How to Train Your Brain to Hate Junk Food

When you were born, your brain was already programmed to love foods that your mother consumed while pregnant. Hopefully, you did not know what a Starbucks, McDonald's or Pizza Hut was. Your brain had yet to be subjected to fried chicken wings, double bacon cheeseburgers, triple layer chocolate cake, ice cream and baked goods. Because of this, your brain was more hardwired to seek out the foods that make you healthy because most mothers are trying to eat healthy and take vitamins during pregnancy.

Whether or not you were predisposed to eating healthy or not though a baby in the womb naturally takes from the mother the nutrition that it needs. As a newborn you are already seeking out what will be most beneficial to your health and well-being then something changed as you began to grow.

You began eating what was around you most of the time. For most of us this means a lot of processed food and fast food. Slowly, over time, your brain changed, and unfortunately, it was not for the better. You began craving those foods which you consciously knew would not lead to health and well-being. If we can be honest with ourselves, we instinctively know that more fresh unprocessed foods and more vegetables is a healthier way of life. The problem is that now that we are programmed to associate processed food with happiness, celebrations, love, satiety, and overall family and friends good times it is difficult to stop the unhealthy choices. Here's the good news, as you programmed your brain for unhealthy eating behaviors and inclinations, you can also retrain your brain as well. The following 10 healthy eating steps will gradually teach your brain to love food that is good for you, and to dislike, or at least be complacent about, junk food, fast food and highly processed food when it is all around you. If these tips aren't working fast enough for you I give you a more extreme method of cutting the bad dietary choices that worked quickly for me at the end of this article. However, this is extreme and not for everyone. Most people will do quite well with the following tips. I had extreme addiction to my unhealthy lifestyle and at over 100 lbs overweight I needed to take drastic steps to break that addiction quickly. Quite literally my life life depended on it. Here are some not as drastic tips to incorporate into your daily routine. Please remember you are relearning behaviors and replacing unhealthy choices with more healthy ones. This is not "all or nothing." This is a journey that has a learning curve. I am still learning too! Health is something to strive for and as long as you are breathing you can try to obtain better health. Shall we begin?

1. Play the swapping game.

Take one or two unhealthy foods you really enjoy eating, and replace them with healthy alternatives. Replace French fries with sweet potato fries that are baked instead of boiled in oil. Replace white flour with whole grains like quinoa, whole wheat, whole oats and buckwheat. Try baked kale chips instead of potato chips. Make one or two of these substitutions every week. As you make these swaps mentally tell yourself that you are trying to drop the unhealthy habits for at least a month. If you can't imagine giving up potato chips for a mere 30 days then you may have a severe addiction.

Your brain is incredibly adaptive. It learns that what you eat most of the time is what you will be eating most of the time. When you slowly move away from junk food, fast food and highly processed foods, to healthier alternatives, your brain is no dummy... it notices.

This is how some of your unhealthy cravings began in the first place. You ate so much of particular things that, even though your brain knew those foods were not good for you, it began to anticipate them and to desire them. Do this swap game enough, and for a long enough period of time, and you can train your brain to dislike the food that is robbing you of your health. I went to an appointment this week and forgot to eat breakfast. When I got there I grabbed a bag of chips from the coffee shop just to have something in my belly. I ate about 4-5 of them before throwing the bag in the trash. I could feel and taste how oily and salty they were. It was disgusting to me and I threw the bag of chips away! I used to eat chips DAILY but I had not had any for almost 2 years and to taste them again was a big eye-opener. Taste buds can and do change with enough retraining.

2. Respect the unhealthy power of sugar.

You may think your sweet tooth is absolutely unbeatable. The truth is, the chemical process which made you so powerless to sugar can be reprogrammed to disregard its power. I watched a couple of documentaries one called Sugar Coated and another called That Sugar Film. I watched documentaries a lot to get scientific studies about health and nutrition and to retrain my way of thinking. I used to think, "A little bit won't hurt me." But I never put a cap on what "a little bit" was. Take just about any graph that shows the rise in sugar consumption in modern nations since the 1970s. Now find graphs which illustrate the epidemic rise of heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes. You could just about switch the names on these graphs back and forth, since they all show pretty much the exact same rate of increase. Read that again, if you need to.

Sugar has been linked to a growing list of chronic and short-term health problems. The bad news is, if you eat a lot of processed food and junk food, fast food and restaurant food, you are getting more sugar than is healthy for you. Sugar is in our food and beverages, and it is placed there

intentionally! Refined sugar is an incredibly inexpensive flavoring agent, and it is highly addictive. This is how food manufacturers train your brain to crave food that causes disease and illness but is good for their bottom line. Start looking for sugar and hidden sugar (because sugar goes by many hidden names too).

