How We Can Avoid Eating At The Party

Party food is tasty and tempting, but most of your choices are high in fat, calories, salt or sugar. Overeating is easy to do at a party because the food is just sitting there, and you might consume too much without noticing as you mingle and chat. While an occasional indulgence won't harm your health, it's best to take action to avoid eating too much at your next gathering.

Healthy Diet

If your diet is filled with fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, low-fat dairy and whole grains, you are likely getting all the vitamins and minerals you need for good health. These foods provide nutritious ways to fill you up so that you eat less overall. An added bonus of eating a healthy diet is that you are less likely to want to eat unhealthy snacks at parties.

Eat Before You Go

Don't go to a party hungry. If you're famished, you're more likely to head straight to the food table and start eating. Chances are, you won't be eating the most nutritious foods though. Eat a high-fiber or high-protein snack before you go to the party. It's a lot easier to limit party food if you're not hungry. Have an apple with peanut butter or a slice of whole-wheat toast with almond butter. Make three or four whole-grain crackers with cheese or eat a carton of low-fat yogurt with a handful of almonds or walnuts. Sliced vegetables with low-fat ranch dressing is another filling snack that can help prevent you from eating unhealthy foods at the party. Eat your snack slowly. According to a 2009 study published in the "Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism," eating slowly can stop you from eating too much. When your body gets the signal that it's full, you're less likely to keep eating once you get to the party.

Drink Water

Drink plenty of water. Water helps fill your stomach so that you are less likely to feel hungry. It also gives you something to put in your mouth that doesn't contain calories or fat. Mindless eating, which often occurs as you visit with friends at a party, can cause you to consume far more food than you need or even want. Hold a glass of water in your hand instead, and you'll be less likely to mindlessly nibble on the foods at the buffet table.

Move Away

Stay away from the food table. It's easier said than done, but chatting with friends across the room will help prevent you from filling your plate repeatedly with unhealthy foods. Move your conversation outside to keep the buffet table out of sight. MayoClinic.com notes that simply seeing appetizing food is all it may take to tempt you to overeat. If the food is right in front of you and it looks good, you're more likely to eat more than you should. Keeping the food out of your sight is a simple way to keep yourself from eating when you're not hungry.

Tips

Keep healthy foods in your car or purse. Pack an apple, orange or banana. Each of these has a healthy dose of fiber, which fills you up so that you're less likely to be tempted by the buffet table. Fresh vegetables and a peanut butter sandwich on whole-wheat bread are filling options to take along. If you're hungry at the party, excuse yourself, go outside and have the healthy snack you packed before rejoining the party. If you get hungry and must eat at the party, choose vegetable crudites, fruit slices, shrimp cocktail or nuts. Take one small helping of each, eat it slowly and then move away from the food table.

10 Tips : How to Stop Eating Junk Food

It’s 3 p.m. and you’re experiencing that all-too-familiar afternoon slump. It brings on a fierce sugar (or salt or caffeine) craving. You’re not alone. Many people deal with cravings on a frequent, even daily basis.

While succumbing to cravings may seem inevitable in the moment, there are a few simple things you can do to control them. Here are 10 ideas to get you started.

1. Plan ahead

There’s no better way to handle cravings than planning your meals and snacks ahead of time. If you have a healthy meal and snacks packed and ready for you at lunchtime and in the afternoon, you’re far less likely to grab a leftover piece of pizza, order French fries, or eat the sweets someone brought in to the office.

Try to plan out each week’s meals on Sunday, or the day before your workweek starts. Go grocery shopping for what you need. Then prepare large batches of easy foods like brown rice, beans, stir-fried or roasted vegetables, or cold salads. Use food storage containers, mason jars, or foil to pack up serving sizes that you can grab in the morning on your way out the door. Fruits like apples, bananas, and oranges travel well and can be kept on your desk, making them easy afternoon snacks.

2. Shop the perimeter

The perimeter of the grocery store typically includes the produce, dairy, meat, and fish sections. This is where you’ll find real foods, rather than highly processed food products. When you go shopping, try to purchase items only from these sections. If a food item has more than a few ingredients on the label (or ones you can’t pronounce), don’t buy it. This is a key step in transitioning your diet to whole foods.

