A Self-care Guide on How to Stop Eating Junk Food and Sugar

Do you find yourself craving sugar and junk? Join the club! We all know how difficult it can be to stop eating junk food. Keep reading to arm yourself with the best ways to kick your junk habit and how to stay on track. P.S. You can happily live without sugar!

We all know how difficult it can be to stop eating junk food. 

It’s in the vending machine at work, on our way home from anywhere, and even hiding in our pantry!

We’re drawn to it despite its harmful effects on our health.

Thank goodness there’s some good news.

No matter how much junk food you are eating now, starting a healthy lifestyle is possible!

It’s all about choosing healthier alternatives and then implementing them.

Slowly.

How to Stop Eating Junk Food

You must implement three tactics to stop eating junk food effectively and stay consistent in the long run. The maneuvers include:

1. Understanding why junk food is addicting (so you stop blaming your lack of willpower).
2. Invoking strategies to control cravings (so you don’t feel tempted to eat junk food in the first place).
3. Building healthy eating and self-care habits (so you have healthy life skills moving forward).

Why Do We Crave Unhealthy Junk Food?

If you often find yourself frustrated and wondering, “Why can’t I stop eating junk food and sugar?” You need to know something. 

There’s a good reason, and it’s not your fault. 

Extensive research ensures it’s easy for us to eat too much junk food!

Junk food contains excessive amounts of sugar, salt, and fats that can trigger the reward center in your brain. When this area in your brain is activated, it releases dopamine, making you feel happy or euphoric. Plus, it always tastes delicious! The end result is addictive foods.

People might have a strong craving for junk food for many reasons.

First, the mood-boosting properties of some foods can draw people to them.

For example, if you eat a chocolate bar, you may likely find it’s an effective and easy way to reduce stress levels. It contains tryptophan, which is converted into serotonin, which then becomes melatonin. 

With this kind of outcome, it’s not surprising that high-fat foods would quickly become a coping mechanism. (It has for me!)

In addition, you often don’t feel full eating junk food like when you make healthy food choices, which is another reason your body craves these foods.

Think about how easy it is to binge on unhealthy snacks; before you know it, your mindless eating has conquered an entire bag of chips! 

Are you exhausted and overwhelmed?

This Self-care Starter Guide will show you 3 simple steps to take RIGHT NOW to better care for yourself. 

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Why is Junk Food So Addictive?

Food manufacturers have become savvy in engineering food that capitalizes on our innate desire to feel good on a regular basis. These food giants want to create lifelong customers addicted to the perceived pleasure while eating their products. 

They successfully do this by engineering the food to taste the best it possibly can with the purpose of overriding your internal ‘stop’ signals and encouraging you to eat (and then buy) more. 

The more often you eat a specific food, the more it triggers a consumer’s brain to crave it. 

Have you ever had a “sugar crash” after overeating candy or pastries? If so, you know how good it tastes and how bad that crash feels! 

So what is it that makes junk foods so darn irresistible?

What causes us to keep eating the foods we know are bad for us? 

Junk food is engineered to the point of making it irresistible, which is called the bliss point.

The Science Behind the Bliss Point

The bliss point is when a person experiences ultimate eating pleasure with the right amount of salty, sweet, and fatty flavors.

Some might go as far as to say that the bliss point is the perfect amount of sugar, salt, or fat in that it leaves you wanting more.

Every.

Single.

Time.

Food manufacturers’ ultimate goal is to create foods that spark a cycle of addiction in consumers. They know exactly how much to add to get people addicted and wanting more, so they aim for the “bliss point” in each product. 

Food companies have learned how to create food that alters our internal hunger cues. This is what keeps junk food companies in business!

The bliss point also connects to how our senses react when consuming food. 

When we eat something, we activate all of our senses. For example, our sense of smell, the aroma, is the first thing that entices us to eat food. How overwhelming – one good whiff can hook us!

To combat responding to the bliss point and being overwhelmed by the food cues, you must reduce your “food cue reactivity.” 

Food cue reactivity is defined as your susceptibility to being influenced by the food smells, advertisements, and conversations surrounding you every day. 

Researchers believe that this is the most important strategy you can use to fight junk food cravings.

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that teaching people to identify their food cravings is a key first step to reducing junk food cravings.

Just being aware that you are craving something can help reduce the intensity of your desire for it.

Whether you love sweets or prefer salty snacks, it pays to know the food products that send you down the non-ending spiral of junk food binging.

How to Tell if You’re Craving Junk Food and Eating Mindlessly

If you crave something sugary or fatty, it isn’t because your body needs it. Instead, the bliss point triggers your brain to seek a reward so you don’t feel down in the dumps. 

