taste habits will diversify.
If you learn to eat right, you will control your intake of unhealthy foods, not them over you.
You will be pleased to look at yourself in the mirror. I will never believe that you can accept and love yourself with 2-5 extra SIZES. Rather, you can give up on yourself, but not fall in love. Love begins with a conscious attitude towards your body.
You will get rid of your addiction to junk food, which means you will become free and happy, regardless of the circumstances. It depends on whether there is something “delicious” for the evening or not.