How to give up junk food? The most unhealthy foods. Desserts can be helpful

Healthy eating means avoiding sugary soda, mayonnaise and sausages and limiting sugary, fatty, starchy foods, salt and meat.

Pure sugar, as well as sugar added during food preparation, is a serious health hazard. Sugar is a source of extra calories, leading to weight gain and crowding out more healthy foods from the diet. Excess sugar consumption is harmful to the circulatory system (due to the increase in blood cholesterol) and to the teeth.

Limit your intake of foods with added sugar - soda and other sugary drinks, condensed milk, syrups, honey, desserts.

At the same time, there is no need to give up sweet fruits that have a high nutritional value.

How to limit your sugar intake

For women - up to 24 grams per day (6 teaspoons).
For men - up to 36 grams per day (9 teaspoons).

To do this, it is necessary to significantly reduce the consumption of a number of foods high in added sugar.

Sweet soda

One 0.33 ml can of Coca-Cola contains about 35 grams of sugar, which is close to the maximum daily intake of sugar for men. As a significant calorie source (consumption of two cans of Coca-Cola per day corresponds in terms of calories to an increase in excess weight of 1 kg per month), soda does not provide any nutritional value. It also does not quench, but provokes thirst (due to the high sugar content) and causes an addictive effect.

Eliminate all sugary soda from your diet! To quench your thirst, drink water, not soda or other sugary drinks.

If you happen to eat a can of condensed milk in a day, you should pay attention to its nutritional composition. One 380 gram can of condensed milk contains 170 grams of added sugar (not counting the milk's own sugar). In other words, 2 tablespoons of condensed milk equals 1 tablespoon of pure sugar.

Fats

Fats are an essential part of nutrition. However, saturated fats should be avoided, and the calorie content of foods high in fat should also be monitored.

Saturated fats are considered harmful in their chemical composition: margarine, animal fats (butter, cheese, white fat on meat, subcutaneous chicken fat), palm and coconut oil. They are easily deposited in adipose tissue and cause narrowing of the lumen of the arteries, which leads to diseases such as heart attack and stroke.

You should limit the consumption of foods high in saturated fat: fatty meat products, fast food, confectionery and chocolate, fatty dairy products.

Unsaturated fats found in vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, fish and seafood are considered beneficial and essential for health. At the same time, in the modern diet, as a rule, there is not enough omega-3 fats, the main source of which is oily fish and seafood.

In addition to the chemical composition of fats, their calorie content matters. Fats, both saturated and unsaturated, have the highest calorie content of all foods. If you are gaining excess weight, then you should reduce the consumption of vegetable oil, including those used for frying and as a dressing.

Do not eat industrial mayonnaise.

Mayonnaise is a seasoning for food based on vegetable oil, milk powder, lecithin and vinegar, which does not have its own nutritional value. It is harmful due to its high calorie content, the presence of preservatives, and the poor quality of the ingredients. In Russia, mayonnaise is banned for meals in schools, primary and secondary vocational education institutions.

Red meat and sausage

An excess of red meat (beef, lamb and pork) in the diet can lead to an increase in blood cholesterol levels, as well as increase the risk of bowel cancer. At the same time, red meat is a valuable source of protein and trace elements (iron, zinc). Therefore, you should limit your consumption of red meat, but it is not necessary to completely refuse it.

The following rules must be followed:

Eat no more than 500 grams of red meat per week. This norm is for the weight of meat in cooked form and corresponds to 600-700 g of raw tenderloin.
Don't eat red meat every day.
Do not eat layers of fat in meat.

Eliminate sausage, sausages, ham, bacon, and other processed meats entirely.

Their harm is associated with a high content of preservatives and color stabilizers: sodium nitrite (E-250), potassium nitrate (E-252) and others. The presence of these substances increases the risk of bowel cancer. According to the refusal of sausages - one of the 10 main ways to prevent cancer.

Salt is necessary for man. However, people usually consume more salt than they need.

