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Aug 23,2021
That crunchy texture on outside and light and smooth on inside of a french fry, that sizziling sound of fizz while pouring soda into your glass, that little dance your tongue does when licking that creamy mayonnaise or peanut butter, that creamy part between two crispy oreo cookie- feels heaven to have them plated infront of you right?
Well, do I even need to mention the fact that it's "unhealthy"? High in calories, sugars, fats, contain little dietary fibres, protiens, and of other nutritional value- all the things that your body doesn't require, it's abundantly available in junk foods. These are also called HFSS (high in fat, salt and sugar) foods. Deep fried foods, potato chips, Soda drinks, nachos, forzen foods top the list of junk foods while, pizza, burgers, fruits juices, sausages, BBQs,cake frosting, cookies and a lot more follow-up the list simultaneously. To my surprise, even bottled water, which is preferred rather than tap water, is considered a junk food. And, oats- yes, you heard me!-the same oats you consume daily as a part of your diet plan, is categorized as junk food.
Suppose you were given unlimited amount of packaged foods, or basically junk foods, for a day. You would still crave for it more- there's is never a stop to our cravings for such foods, be it proven unhealthy or anything else. Ever wondered why?
I asked some of the people in my circle about this and below are there responses.
Clearly, it's all about taste and satisfaction!!
This brings us to a term "orosensation"-how it feels in your mouth. Your brain captures that particular stimuli coming from that particular taste and that's what makes you crave those foods more. Thus, food manufacturers spend more in finding that "bliss point" for your satisfaction- to make you come back for more.
Apart from taste, our cravings has direct link to our ancestral behaviors. Since the Paleolithic era (hunting and gathering), our brain has high place for HFSS intake. As there was uncertainty of food then, eating as much as you can was the best strategy for survival. As civilization occured, food started becoming abudant enough to fulfill our daily requirement, but our cravings- it remained the same as it was 50 thousand years ago. Intaking high calorific foods is no more considered healthy.
Although it's all due to irresistibilitye of our brain and habits followed since ages, we can try switching to eat healthy, taking our cravings side-by-side. For instance, if you crave for something crunchy and creamy- instead of pizza or chips, go for carrot (crunchy) and blended-avocado (creamy). Find healthy alternatives to your unhealthy cravings and stay fit, healthy and young!!
For more clarification, you can visit a blog written by James Clear: