At a basic level, eating healthy is really easy; eat real food, don’t eat junk food. Sounds simple right? But, as you can imagine, it’s not always that simple. Why? Because junk food is literally engineered to make you eat it, overeat it, and want more of it more often. Even with the best intentions, many people struggle to say no to junk foods because they are just so addictive. The truth is, there are many reasons why junk food is so hard to stop eating. So, let’s discuss why junk food is so addictive and what you can do about it.

Junk Food is Actually not “Food”

The first thing that is important to understand is that although these junk foods are referred to as “food” they are in fact not food at all. In my opinion, junk foods are food-like products that resemble food and may contain food, but they are not food themselves. Real food comes from one of two places; plants or animals, and that’s it. Real food is from Mother Nature, it grows on the land, grazes on the grass, flies in the skies, or swims in the waters. Real food does not have a barcode nor does it have ingredients, because real food is ingredients. On the contrary, “junk food”, just as the name implies, is junk. It is defined as “pre-prepared or packaged food that has low nutritional value” and is also referred to as processed food. The catch? It often tastes great.

You’re Up Against more than Just the Food

When you eat junk food, you may think you are just eating a handful of chips, a cookie, or a few candies, but you are actually eating much more than that, you are eating something that has been chemically engineered to make you want more of it. When you eat these foods you are not only up against the food itself, you are up against food science experts, brands, and companies whose sole purpose is to create foods that people will love, and want more of, so they can make a profit. The time and energy that companies put into creating junk food are about more than just creating something that tastes good, it is a precise science that considers addictive behaviors, large studies, marketing practices, and finding the exact combination of taste, texture, color, and design to get you to eat more.

Food manufacturers spend millions of dollars to create products that reach the “bliss point”; the point at which the ingredients are optimized to deliciousness to keep you coming back for more. The bliss point of food is the exact balance of salt, sugar, fat, and flavors that isn’t too much, but isn’t too little, and leaves your brain craving more. In fact, this is just one of the many tools that food engineers use to create highly addictive forms of processed food. Manufacturers consider crunch point (the formula to get the perfect crunch), salivary response (the formula to make you salivate), dynamic contrast (the combination of different sensations in food), as well as something called “vanishing caloric density”. Vanishing caloric density, described in the book Why Humans Like Junk Food by food scientist Steven Witherly, involves creating foods that literally melt in your mouth, and the best example of this is Cheetos. These puffy air-like snacks melt in your mouth the moment you eat them “tricking” your brain to think no calories were consumed which encourages you to eat more of them. So, you may think you are just eating a handful of chips, a cookie, or a few candies as an enjoyable treat, but what you are eating is designed to do a lot more than that.

Junk Food vs. Your Mood, Feelings, and Brain

Our bodies are equipped with natural built-in systems that tell us when we are hungry, when we are not hungry, when to eat more, and when to stop eating, however, junk food is designed in a way that overrides all of those built-in systems. To no surprise, eating junk food can bring a great deal of pleasure, and it can stimulate your body’s reward system. This system was designed to “reward” you when you do things that encourage survival, including eating, and when this happens your brain releases feel-good chemicals, including dopamine. The brain is hardwired to seek behaviors that stimulate the reward system, however, the problem with junk food is that it can stimulate this system in a way that is far more powerful than the one you would get from whole foods.

“The time and energy that companies put into creating junk food are about more than just creating something that tastes good, it is a precise science that considers addictive behaviors, large studies, marketing practices and finding the exact combination of taste, texture, color, and design to get you to eat more.”

Let’s look at an example. Potatoes are a whole food, they are grown in the dirt on the land, while potato chips are a processed food version of potatoes, they are made in a factory and come in a bag. Although potato chips may be made from potatoes, they are not potatoes themselves. So, if you were given the option to eat plain boiled potatoes vs. potato chips, which do you think you could eat more of? I am willing to bet that most people could easily eat an entire bag of potato chips but would struggle to eat multiple plain potatoes.

As we eat junk food, the brain neurons pump out more and more dopamine, giving us a feeling of pleasure. When released, dopamine fits into receptors in the brain, much like a key fits into a lock, and when the fit is right the pleasure is sensed. However, when you consume junk food a strange thing happens; the body’s nervous system curbs the activity of the receptors, a form of protective physiological reaction to an abnormal level of dopamine activity, meaning you need more junk food (to produce more dopamine) to stimulate this same level of reward. So, while eating a chicken breast and salad might stimulate a moderate release of dopamine, eating a pint of ice cream will release massive amounts of dopamine making it seem more rewarding.