Systematic excess of table salt in food can lead to high blood pressure and stomach cancer.

On average, daily salt intake should not exceed one teaspoon (2.3 g) per day. After 50 years, with high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease, salt intake should be reduced to 1.5 g per day.

We get most of our salt from processed foods (cooked food, bread, meat products). About a quarter of the salt is added when cooking or adding salt to food at the table.

To reduce your salt intake:

Try to avoid prepared foods and processed foods with a high salt content (for example, canned vegetables, meat and fish, sausages).
Do not salt food at the table.
Try to add less salt when cooking.

Within a few weeks, your taste buds will adapt to the lower salt content, and you won't perceive low-salt food as tasteless. Also, instead of salt, you can add black and red pepper, garlic, bay leaf, basil, other spices and herbs, lemon to food.

Now, try to remember. Have you ever been on a diet at least once in your life? Have you noticed at the same time that after giving up harmful products, 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, improper 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 takes place: toxins and toxins are removed, excess weight goes away and metabolism improves.

Clean skin

Secondly, watch your skin. Many people often wonder why they get pimples and breakouts from time to time if they don't have bad habits and take good care of their skin. So the reason for this can also be junk food. Fatty high-calorie food leads to the fact that the skin of the face becomes oily, the pores become clogged, because of this, pimples and an ugly oily sheen appear on the face. As soon as you eliminate certain foods, you will see how the skin becomes fresher, and acne will go away on its own.

Weight loss

Of course, after junk food, all people gain kilograms. But as soon as you stop consuming such products, then in a few weeks you yourself will not notice how to lose weight, and a few centimeters will go from the waist and hips. After all, there is nothing better than feeling slim and attractive (Kate Moss has been talking about this for a long time).

Scientist Stephen Weatherly studied the phenomenon of food and came to a surprising conclusion: junk food makes us consume our own brain.

And food writer and activist Michael Pollan, in his book The Omnivore Dilemma, argues that the reason we love fast food lies in the big contradiction between the logic of nature and industrial food production.

In their books and reports, researchers not only share their observations, but also give advice on how to defeat the craving for forbidden food.

1. Check the composition

Michael Pollan advises avoiding foods with ingredients that a third grader can't pronounce. The surest way to start buying less junk food is to get more information about what you are actually eating. If you dig deeper and find out the composition of your favorite products, it can become uncomfortable.

Chips don't always have potatoes, and chocolate nut butter is more than half sugar. The food additive E320 (butylhydroxyanisole) is often added to sausages and sausages, which acts as an antioxidant and can be a potential carcinogen. And vitamin D3, which can be found on the label of yogurt, is synthesized from sheep fat.

2. More colors

Have you noticed that healthy foods are often colored in the brightest colors, but unhealthy foods do not have an abundance of color shades (unless dyes are used)? Our vision perceives pastries, chips, croutons and instant noodles almost as one product, and, of course, requires an addition.

Susan Bowerman, a professor of food science and nutrition, says that too many people are on a “beige” diet of crackers, cereals and cookies. But we need to see at least three different colors of food on our plates. So instead of running for another bun, add bright colors like a juicy red apple or a yellow banana.

3. Remember the five ingredient rule

If more than five ingredients are listed on the label, this is a processed product signal. The rule "less is better" in this case works without reservation.

Avoid products that contain ingredients you haven't heard of or wouldn't use at home. Food emulsifier, lecithin, stabilizer - what is it? Many of the additives are used to extend the shelf life of the product, but even in this case, you can always find safe and natural analogues: salt, vinegar, citric acid, honey.

Also avoid foods that list sugar as one of the first three ingredients on the label.

4. Count ten seconds before tossing a harmful product into your shopping cart

Michael Pollan advises before buying to ask the question: “Would your great-grandmother consider this food?” Would she eat, for example, this poison-colored jelly from a plastic package?

Also, during the purchase, try to visualize the composition of this product. How it was prepared, how much sugar, flavor enhancers and preservatives were added, how much fat was used. Now put that bag of sausages back on the shelf.