If you’re feeling upset, you often can be drawn to comfort foods to mask your emotions and feel better. Consider whether these actions are occurring:

1. You eat more than usual during a specific time, such as late at night or with sleep deprivation.
2. You feel intense cravings for unhealthy foods even when full or not hungry.
3. You find you buy certain types of healthy food, like a piece of fruit, but it goes bad before you can eat it.

If these events happen, ask yourself about your mood when eating these foods. For example, do you have a craving to feel happy, content, and relaxed?

Sugar has been shown to increase serotonin levels, which may:

• boost mood
• reduce anxiety
• enhance feelings of well-being

This is why reaching for something sweet when feeling down is so easy. 

This also explains why you might find yourself craving a doughnut or bag of chips at the end of a long day!

Avoid those bad foods as much as possible and seek comfort from other self-care methods, such as going for a walk, taking a warm bath with soothing music, talking with a friend or family member, or lighting scented candles.

Try new self-care activities to identify what works best for you.

As a sidebar, you’ll need to break your nightly habits or start substituting healthier foods to stop eating junk food at night. 

And if you’re a parent of a teenager, and you’ve never worked on not eating junk food before, you can also use these tips to teach your kids how to stop eating junk food even as a teenager.

There is no time that is too late to start eating healthier foods.

What Junk Foods Are the Main Culprits For Food Cravings?

People crave foods with too much sugar, fat, sodium, trans fats, and artificial sweeteners. The following foods are common:

1. Fried food (French fries, battered chicken, etc.)
2. Sweets (desserts, candies)
3. Fast food
4. Regular sodas
5. Processed meats
6. Processed bread and refined grains (e.g., white bread)

If you feel deprived of junk food, this can lead to anger, sadness, and anxiety. 

So, if you’re craving something sweet or fried instead of something healthy, get creative with other methods that comfort you – like taking a walk in the park, listening to soothing music, making yoga moves, or reading your favorite book. Sometimes, drinking a glass of water can distract you long enough to get through the craving.

Now that you understand why we crave junk food and how it works let’s go through some tips to overcome those cravings.

Strategies to Control Your Junk Food Cravings

There are lots of ways to reduce junk food cravings.

But remember, to be the most strategic, you must decrease your “food cue reactivity.” 

You may recall that your food cue reactivity is defined as your susceptibility to being influenced by the smells, advertisements, and food conversations surrounding you every day.

The most important strategy is to start eating real food, like whole grains, lean meats and proteins, and lots of fruits and vegetables. 

When you replace your junk food intake with healthy foods, you’ll ingest the nutrients from the more nutritious food, and your cravings for the fake food will decrease. 

That said, junk food cravings are a primary cause for people to get derailed from their healthy eating plans.

Once derailed, cravings can lead to unhealthy eating habits and be the biggest obstacle to weight loss. 

Thankfully, it helps to know how food producers engineer junk food. Craving something sugary or fatty isn’t because your body needs that substance; the bliss point triggers our brains to seek a reward. 

So, recognize what is truly happening and jump back on the wagon immediately if something derails you. 

It’s not about a lack of willpower; it won’t help you beat yourself up emotionally.

Plus, you can use your derailment experience to learn more helpful facts about your food triggers. For example, not all junk foods will be tempting to you, so knowing which foods trigger your cravings gives you valuable information that provides insight into what food cues you need to avoid.

The long-term effects of junk food are very harmful, so it’s essential to control your food cravings, practice healthy self-care to feel strong, and stay mindful of what is happening to improve your eating habits.

11 Tips to Help You Control Your Food Cravings

1. Plan ahead – make healthy foods for meals and snacks available. Use a list when grocery shopping and create a weekly meal plan. It may seem like more work initially, but eventually, you’ll find shortcuts, and these become powerful tools to keep you on track. 
2. Eat a healthy breakfast – A healthy, filling breakfast (which contains healthy proteins and fat) can help keep you feeling satiated and reduce junk food cravings.
3. Eat more lean proteins and healthy fats. Protein and fats help control hunger because you feel satisfied after eating.
4. Include fiber – Fiber positively impacts blood sugar levels, which can help reduce cravings. If you can’t get fiber in your diet, try drinking Metamucil every day.
5. Supplement with chromium – Chromium has been shown to be an effective supplement for reducing carbohydrate cravings.
6. Bring more fresh fruits to your diet. An easy substitution is to replace fruit juices with pieces of fruit. Berries are the lowest in sugar, so eat those as often as affordable.
7. Place healthy food and snack options in your line of sight. (Place beautiful fresh whole fruit in a bowl on the table or counter.)
8. Build balanced meals. The trick is to take it slow. Give yourself six months to create balanced meals. The next time you go to the grocery store, choose one new option. Repeat each time you shop.
9. Have a snack drawer (filled with healthy snack options) to pass over unhealthy snack options effectively. Peanuts and tree nuts, tuna packets, and beef jerky are low-sugar snack options.
10. Don’t starve yourself. Eat three meals a day and two healthy snacks.
11. The long-term effects of junk food are harmful, so it’s essential to control your food cravings, practice healthy self-care to feel strong, and stay mindful of what is happening to improve your eating habits.