Start cutting back on sugar everywhere you can. It is estimated that those in modern societies eat anywhere from 3 to 5 times too much sugar on a daily basis. This doesn't mean sugar that you are consciously spooning into your coffee or adding to your cereal. Sugar is everywhere. Simply cutting back on processed foods, canned food, frozen food and eating away from home will drastically limit your sugar intake. There are those in the health world that say agave syrup, coconut sugar and maple syrup are acceptable substitutes for sugar. They are, but only as a step down from refined sugar. Ideally, you should not be eating these either as the body does not distinguish between refined sugar and these processed sugars. When in doubt, remember stay away from processed foods as much as possible. When I have a celebration I will use maple syrup or coconut sugar in my recipe. However, this happens about once every 6 months and more often than not I don't actually eat what I made. My tastebuds have changed so much that even a little processed sweetener tastes too sweet to me.

3. Since a full 70% to 80% of unhealthy eating is emotional or stress-based, cut out the stress.

Learn how to manage stress and anxiety. Get lots of sleep. When your body and brain are tired, anxiousness and depression are constant companions. Take up yoga, start meditating. Exercise and stay physically active often. These are all proven stress-stranglers, and the more stress you can reduce in your life, the easier it is to eat for physical hunger reasons, rather than emotional ones. When I first started exercising I told myself that I would do 20-30 minutes a day no matter what. Now I usually do more than an hour but on days where I am rushed I fall back on doing 20-30 minutes no matter what. This helps me with stress, energy and hunger. When I exercise I sleep better too.

4. Sometimes addiction can be beat by simply removing the cause of addiction.

The easy part is getting unhealthy food out of your immediate area, but often addiction is caused because of emotional, financial or mental reasons too. Find the triggers that cause you to eat poorly. Perhaps you find that you make poor eating decisions when you are socializing.

Maybe you work in an environment filled with toxic coworkers that pollute your mind and cause stress, and your means of escape is junk food. Purge your pantry. Clear your kitchen cabinets of calorie-rich, carb-crammed, sugar-packed, nutrient-poor foods. Raid your refrigerator. Replace unhealthy foods with fresh fruits and vegetables. Get rid of your soda and energy drinks, and drink nothing but water, herbal teas, coconut water and plant based milk instead. Whether it's people, food, your environment or media campaigns that are driving you to poor food choices, limit your exposure to them. I did this in my home and then told myself if I had a craving that I would need to enjoy that craving outside of my house because my house had to remain a healthy food choices space. When I first started I forced myself to do 30 days without cheating and then I allowed a cheat item (not cheat meal or cheat day) once every 10 days. I did this so that I would stick to the plan most of the time. I soon realized that I was forgetting to get my cheat item and then I know longer counted the days between cheats. I mean I didn't think of them as cheats really because I had planned them into my routine but I did this as a way to continue changing the way I was thinking about food.

5. Constantly remind yourself how poorly you feel when you eat junk food.

Remember the energy and mental focus you have when you trade sugar, fried foods, salt, fast foods, oil and processed foods for healthy alternatives like fruits and vegetables. Try an experiment when your cheat time comes around eat whatever you want, and then journal how you feel after your meal. Record how your personal and job performances went too. Did you make your workout that day? Did you need a nap? I started noticing this when I went to the movies. Since I found out that movie theater popcorn where we usually go was vegan (oil filled chemically produced vegan butter) I always got a popcorn and soda at the movies. We went to the movies about once a month. I started noticing I felt queasy after the movies and I was more sluggish the next day. I figured it was the sugar. So I stopped having the soda with my popcorn. That did make a difference in my performance but the queasiness was still there. So we figured it out, finally, that the oil filled popcorn wasn't agreeing with my stomach. Pay attention to your body it will tell you when it doesn't like what you are eating.

Now let's experiment with eating predominantly plant-based foods.

Eat them raw whenever possible, and as close as they exist to nature if you can. You may not have a broccoli plant in your backyard. Even so, eating steamed, organic broccoli is going to yield more nutrition than enjoying fried broccoli dipped in ranch dressing at your favorite restaurant. Try to have about 1lb of fresh raw greens and about 1lb of slightly steamed veggies a day. Don't overstuff yourself. Just eat until you are comfortable but full. After these 7 days of eating mostly plant-based foods, refer to your journal. Odds are you will have many more positive experiences recorded after eating fresh and wholesome foods, than you did when you made junk food and processed food your major mealtime choices. I would say do a full week of junkfood for experimenting purposes but I know you already know how you feel on processed junkfood. Remember we are trying to retrain our brains and if we do that much junkfood then our brain will start to expect more junk and neither of us want that to happen.