Over time, your body and palate will get used to :

•  fresh vegetables
• fruit
• grains
• proteins

3. Eat healthy fats

One of the most common nutrition myths is that fat makes you fat. In fact, your body needs fat! However, there are many different types of fat. You should avoid trans fats and limit saturated fats, but heart-healthy fats like nuts and avocado will help you feel full and reduce cravings.

Have a handful of mixed nuts as an afternoon snack. Or you can make a homemade salad dressing with olive oil and vinegar. Adding fresh guacamole or a fatty fish like salmon to your day is also a great way to incorporate healthy, filling fats.

4. Eat enough protein

Protein makes you feel full, often more so than other macronutrients like carbs. Fill your diet with healthy sources of protein including:

•  fish
•  beans
• vegetables
• nuts

5. Try fruit

Fruit has sugar, but it has a lot of vitamins, antioxidants, and water, too. It also contains fiber, which slows and balances out the effects on your blood sugar. This prevents the sugar crash. Once you wean yourself off of manufactured sugar, fruit will taste a lot sweeter and more satisfying to you. Grab a bowl of berries or a piece of watermelon if you’re craving something sweet.

6. Taste the rainbow

Add some new and different foods to your routine. The more varied your diet, the less likely you will get bored or crave junk food. For example, add a new green to your salad (mustard greens, anyone?), or try a new type of fish this week like tuna.

Bonus: Eating diverse foods of many colors boosts your overall health and helps with disease prevention, too. Examples include purple potatoes, red beets, orange carrots, and green kale.

7. Think about junk food differently

A 2013 study showed that when people were trained to look at and interpret one of their most-craved junk foods in a negative light, desire for it lessened. Participants were asked to view the craved food as if:

    they were already feeling very full

    they just saw the food item sneezed on

    they could save the item for later

    they were told about negative consequences of eating the food (stomachache, weight gain)

Your mind is much more powerful than you might think. It can’t hurt to experiment!

8. Focus on adding healthy foods

A study in the journal Nutrients showed that focusing on the positive side of healthy eating is more effective than focusing on the need to remove junk food.

The more healthy foods you add in, the easier it will be to crowd out the unhealthy ones. Stay positive!

9. Work on stress management

There’s almost always an emotional component behind cravings. Sure, you really need the brownie because you like the flavor. Or your blood sugar is low and you need an energy boost. You’re more likely to grab the Cheetos or leftover cookies when you’re upset or stressed by something.

Consider how you may be eating (or drinking) as a way to stuff feelings, distract yourself, or procrastinate. Try to be compassionate to yourself and do some gentle exploration. Practice redirecting yourself when you feel the urge to reach for food instead of doing what needs to be done, or saying what needs to be said.

Healthy stress management tools include:

• taking a walk or run
• yoga
• meditating for a few minutes taking some deep breaths
• talking to a trusted friend or family member
• doing something creative like painting
• journaling

Experiment and find what works best for you. If your stress feels overwhelming, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional. They can offer emotional support and suggest other effective, healthy, non-food coping methods.

10. Get more sleep

Most people don’t get nearly enough sleep. And while you’re probably aware of the effects on your mood or energy level, you may not know that lack of sleep is also thought to play a big role in junk food cravings. A recent study in Sleep showed that sleep restriction resulted in more hunger and less ability to control intake of “palatable snacks.”

So make the effort to turn in a little bit earlier every night. You might also want to stop eating a few hours before you intend to go to bed. A full stomach can cause indigestion and interfere with your ability to fall or stay asleep.

The takeaway

Although our brains are wired to eat a variety of foods, junk food may reduce this desire. This can trap you in a vicious cycle of unhealthy eating. The more you eat junk food, the more you crave it. By following the simple steps, you can break the cycle today and lead a healthier life.

Can Junk Food Give You the Blues?