5. Spend More Time Buying Healthy Foods

While walking through the market or supermarket, replenish your stocks of healthy products. Fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts, natural yogurt, fresh herbs - the choice of products for which the body will thank you is quite wide.

If you are used to chewing something, celery sticks will come to the rescue: you will never get better from them. And in order not to feel like a rabbit and get more pleasure from eating, you can prepare a light sauce for chopsticks.

Store healthy foods where they can be seen: in the front and center of the refrigerator, in the basket in the kitchen, on the shelves and in the drawers of the desktop. Make sure you always have vegetables and fruits on hand to snack on. For example, dip slices of bell pepper in hummus.

6. Desserts can be healthy

The biggest problem that probably everyone faces is cravings for sweets. It's not easy to give up cake or cupcake. But high-carb foods can be replaced with their dietary counterparts, and Instagram is full of pages about healthy eating with detailed recipes.

Make homemade ice cream. Put the berries in the freezer and then finish your evening meal with them as a sweet dessert. Make muesli bars at home: send two cups of oatmeal, a large apple, pear or banana, a handful of dried fruits and nuts to a blender. Spread this mass in a thin layer on a baking sheet and bake at 180 ° C until lightly browned. Now there will be no need to run for sweet buns.

7. Chew food more thoroughly

More than a hundred years ago, obese Horace Fletcher put forward an amazing concept: chewing food more than 32 times, a person can lose weight. Japanese scientists studied this habit in more detail and concluded that it is indispensable for health and longevity.

Insufficient chewing of food leads to the occurrence of metabolic syndrome: high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. The more attention is paid to the grinding of food, the easier it is for the body to digest it.

If you are able to chew longer and harder, you will eat less. Try to chew your food slowly and mindfully. One bite, 32 chews, swallowing, and only then the next bite.

8. Take More Pictures of Your Diet

Researchers led by Lydia Zepeda from the University of Wisconsin-Madison came to the conclusion ten years ago that photographing food helps to give up unhealthy foods and lose weight.

The results of the experiment with 43 volunteers confirmed that visualization helps to control your diet. Armed with a phone camera and a food diary in which you write down how you feel after eating, researchers believe that you can really get rid of a few extra pounds around your waist.

Therefore, when you see another photo of food on Instagram, do not judge too harshly: perhaps this is how its author struggles with bad eating habits.

Bonus: why do we love junk food so much?

Stephen Weatherly in his report "Why do people like unhealthy food?" says that there are two factors that make you especially enjoy junk food.

Sensation of taste, smell and melting of food in the mouth

Food companies spend millions of dollars to figure out what the ideal consistency of a particular product should be. They are helped in this by dynamic contrast (for example, a combination of a crispy shell with a soft filling), hidden calorie foods that quickly melt in your mouth (the brain does not even have time to understand how much you actually ate), and foods that cause active salivation (mayonnaise, various sauces, hot chocolate).

Food composition

Food manufacturers use the perfect combination of salt, sugar and fat that most excites your brain and keeps you coming back to eating this type of food again and again.

But the good news is, numerous studies show that the less junk food you eat, the less you crave it. Some people call this process "gene reprogramming".

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Nutritionists have long drawn our attention to the fact that cravings for junk food are more dependent on the habits of our brain than on the habits of the body. Sometimes the flavorings generously supplied by such attractive hazards are addictive, but not to such an extent that it cannot be eliminated by an effort of will. Let's try to train the will and the brain?

1. Read labels

A working way to buy less junk food is to be aware of what we get with it. And this does not mean that you need to completely abandon, for example, cookies. After all, spending a little more time near the shelf in the store to read the composition, you can find a product that will have less sugar, there will be no harmful preservatives and additives.

By reading the label, you will learn about the amount of sugar, the presence of flavor enhancers and unnecessary additives.

Pay attention not to the name of the product, but to the ingredients. For example, dumplings may be called "Beef", but there will be 20% beef. Check out the chocolate: if sugar comes first on the list, and then vegetable fats come, then it’s anything but chocolate.

