Ultra-processed foods are often referred to as junk food, and regular consumption of them can lead to various diseases. These foods are convenient and some additives and flavors in them can be addictive, so controlling the desire to eat them has become an important part of ensuring a healthy diet.
Ultra-processed foods are pre-packaged foods that contain high amounts of salt, refined sugars, high cholesterol fats, and other laboratory-made ingredients.
Excessive consumption of ultra-processed foods in daily diet often leads to obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and even premature death.
Despite the known risks, ultra-processed foods remain hard to resist because they are designed for convenience and to satisfy people’s cravings. Their taste and addictive additives make them difficult to avoid.
According to a report by the UK’s Daily Mail, registered nutritionist Nichola Ludlam-Raine has provided some suggestions in her new book “How Not to Eat Ultra-Processed: Your 4-week Plan for Life-Changing Healthier Eating Habits.” She analyzed the reasons why people crave ultra-processed foods and offered methods to break free from these junk foods.
Ludlam-Raine believes that people eat mainly due to three different types of hunger – head hunger, heart hunger, and stomach hunger, and she proposes ways to address each type of hunger to ensure choosing the healthiest diet.
Head hunger is a spontaneous craving for food triggered by the senses, such as seeing tempting food or smelling food. This type of hunger often arises suddenly and almost requires immediate satisfaction, making it easy for people to reach for ultra-processed snacks.
Ludlam-Raine suggests that these triggers and cravings for ultra-processed foods can be avoided by changing the environment. For example, taking a different route home from work to avoid smelling the sausages in the local bakery. Also, try placing low-nutrient junk food out of sight at home.
Heart hunger is triggered or caused by emotions, including negative and positive emotions. Eating in this situation can fulfill emotional needs.
Frequent emotional eating can lead individuals into an unhealthy cycle, affecting dietary health and potentially exacerbating emotional issues.
Ludlam-Raine stresses that mindfulness is very helpful in addressing heart hunger. Mindfulness helps you become more aware of your emotions and their impact on your appetite.
When you sense strong emotions that may fuel emotional eating, sit down, take out pen and paper, write down your underlying emotions, and think of alternative coping strategies besides turning to food.
If you still feel hungry, take time for deep breathing before deciding what to eat. This can help you feel calmer and gradually reduce the hunger pangs.
We need food for energy and nutrients, so it’s important to address hunger by consuming the right foods rather than waiting until it’s “too late” to eat.
Eating when extremely hungry may lead to eating too quickly or being drawn to high-fat, high-sugar foods that provide quick fullness but don’t offer long-lasting satiety.
Moreover, eating only when extremely hungry may result in binge eating until uncomfortably full or experiencing the painful sensation of overeating.