CARNIVORE DIET

LOVE OF JUNK FOOD?

Updated on 4 min read

You wanted to go Carnivore, but it’s not quite working out thanks to a love of junk food? Sure, you will go for a week or so, and then on the weekend, you give in to your favorite junk food filled with sugar, artificial coloring and preservatives. Monday, you are promising yourself to get back on track and this time you will succeed. If this scenario sounds familiar, you are dealing with a junk food addiction.

love of junk food

IS JUNK FOOD ADDICTION REAL?

In the scientific community there is an ongoing debate whether food addiction is real.  Some firmly believe that a combo of fats and sugar are highly addictive. Some say we are evolutionary conditioned to prefer the sweet taste. If you search the web, you will inevitably run into an experiment where rats were given sugar and cocaine. The brains of rats that were fed sugar were showing higher addiction than the ones that got cocaine. 

Check out this link.

if you have a casual conversation with people, they will often acknowledge that they can’t live without their chocolate, ice cream, donuts, or macaroni and cheese. I think it is fair to say that most people believe you can get addicted to food, and just about all of it is junk. The man in the street knows. 

TELL-TELL SIGNS OF JUNK FOOD ADDICTION

These are tell- tell signs of junk food addiction: 

  1. Eating until you feel uncomfortably full
  • Eating to soothe your emotions, or after stressful day or event. 
  • Preferring to eat alone because you don’t want people to see how much you can devour
  • Getting annoyed if somebody else wants to eat your treat
  • Eating fast and past satiety feeling ecstatic in the moment
  • But then feeling depressed and disgusted with yourself after the binge is over

If you checked yes to any three of the above, you are likely a junk food addict.

Check out my video version of this post here:

ADDICTED TO STEAK?

You probably want to know if you can be addicted to say steak or bacon. The short answer is NO. It was demonstrated in number of experiments. There seem to be 5000 calorie limits on meat you can eat. Unless you break it up with something sweet and carby, your body will tell you to stop. 

On the other hand, to get in 5000 calories in chocolate, donuts, some large, sweet drinks is no big deal at all. And you are likely to be ravenous couple hours later all over again.

HOW TO BREAK THE ADDICTION

Here are simple actionable steps you can take to break the addiction: 

  1. Take a look in the mirror and acknowledge the problem. Catch yourself in the act. Next time you are sitting with a bag of Doritos, fries, and beer, tell yourself: ” I have a problem”
  2. Approach is as an illness and that you will treat yourself as though you were in the junk food addiction ward.
  1. Eliminate temptations, create friction/obstacles to obtaining your favorite comfort foods.
  2. Get on the Carnivore Diet. It is one of the very few diets that allows you to eat to satiety, without you feeling deprived. Forget portion control. It will never work for junk food addiction.
  3. Don’t allow cheat meals or rewards. 
  4. Allow yourself to be on Carnivore Diet for six months before you make any adjustments to your eating. Changing your gut microbiome and addressing nutritional deficiencies will change your brain chemistry and the addiction to junk food simply won’t be there. Your body will naturally seek healthy foods, but you need to give it time. 
  5. Get help, join a group, get a coach, like myself and feel supported. 
  6. Have a plan to battle cravings and triggers. I have a video dedicated to strategies for cravings, check it out here:

FINAL THOUGHTS

Most people know when they have a love of junk food addiction problems. The turning point is when you decide to do something about it.  It’s not a walk in the park, but you must do it to achieve health.

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