Not only do these foods stimulate our reward centers, but they also influence our insulin, leptin, and ghrelin response, and this becomes problematic in our modern environment as junk food is easily and readily available. Leptin is known as the gatekeeper of our appetite whose role is to signal to the body when it is full, while ghrelin and insulin also influence how much you eat and when. Unfortunately, junk food works to override all of these natural systems making it very difficult for the body to recognize when you are actually hungry or actually full.

The Power of Marketing

Although most of us think we are too smart to be duped by marketing, that is often not the case. Commercials of happy people eating delicious treats, food packaging with bright and vibrant colors, and engaging in-store displays at eye level are all things that play into our desire to eat junk food. We are constantly bombarded with videos and images of delicious foods reminding us to eat whether we are hungry or not. Often this is occurring on a subconscious level and we don’t even recognize it happening. That’s why you can be watching TV, see a commercial, and all of a sudden feel hungry. That’s why you can be sitting in an office meeting, not even thinking about food, but when the donuts show up you just have to eat one. Much like food engineering, a lot of money goes into marketing junk food to us simply because there is big profit to be made.

The Influence on Habits and Rituals

Another way that junk food companies try to influence our food choices is by creating habits and rituals out of eating their foods. Not only do they play on our taste buds but they play on our emotions and feelings. Do you really have to eat popcorn at the movies, hot dogs at the baseball game, and pizza on a Friday night, or have you just been conditioned to think that you should? Food manufacturers work to create associations between certain foods and certain activities so that eventually these associations get so ingrained that it almost seems like it was our idea in the first place and foolish to not eat those things at those times. Some of these patterns become so hardwired that when you do see these specific foods, or even think about them, your brain begins to trigger the memories and emotional response that came along with it, encouraging you to do it again. This is the psychology of junk food.

The Bottom Line

Food companies spend millions of dollars on research, development, and marketing to make junk foods highly addictive. These people are not evil, it is simply the reality of business and the current state of our food industry, however, it is not an excuse or a pass to continue to eat them. Of course, enjoying a treat from time to time is absolutely fine, but it is important to keep in mind that every time that you buy these foods you are funding more research, development, and marketing on the exact same foods that are already so highly addictive. Although it may not seem like it at the time, as a consumer you are in fact in the driver’s seat; you have the power to decide what you want to see more of, and what you want to see less of. For those who struggle with serious food addiction, it is important that you seek professional help, however, for those that don’t, you are already in a position of power. So, the next time you are out buying groceries pay attention to where you are spending and investing your money because every purchase is a vote for what you want to see more of.

There is a large misconception that tracking your food only needs to be done if you are trying to lose weight. The reality is, many people can benefit from tracking their food regardless of what their health goals are or if they are working on one at all. So, here are 11 reasons you should track your food and how you can benefit from doing so.

Keeping a food log is the first thing I ask my clients to do because you can learn a lot about your habits, patterns, energy levels, digestive issues, skin issues, or what you are eating a lot of (or not a lot of) by simply tracking your food. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think you need to track your food forever, but even a few days, a week, or a month can bring a lot of awareness to your personal food choices and shine some light on what you are actually eating, not what you think you are eating.

Benefits of Tracking Your Food

Whether you choose to use a notepad, a spreadsheet, or an app, here are some important benefits of tracking your food.

1. Creates Awareness

The number of times I have asked someone “what did you eat today?” and the person is unable to answer is countless. Too often we are just eating and not actually paying attention to what we are eating, let alone how much we ate, how we ate it, where we ate it, when we ate it and why we ate it. More often than not people think they are eating much better than they actually are, but when you have to put pen to paper the facts don’t lie. Be it a notepad or an app, tracking your food can truly help to bring a whole new level of awareness and mindfulness to your diet.

2. Creates Accountability

Being accountable to someone, be it for work, at the gym, or for your diet, is a really helpful way to ensure that you stay consistent with your choices and, the reality is, the person you need to be the most accountable to is yourself. Although it may seem rather insignificant, tracking your food forces you to think twice about what you put in your mouth and therefore helps hold you more accountable to your own goals.

3. Shows You What You Are Doing Well

Keeping a food log is not only about discovering what you are doing poorly, it can actually help show you what you are doing well so you can ensure you continue to do it. Perhaps you eat more vegetables than you thought or are really consistent at drinking water, whatever it may be these good habits are often reinforced by keeping a food log and are something that you can (and should) feel good about.