This is one question researchers set out to answer in a recent study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Many studies have focused on different nutrients as playing a role in mental health, but this group wanted to look at diet patterns as a whole to determine what big things in your diet might be affecting your mood.

The research team, from the University College of London and lead by Dr. Tasnime Akbaraly, used data from a large study called the Whitehall II study, which monitored many social, lifestyle, work and health factors in a group of over 10,000 British civil servants. Dr. Akbaraly’s team focused on evaluating whether what people ate affected their chance of becoming depressed, using a approximately 3,500 people.

The researchers used a food questionnaire to lump dietary patterns into two major groups: a whole foods group (heavily loaded with fruits, vegetables and fish) and a processed food group (heavily loaded with sweets, fried foods, high-fat dairy, processed grains and processed meats). What they found was that those who ate more of the whole foods or less of the process foods were less likely to become depressed.

To test the validity of their findings, they used statistical tools to remove the affects of several of other things that might contribute to depression, including: age, gender, marital status, physical activity, smoking, education level, employment grade, and a host of other medical conditions. After adjusting for all of these, the findings still stood. More people who developed depression had a diet high in processed foods and low in whole foods than people who didn’t become depressed.

These data are interesting because no other studies had really evaluated a ‘pro-depressive’ effect of processed foods. Many studies have shown benefit of individual nutrients, like omega-3s and B vitamins in being protective against depression, but not evaluated diet patterns as a whole or showed that processed foods might increase the odds of depression.

For many people it’s kind of a no-brainer that the foods you eat can affect the way you feel. However, more studies like this one are needed to really make the link between different aspects of the diet and the risk of real depressive disorders, not just blue moods. The more we understand all the factors involved in contributing to depression and related disorders, the more we can do to effectively treat it.

Currently, psychiatrists, nurses and social workers all work together to help people deal with mental illnesses from different angles. Data is emerging, like this study, that suggests if we added nutritionists and exercise professionals into the mix, we could do an even better job.

Studies like this are the only way we can really solidify the science behind a broad treatment approach; and without the data insurance won’t cover it, and without insurance coverage the system won’t change. But do we need to wait for the system to change in order to live better today? No. Eat Well. Your brain will thank you.

How to Kick the Junk Food Habit and Eat Healthy

The good news is that the research shows that the less junk food you eat, the less you crave it. My own experiences have mirrored this. As I’ve slowly begun to eat healthier, I’ve noticed myself wanting pizza and candy and ice cream less and less. Some people refer to this transition period as “gene reprogramming.”

Whatever you want to call it, the lesson is the same: if you can find ways to gradually eat healthier, you’ll start to experience the cravings of junk food less and less. I’ve never claimed to have all the answers (or any, really), but here are three strategies that might help.

1. Use the “outer ring” strategy and the “5 ingredient rule” to buy healthier food.

The best course of action is to avoid buying processed and packaged foods. If you don’t own it, you can’t eat it. Furthermore, if you don’t think about it, you can’t be lured by it.

We’ve talked about the power of junk food to pull you in and how memories of tasty food in the past can cause you to crave more of it in the future. Obviously, you can’t prevent yourself from ever thinking about junk food, but there are ways to reduce your cravings.

First, you can use my “outer ring” strategy to avoid processed and packaged foods at the grocery store. If you limit yourself to purchasing foods that are on the outer ring of the store, then you will generally buy whole foods (fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, etc.). Not everything on the outer ring is healthy, but you will avoid a lot of unhealthy foods.

You can also follow the “5 ingredient rule” when buying foods at the store. If something has more than 5 ingredients in it, don’t buy it. Odds are, it has been designed to fool you into eating more of it. Avoid those products and stick with the more natural options.

2. Eat a variety of foods.

As we covered earlier, the brain craves novelty.

While you may not be able to replicate the crunchy/creamy contrast of an Oreo, you can vary your diet enough to keep things interesting. For example, you could dip a carrot (crunchy) in some hummus (creamy) and get a novel sensation. Similarly, finding ways to add new spices and flavors to your dishes can make eating healthy foods a more desirable experience.