Even if you are not ready to immediately give up not quite healthy food, you can always choose products that are less harmful in composition.

2. Follow the 5 Ingredients Rule

Finding less than 5 ingredients on a package of sausage is difficult these days, but possible. Please note: if you see more than 5 items on simple products (dairy, pastries, juices), this is an alarming indicator.

Many additives are used to improve the consistency, thicken, increase the weight of the product, and extend the shelf life.

It is worth knowing that:

Manufacturers also use natural analogues of chemical preservatives, look for them on packages: citric acid, honey, salt, vinegar. Is pectin added instead of gelatin in sweets? Fine, it is considered more useful, it is not without reason that this ingredient is used in eco-products. The E marking on products is alarming, but it must be borne in mind that not all “e-cooks” are harmful. For example, E260 is just acetic acid, E500 is baking soda. For example, riboflavin E101, pectin E300, ascorbic acid E440 are the composition of an ordinary apple. The addition of E250, or sodium nitrite, in the sausage composition indicates that the product is protected from the formidable botulinum toxin. Only this substance can resist him. Sodium nitrite is found in large quantities in spinach.

3. Take pictures of food

Visualization helps you control your diet This is why nutritionists advise keeping a food diary. If you are in the mood for weight loss or a healthy diet, then you will no longer be able to eat a cake and quickly forget about it. The diary will not forget, but the photo will remind.

The amount of food eaten per day, you can "totalize" in the evening, and this will help you adjust your diet and get rid of extra pounds faster.

4. Replace a harmful product with a useful alternative

Who will voluntarily replace a cheeseburger with a carrot?! At first, the prospect of substituting one meal for another does not inspire enthusiasm. Until you notice that your well-being is improving, and the weight is coming off. Such a replacement will sweeten the bitterness of parting and will allow you not to change eating habits drastically and cardinally. Popular alternatives that get used to quickly are:

milk chocolate - bitter chocolate; chips - popcorn without butter; french fries - baked potatoes; ice cream - frozen yogurt; sweets for tea - dried fruits; cookies - whole grain bread.

5. Diversify your diet

A well-known fact: the craving for harmful substances is due to a lack of useful elements in the body. This is easy to notice in the summer: during the ripening period of your favorite berries, you are no longer drawn to sweets, right?

If you are irresistibly drawn to eat something fatty, the body lacks calcium and fat-soluble vitamins - add dairy products, cheeses, broccoli to the diet. Craving for flour indicates a lack of nitrogen and fat, eat more legumes, meat and nuts. especially chocolate? There is not enough magnesium in the body - seeds, nuts, buckwheat make up for its deficiency. Are you craving coffee? The body needs phosphorus and sulfur - cranberries and seeds contain them. If ice cream is your passion, try adding rabbit, chicken and turkey meat to your diet - you lack calcium and tryptophan.

6. Add More Colored Foods

Research has shown that the red color of food makes it more attractive and tasty from the point of view of our brain. We tend to consider red food more nutritious and tasty, while green food, on the contrary, is not very attractive, “immature”.

Have you noticed that junk food often does not have a special color? Baking, chips, cookies, fast food the brain perceives as one. We eat "beige food" and do not monitor saturation, the body requires more and more.

Add “colors” to the plate, and the process of saturation will go completely differently - a bright banana and a red apple can work wonders.

7. Experiment with new flavors

Many harmful foods are bright flavors: spices, sweeteners, flavor enhancers, salt. The best way to pamper your receptors is to do some experimenting. Add new dishes to the diet, play with spices and seasonings, mixing them. There are thousands of dishes in the world that you have not tried.

For example, hummus can perfectly replace a purchased meat pate with stabilizers and flavor enhancers, and a familiar dish to which you add aromatic herbs will “play” in a completely different way.

8. Avoid extreme hunger

If you are used to snacking on fast carbohydrates (sweets, chips, ice cream, buns, fast food), then your blood sugar levels are constantly jumping. When sugar drops too low, there is again a strong desire to eat something unhealthy. and it is difficult to get out of this vicious circle.