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Self-care Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Eating Habits and Eat Less Junk Food and Sugar

Practicing self-care habits that set you up for eating healthy foods can go a long way toward eating less junk food, feeling healthier, and losing weight (if weight loss is one of your goals).

Weight management can be challenging due to our body’s chemical responses, behavior, and the highly processed foods we’ve been conditioned to crave. 

15 Self-care Tips to Stop Eating Junk Food and Sugar

1. Set healthy boundaries so you can reduce negative emotional responses.
2. Eat meals at home. With fewer meals being prepared in the house, fewer Americans are being raised with the skill of cooking, which is a key step in making good food choices. 
3. Eat a rainbow of colors (in fruits and vegetables) every 1-2 days.
4. Learn to see self-care differently. Healthy habits are a way to give your body the needed fuel, rest, and maintenance.
5. Eat smaller meals – Eating more frequently helps control blood sugar and insulin levels, which can help reduce what triggers hunger and cravings for sugary foods.
6. Manage your stress. 
7. Eat the proper serving sizes of all of the food you eat.
8. Focus on adding healthy foods (not denying yourself ‘bad’ food) into your diet.
9. Learn how to spot alternative names for sugar and artificial sweeteners on food labels.
10. Break up your current routines which journey towards eating junk food.
11. Make time to sit down when you eat so you can be mindful of what and how much you are eating.
12. Drink more water. Fill a water bottle every morning and drink at least one daily.
13. Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep is one of the main reasons people fall prey to cravings. Hormones shift and help you overcome cravings when you have adequate sleep.
14. Pack your lunch with healthy options for work or school.
15. Work on saying no when you are offered junk food.
16. BONUS TIP – Always have on-the-go healthy snacks available.

A Great Way to Build Better Habits

When working on reducing your junk food and sugar cravings, the key is not to implement all of these tips and strategies simultaneously.  

For example, to successfully resist food in front of you or stop eating junk food when you’re bored, choose one or two tips from above, then add one or two tips at a time after you’ve cemented those tips into habits.

Most people fail because they try to do too much, too fast.

Every little step adds value!

Tell yourself that 20 little steps completed add more value to your future health than one incomplete big step.

In conclusion, learning to stop eating junk food and sugar is possible. In fact, if you can set a goal of eating less junk food for a month and start weaning yourself off of the current amount you are eating now, your final results will probably shock you!

There are two important points to remember when trying to eat a healthy diet. 

First, start eating real whole foods. You’ll get all the necessary nutrients when you replace junk foods with nutritious foods. 

Secondly, think about what you should be eating to nourish your body. If you feel a craving, acknowledge how you feel at the moment (physically and emotionally), and try doing another activity, like taking a walk or calling a friend, to help reduce those cravings.

The best strategy is to keep prepped and ready foods on hand so you have them when needed. So, implement tactics that equip you with these easy-to-grab foods.

Routine meal prepping is a habit that keeps you at an advantage.

Be encouraged! Continue eating healthier options for meals and snacks, and your cravings will diminish!  Remember, what you eat affects how you feel, and how much you eat affects how you look.

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Q&A for How to Stop Eating Junk Food and Sugar

1 What is Junk Food?

Junk foods are foods that are high in calories, added sugars, and unhealthy fats and very low in nutritional value. 

Most ultra-processed foods containing high amounts of salt or sugar are considered junk food. Examples of junk food include:

• candy
• potato chips
• soft drinks
• ice cream
• chocolate chip cookies

Many of the pre-packaged foods labeled as snacks are junk food, too. Regularly eating these foods has several negative effects, the biggest being a higher risk of disease.

2 What Are the Harmful Effects of Eating Junk Food?

Junk food can lead to adverse health issues or consequences such as weight gain, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, overall poor health, and early death. 

Good health is not something you want to risk. 

You might be surprised to learn that after you break the junk food addiction, you’ll find the healthy alternatives taste even better than fake foods!

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