6. It is easy to eat right and feel great when healthy food surrounds you.

This means having plenty of fruits and vegetables nearby for a smart and nutritious snack, instead of reaching for a candy bar or a soda. Healthy, nutritious treats can be as simple as a handful of almonds or walnuts. If you have some time on your hands, why not make a fresh juice from your favorite fruits, vegetables and berries? It is quick and delicious. I sometimes add a 1/2 scoop of vegan pea protein because it keeps me full for 4-5 hours!

The key is to fill your home, office and commute with healthy foods rather than junk food, candy, baked goods and fast food. Yes, this takes a lot of planning. But do you know why you think that your way is easier and changing your diet is hard? Because you have spent most of your life learning how to shop, snack, and cook in the unhealthy way. Of course, you can walk into a grocery store and quickly buy a SAD food meal. Here is the secret, after awhile, eating healthy, cooking healthy, and snacking healthy become just as easy. You are relearning years and years of training so give yourself a break about needing time to learn.

Unfortunately, human beings are intrinsically lazy. We would much rather do the easy thing than the hard thing. Accordingly, you are much more likely to reach for something that is close at hand when hunger strikes, rather than prepare a healthy meal or drive to the grocery store and shop for nutritious and delicious fruits and vegetables. Keep healthy, fresh vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts nearby, and that is what you will eat. When I first started I needed to do a lot of food prep. Now I can keep a few things on hand and whip up a meal in less than 20 minutes when I have to just like when I used to cook SAD foods.

7. Don't instantly believe that you "hate all healthy foods".

Just because you may have had a bad experience with cauliflower, peas and broccoli, doesn't mean that the hundreds of other fresh fruits, berries, vegetables and nuts won't taste good to you. Learn to try new, healthy meals you haven't tasted in the past. This is how you develop a new taste profile in your mouth and in your brain, that learns to enjoy healthy foods, as opposed to highly processed and fast foods. You can tell yourself you are not used to it but it is not helpful to have a negative dialogue about healthy foods.

Buy a book of plant-based recipes and experiment. Learn to prepare meals you never would've thought of trying in the past. Expand your boundaries in the kitchen. Just because you have never prepared and cooked black bean burgers or portobello mini-pizzas doesn't mean you can't. When you learn to try new meals, whether you prepare them or someone else does, you expand your mental limits where food exposure is concerned. Make these new meals healthy and nutritious, and avoid fast and processed foods, and you can retrain your brain to love your new food choices. I used to HATE onions. I didn't like the texture in my mouth. So I avoided them in cooking and when eating out. I had it in my head that eating was purely for pleasure and onions did not bring me pleasure. When I started the healthy lifestyle I had the goal of eating onions. I told myself I was a healthy person and an adult. Healthy adults eat a variety of foods, including onions, therefore I was going to eat onions. I started small, pulverizing the onions into liquid practically and adding them into sauces. I added more and more until I was eating a good portion of onion everyday. I moved from that to eating raw onion on sandwiches and salads. That was harder but I told myself that it is food not poison and that I am an adult not a child. It was time to expand my palate. My family is still amazed that I buy and cook with onions plus I enjoy raw onions now. This took almost two years working at it little by little. That is how much I hated onions. I am proof that you can change your preferences when you want to and it is worked on as a routine of this is just how you eat now.

8. Studies show that unhealthier diets are very streamlined.

People that eat less than healthy food on a regular basis tend to eat a very limited number of foods. This is one of the early warning signs of a full-blown eating disorder. Learn to try a variety of foods. Vegans will tell you that when you "eat the rainbow", you enjoy more nutrients, minerals, vitamins and nutritional goodness than when you limit your choices to a small number of foods, even when they are healthy ones.

Eat lots of different fruits and vegetables. Try a wide variety of nuts and berries. You probably know that brown rice is healthier than white rice, and sweet potatoes are better for you than white potatoes. However, you shouldn't stop there in attempting to expand your healthy eating efforts. In addition to brown rice, quinoa, whole oats, barley, healthy grains. Learn to eat many different kinds of healthy foods, rather than limiting your chances at becoming healthy by streamlining your eating habits to only a few things that you like. This will lead to boredom and could cause you to stop eating healthy when it becomes to difficult to curb the cravings for variety.