Moral of the story: eating healthy doesn’t have to be bland. Mix up your foods to get different sensations and you may find it easier than eating the same foods over and over again. (At some point, however, you may have to fall in love with boredom.)

3. Find a better way to deal with your stress.

There’s a reason why many people eat as a way to cope with stress. Stress causes certain regions of the brain to release chemicals (specifically, opiates and neuropeptide Y). These chemicals can trigger mechanisms that are similar to the cravings you get from fat and sugar. In other words, when you get stressed, your brain feels the addictive call of fat and sugar and you’re pulled back to junk food.

We all have stressful situations that arise in our lives. Learning to deal with stress in a different way can help you overcome the addictive pull of junk food. This could include simple breathing techniques or a short guided meditation. Or something more physical like exercise or making art.

Why Do People Eat Fast Food?

Food that is supplied quickly after placing an order with minimal service is often referred to as fast-food.

Although fast food is widely criticized for its high calorie content and perceived poor quality, it is eaten by millions of people every year.The reasons behind the popularity of fast food range from convenience through to brand familiarity. Whilst there are certainly negative consequences of eating certain types of fast food, there is nothing to say that the concept of fast food in itself is necessarily bad.

The reasons people eat fast food
Love it or loathe it, fast food is certainly very popular. The fast food industry is thought to be worth a staggering $1.5 billion in the US alone.

Based on this, there must be something fundamentally appealing about fast food that makes it so popular. In my opinion, the main reasons people eat fast food are:

·         Economically priced food
·         Speed and efficiency of service
·         Brand familiarity
·         Representative of popular cuisine


The fast food economy 
One of the main reasons people flock to fast food restaurants is because they are often seen as an economic and hassle-free way to enjoy a meal.

The way fast food chains keep their prices relatively low is by producing their food on a large scale. This reduces the cost of purchasing and preparing the food, and means that they can afford to charge relatively-low prices whilst still maintaining a significant profit margin.

There is a lot of criticism out there aimed at the way the fast food industry is run. One particular target of contempt is the wage structure of many fast food companies- where executives and owners of companies earn huge sums, whilst many of their employees work for a minimum hourly rate.

Speed of fast food
By mass-producing a relatively small menu, fast food restaurants are able to provide warm meals very quickly without encountering a significant loss through wastage. The idea of being able to order at a counter, receive your meal within seconds, and not have to worry about waiting to be seated, served or asking for a cheque means that fast food restaurants are often the first choice for many diners who are in a rush.

Fast food brands
The branding of fast food chains is a major factor in their success. Imagine being out on the road, or wondering about an unfamiliar town or country. If you're looking for somewhere to eat, you may want to play it safe and stick to what you know.

Fast food companies have built an industry of making sure they are 'what we know' through aggressive advertising and marketing strategies. Essentially, knowing what you're going to get from a fast food brand means you are more likely to pick them over a competitor you don't know anything about.

From a customers point of view, it is useful to know that you can count on a fast food restaurant to provide certain things. Advantages that familiarity of a fast food restaurant includes:

·         Familiarity with the menu
·         Child-friendly environment
·         Ability to easily estimate the cost of a meal through knowledge of their pricing

Junk Food vs. Healthy Nutrition For Children

For many parents, helping children develop healthy eating habits is a struggle. With the hectic pace of many families' lives and with more women working full time, even health-conscious parents are finding it easy to tolerate less than desirable eating habits.

"A lot of parents don't want to struggle with the issues so they give up, letting kids make their own choices," says Jane Rees, director of nutrition service/education in adolescent medicine and lecturer in pediatrics at the University of Washington schools of Medicine and Public Health. "But children's judgment is less mature and they still depend on parents to guide them."

It is best to start training children about foods as soon as they can talk since they are most influenced by their families during the preschool years. Additionally, research has shown that heart and blood vessel disease can begin very early and that hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis or atherosclerosis) can be associated with a high-fat diet.

Parents should carefully read food labels to check nutrients and ingredients. Most kids are attracted to the advertising and packaging of food, including highly sugared cereals. Rees suggests fitting them in occasionally as a treat in an overall diet that is focused on low sugar, low fat, and unprocessed foods.