Do not allow severe hunger, and as a “prevention”, drive it away with healthy snacks, preferably protein ones. They give a feeling of satiety for a long time and do not allow blood sugar levels to change so dramatically. These are yogurts, cheeses, nuts, pumpkin seeds, chicken fillet pieces, green smoothies, eggs.

Have you managed to overcome the addiction to harmful goodies?

24 Mar 0 3821

Tatyana Dzutseva: Spring has begun, we are increasingly approaching the mirror, critically looking at ourselves, and we understand that from Monday it is time to finish with all the sweets and bakery products. But someone forgets about it right away, someone, maybe, starts "new life", but it also ends quickly.

I have written many times in the section "Beauty and health" that last year I lost two sizes of weight with the help of proper nutrition. The basis of my diet was vegetables and proteins, as well as vegetable oils, cereals, cottage cheese and dried fruits. And at the same time - the rejection of all harmful products. Recently I received this letter: Tanya, once again I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to you and your blog. After all, thanks to your advice (heading "Beauty and Health"), I lost weight by 9 kg in a month and a half. I propose today to continue the conversation about healthy eating.

Talk about:

What foods are harmful?
Why are they harmful?
Why is it so hard to give them up?

When I made the decision to start eating right “from Monday”, the wild resistance had already begun three days before this very Monday. My mood is starting to deteriorate.

In my head all the time there was a thought: - Well, what kind of life will this be? No favorite junk food. Sometimes for breakfast and lunch I ate cake and coffee, and something tasty and fatty - late for dinner. And of course, any snacks at any time: chocolate, sweets, cake, cookies, seeds.

I was not ready for the schedule and eating by the hour, as I was used to indulging myself in everything. The first two weeks were the most difficult, because I did not see any results.

Naturally, I was tormented by doubts - you limit yourself in everything, but centimeters do not go away. Only in the third week, the hips began to decrease by half a centimeter in three days. Since I sew a lot, it's not the weight that matters to me, but the size.

It is important to measure yourself or weigh yourself only in the morning.

Do not do this all the time, especially in the evening, at least for the first two weeks. The weight will hold on and your motivation will drop.

I was on a strict healthy diet for 1.5 months. The result is minus two sizes. I lost weight from 48 to 44. I was so pleased with the results, to be honest, I didn’t count, so I slowly started eating a lot of unnecessary things again. Over the course of the year, I got better. And since all summer dresses were sewn under size 44, then again this year I decided to switch to a slender diet.

And what I want to tell you, the inclusion was without resistance, no sabotage and no bad mood. I realized that this is a purely psychological aspect.

I don’t feel any hunger this year, and last year I couldn’t wait for the next meal. A year ago, this food even irritated me a little, but today I feel like the mistress of the situation.

I realized that with all these tastes I painted my life. Not just talk with a friend, but also eat a lot of sweets. Not just watch TV, but drink tea with condensed milk, cake, cookies and chocolate, plus nibble seeds.

There are foods that are hard to give up.

My top bad foods:

1) Sweets, chocolate cakes, sweets.

2) Cookies, bread, baguettes, pies. You can leave only whole grain bread. The only negative is that it is difficult to buy, so you can do without it. For example, eating cereals and sprouted wheat.

3) Coffee, coffee with sugar, coffee with cream. It's a myth that coffee invigorates. The excitement doesn't last long. Coffee is a very big psychological habit that increases problems. Invigorating cold breakfast. For example, a salad of raw carrots and raw beets with sesame seeds, naturally without sugar, plus low-fat cottage cheese with low-fat yogurt. Also sugar free.

This breakfast does not look as luxurious as COFFEE and ham with different cheeses. But it is worth trying, and you will feel lightness, mobility, the whole body after such a breakfast welcomes you and thanks you.

4) Fried food

5) Red meat and sausages, ham.

