For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Health Issues page and our Appetite For a Change page.

Americans’ reliance on processed foods and snacks is undoubtedly one of the primary factors driving our skyrocketing obesity and disease rates. Even many people who “know better” have trouble keeping their hands out of the Doritos.

In 2005 alone, Americans spent a staggering $60 billion on snack foods!1 Sugar and salt cravings are often blamed for snack attacks, but how can you stop them?

The truth is, processed foods contain carefully orchestrated flavors and other sensory factors designed to be as addictive as possible. This is in stark contrast to whole foods, the taste and consistency of which was created by nature and therefore work with your body to satiate hunger and nutritional cravings.

As discussed in a previous article, junk food manufacturers have taken flavor science to extraordinary levels, and the artificial ingredients used to produce that sought after “bliss point” can seriously confuse and befuddle your body’s metabolism.

For example, the sweetness from non-caloric artificial sweeteners tends to disrupt your metabolic response to real sugar,2 thereby
exacerbating obesity and diabetes. Your body simply isn’t fooled by sweet taste without calories, so it keeps signaling your brain to keep eating, as the point of satisfaction has not yet been reached.

Fortunately, there are solutions to unhealthy junk food cravings. One of the most effective strategies I know of is intermittent fasting, along with particular diet modifications that effectively helps reset your body’s metabolism.

Another helpful technique, which addresses the emotional component of food cravings, is the Emotional Freedom Technique, demonstrated in a video below.