It’s hard to turn down hamburgers, French fries, potato chips and all of the other junk food that seem to call out to us. However, eating too much junk food can harm your body, particularly if you’re between the ages of 10 and 19.

“Junk food shapes adolescent brains in ways that weaken their ability to think, learn and remember. It can also make it harder to control impulsive behaviors,” said Amy Reichelt, a brain and nutrition specialist at Western University, Canada. “It may even up a teen’s risk of depression and anxiety.”

Reichelt and two other researchers found adolescents are more sensitive than any other age group to processed foods with a lot of fat and sugar. Adolescent brains are still developing the ability to assess risks and control actions. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that tells us we shouldn’t eat chips all the time and helps us resist that urge. But this region is the last to mature - it doesn’t fully develop until we are in our early 20s. Meanwhile, teen brains get more active from rewards for a while. The parts of the brain that make us feel good when we do something pleasurable are fully developed by the teen years.

In fact, these regions are even more sensitive when we are young. That’s because dopamine (多巴胺), a natural chemical that lifts our mood when we experience something good, is especially active in adolescent brains. Therefore, the teen brain has two strikes against it when it comes to resisting junk food. “It has a heightened drive for rewards and reduced self-regulation,” said Reichelt.

So, what’s the best way to say no to junk food? Researchers suggest exercise. When we exercise, the brain’s reward system becomes less sensitive to food. Exercise also cause the body to make a protein that helps brain cells grow and boosts connections between the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions. The prefrontal cortex thus can work better to help us make wise decisions and control our impulses.

How to Stop Binge Eating (饮食无度)

When it comes to trying to lose weight, stopping binge eating can be very difficult. Maybe you believe that to lose weight, one must go on a diet. Usually, you eat in a certain way until you reach your weight goals.【小题1】Here are some ways to overcome this.

【小题2】Eating healthily doesn’t mean you have to give up food. You can even eat the “bad” foods but you have to consume them in moderation (适中). The good news is that once you start to eat healthily and start cutting sugar out of your diet, you will start losing the craving for sweets.【小题3】

Get support. Sometimes it's hard to stop if you are doing this all alone. So what you can do is to ask some friends or family members to help remind you.【小题4】So ask people around you to remind you of your fitness goals when they catch you binging eating.

Limit your access to food.【小题5】Throw out all of the bad food and replace them with the good stuff. By doing this, you will hopefully be able to stop over eating due to the fact that it will be too much of a problem to actually go to the store and buy junk food.

These tips are just a few things you can do. The important thing to remember is that you need to have the right mindset going into this thing.

Weight loss is a hard topic.Lots of people aren't satisfied with their present weight,but most people aren't sure how to change it.You may want to look like the models or actors in magazines or on TV,but those goals might not be healthy or realistic for you.【小题1】

So what should you do about your weight control?

【小题2】The best way to find out if you are at a healthy weight or if you need to lose or gain weight is to talk to a doctor or dietitian.【小题3】If it turns out that you can benefit from weight loss then you can follow a few of the simple suggestions listed below to get started.

【小题4】People who lose weight quickly by crash（速成的）dieting or other extreme measures usually gain back all of the pounds they lost,because they haven't permanently（永久地）changed their habits.Therefore,the best weight management ways are those that you can maintain for a lifetime.

Small changes are a lot easier to keep than large ones.Try reducing the amount of what you eat.Try cutting down the fat in your daily meals.【小题5】.Once you have kept that down,start gradually introducing healthier foods and exercise into your life.

It's a good idea to maintain a healthy weight because health is most valuable to us all.