Rubbish, trash, garbage or scrap. They all are junks. They are widely available, low in cost, heavily promoted and good tasting. These ingredients produce a predictable, understandable, and inevitable consequence- an epidemic of diet related diseases. While they are convenient, they also tend to be high in fat, sugar, and calories.
Imagine yourself feeding from a trash can each time you feed on those foods we call junks (wink!). This is one of the reasons why many people add weight. Have you ever felt like the donuts in your office restaurant are calling your name, even though they are 200 feet away?
A certain individual simply said that it’s just a craving that needs to be satisfied. No doubt there are certain foods that you crave at some certain times of the day, month, or just based on your nutritional deficiencies, some of these foods could be healthy. When these foods are junk, you may need to know the reasons why you crave for them to enable you stop. Here are the reasons why you crave for junks.
Nutritional Deficiencies- Although there is little scientific evidence to back it, many people attribute cravings to nutritional deficiency. The theory is that if you are low on calcium, you will crave ice cream. If you are anemic, you will crave meat. This theory is still unfounded.
Fatigue- A long day at work typically makes you tired. It also makes you stop by the nearest fast/junk food center on your way home instead of preparing a healthy. When they hit, the most common craving is for something sweet like Ice cream, sweet cake or perhaps a bottle of carbonated drink. Sugar provides a quick burst of energy, which is what your body really craves.
Emotional swings- The reason for your crave for junks may be to cure emotional issues like stress, sadness, depression, or just feeling a little under the weather. People tend to lean toward foods that provide comfort, which generally contain grease, fat, sugar or just tons of calories. You might also be inclined to eat junk food during happy times and social events. Certain foods become synonymous with comfort and happiness, triggering those cravings when you are looking to be in that mood. If you are involved in a short term diets characterized by quick weight loss cause, you will feel deprived and have a serious desire to satisfy it. Instead of indulging, try doing some activity that you enjoy. Dance, play hide and seek with your children or take a walk. Become a long time healthy eater. Transition to a balanced healthy diet to avoid those swings.
Raging Hormone- This is very visible in most pregnant women. Her cravings changes every other week and when she wants a bowl of ice cream with cake, she wants them now! Many women knows that their period is coming when they can’t keep their hands out of the cookie jar, and gets more exercise opening the fridge than from a trip to the gym. Hormones, especially fluctuating ones, will cause cravings to go overboard. This is probably the reason why women seem to have many more cravings than men, and seem to “need” to satisfy them more than men do. Deal with this by keeping a lot of fruits and vegetable cuts in the refrigerator to enable you respond to your hormones in a healthy way.
Skipping breakfast- contrary to what many think, skipping breakfast is not a good way to cut calories, it can make your body to start to crave for something sweet and you may end up eating more at lunch, or relieving your hunger with unhealthy and less nutritious snacks “quick fixes”. Imagine a busy morning at the office on a day that you skipped your breakfast, the most convenient food once the hunger pang comes calling is usually the doughnut or cheese burger from the staff restaurant or the closest ‘junk food’ vendor.
Psychological happenings- This could explain some of the reasons for your cravings. Smelling cookies baking or merely seeing a commercial for biscuits etc. can trigger a craving in you. Fight the cravings by satisfying them in more productive ways like grabbing a carrot!
Stay away from all kinds of junk foods and replace them with fruits for your sweet tooth, popcorn for your salty tooth, and all natural juice instead of carbonated beverages. Read your food labels and walk away from those containing Trans fats.