Although it's a myth that children become hyperactive by eating too much sugar, sugary food is still bad for oral health, can be stored as fat, and aggravates diabetes, says Rees. However, completely denying children sugar will only make it more tempting.

Rees suggests involving young children in the food preparation process. For example, teach children how to set the table during their preschool years. Take them grocery shopping. Let them choose some fruits and vegetables as well as the occasional treats, advises Rees. "You will see their capabilities grow astronomically," she says. "However, if parents don't follow the natural signs that kids are ready to help, they will lose the window of opportunity."

Developing children's attitude toward food should be similar to teaching them how to handle money -- by giving them growing responsibility along with sensible access. If children are properly prepared, they are more likely to make healthy food choices once they enter school. They will probably experiment some, but they will have a preference for fresh foods like fruits and vegetables along with foods like french fries, says Rees.

What about changing the diet of children who have already fallen into the junk food habit? Once children reach age 10 or 12, it is very difficult to change their habits or coerce them into eating healthier foods. Rees suggests calling a family meeting to rationally discuss ways to eliminate most junk foods and substitute more nutritious ones. If they learn to eat a well-balanced diet, they won't need vitamin supplements, she says.

"Nutritional guidance won't work unless you have built up good sense (of nutrition) over time," says Rees. "However, even children who have developed a taste for nutritious food may change when they reach teenage years. Teenagers like to experiment with everything, including risky food behavior. They might gravitate toward highly processed foods, but once they become older and more independent they are likely to return to the healthy habits they had growing up."

Other common problems among teenagers include girls who may view food as a threat to slimness, or boys who take muscle-building supplements. About 25 to 40% of teenagers are overweight, mostly from lack of exercise in combination with eating too much fat and sugar. This problem can turn into an emotional one and become a vicious circle -- eating, or starving, to cope with unhappiness.

"If you see a real eating problem and there is anger and conflict," advises Rees, "seek professional intervention." Helpful support of family, friends and healthcare professionals is the best method for addressing eating disorders.

Eating Junk Food

What is the problem about?

Foods that contain more oils or sugar or are fried or roasted with little or almost no nutritional value are considered junk foods. They lack in proteins, vitamins and fiber. For many parents, helping children develop healthy eating habits is a struggle. Because of their enhanced flavour, children are tempted to eat more of them to the extent of avoiding homemade food. Consumption of junk food has been associated with obesity, heart disease, diabetes and dental cavities in children. Children habitual of eating junk food tend to avoid healthy staple foods like chapattis, rice, dal, vegetables and fruits and miss on essential nutrients required for growth and development.

Signs/symptoms to look for

Children more attracted towards junk food from the market. They avoid healthy homemade food. They avoid fruits and vegetables. They argue quite often that home-cooked food has no taste.

Causes

If you set aside all the negative aspects, junk food contains lots of flavours to tickle the taste buds of children and grown-ups alike. Hence, the root cause of children opting for junk food is the use of this kind of food by the parents themselves. Working mothers find junk food an easy way to silence intermittent bouts of hunger of their children. This saves them from the trouble of cooking the food themselves. Another reason for children yearning for junk food is excessive pampering by the parents and always allowing them to have their way in consuming junk food. Television ads depicting junk food in a delicious and tantalising form also act as boosters for increasing appetite for junk food. Sometimes eating out junk food in a particular restaurant or eatery gives children a false pride among friends.

Solutions

This is more of a habitual problem. Usually it can be eliminated by changing some of your and your children’s habits. However, in worse cases, wisdom from Ayurveda can successfully be applied to minimise eating junk food. It is best to start training children about foods as soon as they can talk since they are most influenced by their family during the preschool years. If children are properly prepared, they are more likely to make healthy food choices once they enter school. They will probably experiment with some junk food, but they will have a preference for fresh foods like fruits and vegetables along with burgers and French fries. Take the trouble of cooking regularly at home and serve home-made food in an attractive way. Try to minimise the intake of junk food yourself as well.