A Simple Trick to Resist Junk Food

You’re tired and hungry. Then you catch something delicious, probably fried and almost certainly fattening. It is fried chicken! 【小题1】 A new research says that being exposed to the smell of junk food for at least two minutes can actually help you make healthier food choices.

Have you ever noticed that whatever appetizing treat catches your nose’s attention tends to be most appealing just after you first smell it? What will happen if you’re standing in line after a couple of minutes? 【小题2】 And recent science says that this is actually the right moment to walk away.

The results of a series of experiments show that extended exposure of more than two minutes to junk food smell leads to lower purchases of unhealthy foods compared with healthy smell. 【小题3】 That is why long exposure to junk food smell can be as satisfactory as actually having it in your mouth.

【小题4】 When the exposure to smell of healthy food were examined, food choices were not profoundly influenced. The reason for this is that healthy food is not connected with reward in our brain and therefore has little influence on what we desire.

So next time you’re feeling you don’t have the willpower to resist that French fries, it might be as simple as sitting there and smelling all that sweetness for just a minute or two. 【小题5】

Although most diets vary according to what foods you can eat, they all follow the same principle of restriction to lose weight—you need to eat less. The now-trendy diet of intuitive eating is, in a sense, an anti-diet: followers are encouraged to base what they eat on how they feel, not on prescribed limits or calorie counts.

The concept was first proposed in the mid-90s by registered dietitians Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole, who wrote Intuitive Eating. The first step is to reject the idea that you need to be on a diet to be healthy. You’re encouraged to also give yourself “permission” to eat all foods, to reject the idea of “good” and “bad” foods and to accept your natural body shape. Finally, you help make your body healthier by adding exercise, finding better ways than food to relieve your emotions and slowly shifting to more nutritious food choices.

One of the biggest misunderstandings around intuitive eating is that nutrition goes out the window. Curiously, researches shows that in a traditional diet, caloric restriction is usually followed by a binge(放纵), where the body’s primary drive to make sure it gets enough calories is more important than any desires for nutrition or moderation(自我节制), which leads to disordered eating patterns. However, because intuitive eating allows all foods on the table, practitioners can make small, slow changes that ultimately are more long-lasting-toward eating more nutritionally.

There isn’t strong research to back up claims that intuitive eating helps with losing weight or eating more-nutritious food. However, in Keller’s experience, a registered dietitian in Calgary, intuitive eating can help with overall weight maintenance. In addition, intuitive eaters do gain a healthier attitude toward food, compared to traditional dieters. Keller says, “When people decide to diet, what they actually want is to feel comfortable and confident and healthy in their own body. People have to be ready to overcome their constant desire to lose weight and control their body, and to realize that changing how they look on the outside isn’t going to change those things on the inside. ”

The Diet Zone: A Dangerous Place

Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet… We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us.【小题1】

Diet products significantly weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale (秤) instead. 【小题2】 On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don’t have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain and that life can be without resistance and struggle.

【小题3】 Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients (营养成分). Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products may not be nutritional. 【小题4】 Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them to reduce weight. 【小题5】 Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the harm that comes from using them.