9. Did you know one of the reasons why your brain becomes hopelessly addicted to junk food has to do with limited water intake, in many cases?

That's right, simply by drinking more water, you can break an unhealthy addiction to any food that is causing you health problems. You are predominantly water. Your every cell requires water to be replenished on a daily basis, roughly about 1 gallon per day. This means all of the food you eat and beverages you drink need to put a minimum of 1 gallon of water into your body daily.

This is a natural and simple detoxing practice. Water is free or next to free in most cases. It cleanses your body of toxins, poisons and waste, helps you keep feeling full all day so you can reach weight loss goals if you have them, and there is just no real reason for avoiding drinking water all day long.

Did you know that several studies showed simply adding water throughout the day to Alzheimer's patients' treatment plans actually reduced their symptoms?

It's true. When many Alzheimer's patients are prescribed water on a daily basis, 8 glasses of 8 to 12 ounces per glass, their symptoms begin to dissipate. This does not cure Alzheimer's disease. However, it does allow these mentally debilitated individuals to speak better, have better memory recall, and more cognitive abilities. This speaks to the power of drinking water as a simple way to make your brain stronger, so it can resist unhealthy addiction and develop healthy cravings instead.

I bought and keep with me at all times a 32 oz water bottle then I just fill it up 3-4 times a day. One thing I noticed is that water also plumped up my skin. The bags under my eyes were less noticeable and my complexion was more vibrant, just from drinking the right amount of water per day. Drink your water first, then have your coffee or tea or whatever you need but get the pure water that your body needs into your cells every day. I used to drink 2-3 16oz sodas everyday. Now I just drink water. If I want a treat I may put ginger and lemon in it but mostly I am happy drinking water, no tea, no coffee, no soda. I think if your morning cup of coffee is a deal breaker then by all means have it but also make a promise to yourself to drink your water. Also realize that if something is a deal breaker then you may be battling addiction and may need to address that behavior in the future.

10. You can beat unhealthy food cravings and eating behaviors with sleep and exercise.

When you get 6 to 8 hours of sleep on a nightly basis, you give your mind and body time to rest and repair. When you're physically active each and every day, you stand more than you sit, and you keep moving as much as possible, you automatically move towards better health and well-being. Regular exercise promotes healthy sleep behavior, which in turn promotes healthy physical activity.

There are several bodies of research which have proven the connection between physical and mental health. When your body is strong your brain is too. They each support the state of each other, whether healthy or unhealthy. Keep your body healthy with lots of rest and regular physical movement, and your brain will have the power and ability to resist unhealthy cravings and adopt healthy eating behaviors.

Bonus: So what did I need to do to break my food addiction? I wanted to eat healthy. I wanted to have vegetables and smoothies and move toward healing within my body but I couldn't get past feeling deprived. I wanted McDonald's chicken nuggets with dipping sauce. I wanted sodas. I wanted chips. I was miserable eating food that didn't have much taste (my tastebuds were dulled by all the processed food and sugar). So I did something drastic and I am not a doctor. I am not advocating anyone do anything. I am just telling you what I did to jumpstart my lifestyle and break my food addictions that kept sabotaging how I wanted to eat. I talked to my son who was 18 years old and we came up with the plan of having a mono food diet for a week plus supplements. We decided on potatoes. There are many ways to do the potato diet but for our cleanse we decided to eat them with nothing else on them, no salt, no ketchup, no milk or butter...nothing. We bought all sorts of potatoes as they are very cheap and began eating. It was hard to eat 2.5-3 lbs a day and we never could eat it all. They made us thirsty. This was a good thing because we wanted to up our water intake. Honestly, I hated potatoes by the end of 5 days. They didn't taste good. They made me parched and I was bored of eating them. I was determined to get through the 7 day goal though and I did but only by water fasting the last two days. To be honest, I still am not the biggest fan of potatoes now almost two years after the potato diet experiment. But, it did do what I wanted it to do which was my first bite of salad after the potato diet was an explosion of flavors in my mouth. There was so much variety and flavor and nothing ever tasted bland again. It broke my craving and gave me a jumpstart. I am glad I did it but I am also glad I never have to do it again because my brain is now programmed to crave healthy foods. This is how I did it and I did incorporate the tips above too. I think the biggest tip I can give you about dietary changes is to work on changing your mindset first. None of these actions will stick in the long term if you don't change your way of thinking. Your mind is powerful and it can be your ally or your enemy.