6) All products with "E": ketchups, mayonnaises, canned food, chips, crackers

7) Alcohol. All the talk about the benefits of red wine is just talk. This is the same addiction only to red wine.

With the help of all this junk food, we do not nourish ourselves, but calm ourselves. we maintain a good mood. We eat the lack of close relationships, feelings of anxiety, feelings of insecurity, loneliness, our lack of fulfillment, sweeten our lives. But is it possible to change your life with the help of junk food? To make it high-quality, protected, realized, bright? Hardly.

Not realizing this, we get addicted to bright tastes and products, getting a temporary effect, and we get used to seizing our feelings and problems and not noticing. As a result, these products become unsafe not only for health, but also for the psyche. We get used to solving our problems in this way, or rather to forget about them for a while.

And we get reverse effect: eating and drinking, we forget about our problems, but then they are exposed with renewed vigor. And we sit down to eat "delicious" again.

If you really want to consciously start eating healthy foods, then you need to ask yourself:

What do you need?
What are you missing?
What upsets and stresses you?

And understand that food is not a solution to problems, but an escape. And you, an adult woman, are able to pull yourself together and not be led by self-pity.

For example, sugary foods are digested quickly, raising blood glucose levels, but levels fall just as quickly. And again there is a problem, a bad mood. And then the extra weight and dissatisfaction with yourself.

“Refined sugar is not a food, but a drug. It has no nutritional value, just empty calories. It can dangerously alter brain chemistry and becomes a drug for many people." Robin Norwood.

And from a purely practical point of view, 100 gr. sugar contains 400 calories. For comparison, 100 gr. cucumber contains 15 calories.

Some nutritionists advise replacing sweets with fruits., bananas, apples, honey or fructose. Offer to snack between meals. Do you believe that you can eat half a banana (by the way, this fruit has a high glycemic index) and forget about food? Me not. It becomes a new habit of chewing something.

Or a spoonful of honey a day. When I replaced sweets with honey, I ate jars of honey. And what happens is that you, replacing, still continue to depend. Only from fruits, eating their problems with them. Although fruits do not do well with this.

Therefore, if you decide to build weight now, then no snacks, honey, and fruits. And if you really eat fruits, then only as a separate meal. When fruit becomes a separate meal, and not a snack, then there is no need for them at all.

No one will save you better than water during an attack of psychological hunger., between meals and the desire to grab something. But this habit of drinking water instead of something to eat is built in for a long time. You have to be conscious and suffer a little and even force yourself.

Yes, and when you start eating the right and healthy foods, the craving for harmful itself gradually disappears.

The most malicious sweet tooth can afford black bitter chocolate. Just bitter or dark chocolate will not work. The bar should say 75% cocoa. Or higher. But 75% is enough. Once I bought myself 98% cocoa, it was impossible to eat, just pressed cocoa. After lunch and dinner, you can eat one slice. Then you will understand what it is to have fun.

Sometimes, in order to start changing her life, a woman just needs to give up jeans and black and switch to feminine dresses and skirts.

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

Proper nutrition will help you avoid unpleasant strict diets and the gym if you do not like this kind of exercise.
You will be able to maintain the weight at a certain level, without the subsequent rapid set.
You will learn to listen to the needs of your body, its desires, and not close its mouth by immoderate absorption of unnecessary food.
You will never experience unpleasant discomfort and heaviness in the stomach after eating.
You will become more conscious, fresh vegetable salad is not interesting to eat in front of a 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 be sharpened, and taste habits will diversify.
If you learn to eat right, then you will control the intake of harmful foods, and not they you.
You will enjoy looking 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 relationship with your body.
You will get rid of addiction to junk food, which means you will become free and happy no matter the circumstances. From whether there is something “delicious” for the evening or not.

Last year, before agreeing to proper nutrition, I rummaged through the entire Internet, read a sea of books, Russian and foreign nutritionists. Something hooked me at Mantignac, something at Ducane. But most of all I was convinced by Tatyana Malakhova. Many thanks to her for this.