4. Shows You What You Are Not Doing Well

In reality, there is nothing wrong with finding flaws in your diet, it’s actually a good thing because it helps you identify what you need to work on. I often refer to them as “areas of opportunity”, they are not “bad”, they are just things that you can improve upon. Often mistakes, errors, or failures are the things that propel people to the biggest successes, but being able to identify them is the first step to improving them.

5. Shows You How Much You Eat

Tracking your food is also a great way to identify how much you are actually eating. Are you eating too much? Are you eating enough? Surprisingly, although some people do over-eat, some people actually under-eat as well. The first step to eating well is focusing on whole foods, the next steps are paying attention to how much you eat and what balance of macronutrients (carbs, protein, and fat) you are eating. Using an app to track your food can help paint you a picture and show you if you are eating the right amount of the right things.

6. Shows You How Often You Eat

As you go through the day it’s really easy to eat a handful of nuts here, an extra slice of cheese there, and a spoonful of peanut butter over there, and then before you know it you’ve eaten way more food than you indented. Often people think they just ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but forget about all of the little items they grabbed in between as they walked past the kitchen, were watching TV, or while they were cooking dinner. Not only does tracking your food help you pay attention to what you are eating in your meals, but helps you identify all of the little things you are putting in your mouth without even realizing it.

7. Helps With Weight Loss

People often tell me they are doing “all the right things” but for some reason, they just can’t seem to lose weight, however, as soon as they start tracking their food they begin to see the holes in the “perfect” plan. Perhaps they weren’t eating enough protein. Perhaps they were eating too much fruit. Perhaps they weren’t drinking enough water. Perhaps they were eating too much. Perhaps they were eating too often. Or perhaps they were eating well during the week, but not on weekends. Whatever the reason may be, tracking your food is an essential tool for weight loss as it tells you exactly what you are doing, allows you to track your progress, and make adjustments where needed.

8. Helps Detect Food Intolerances

Bloated? Gassy? Tummy always feeling a little off? Different people react differently to different foods, so keeping a food log is a great way to help identify what may be affecting you individually. It’s actually not “normal” to feel uncomfortable after you eat, struggle to go to the washroom regularly, or have to go urgently all of the time. So, if you are accustomed to tummy troubles but can’t seem to figure out why, tracking your food and noting how you feel each day is a great way to start to connect the dots.

9. Helps Identify Patterns

Often things we think are unrelated to what we eat are actually more related than we realize. Being hungry mid-morning, being tired in the afternoon, and having cravings in the evening are all things (just to name a few) that can be related to what, where, when, and how we ate. Perhaps you never eat much for breakfast and that’s why you struggle to make it to lunch, or perhaps you always have a carb-heavy lunch so you always crave something sweet in the afternoon. Regardless of the reason, keeping a food log can help you to identify these patterns so you can adjust them.

10. Helps Identify Triggers

Reach for a snack when you are bored at work? Reach for a treat when you are stressed? Tracking your food forces you to be mindful of your food choices and why you are making them, so it can help you dive deep into the why behind what you are eating. Do you always open the fridge when you walk in the house? Do you always go to the pantry looking for a snack after dinner? Often our food cues have absolutely nothing to do with actual hunger and everything to do with cravings, our environment, and how we are feeling.

11. Allows You To Reflect On Progress

The best part about tracking your food is that you can look back and reflect on your progress. Changing your diet and food habits is hard so when you do make progress it is important that you celebrate it, even the smallest changes. Not only will tracking your food help you to celebrate these important milestones but reflecting on your success is added motivation to keep going.

The Bottom Line

If you’ve never done so before, or are currently struggling to reach a health goal, I highly suggest giving a food log a go. Whether you are writing in a journal, keeping notes on your computer, or using an app like MyFitnessPal, a little tracking goes a long way in taking your diet and your health to the next level.

For years, we’ve been told to avoid foods that contain cholesterol; we’ve been told to limit egg yolks, avoid fatty cuts of meat, and put down the butter. Cholesterol has been demonized as an artery-clogging substance, said to be the cause of heart disease, and has been vilified by doctors and health professionals for over 40 years, but, what if we got it all wrong? The truth is, several decades ago the story of cholesterol took a wrong turn and it’s time to bring it back. In fact, what we have come to realize is that dietary cholesterol does not equal blood cholesterol, and there is actually a big difference between the two. So, it’s time to rethink cholesterol, understand its functions, how it works, and the benefits of having cholesterol in your diet.

What is cholesterol?

Although often considered a fat, cholesterol is technically classified as a sterol, which is a combination of a steroid and alcohol. Cholesterol is an essential structural component of cell membranes, a necessary precursor for sex and stress hormones, and synthesizing bile salts, which help to break down and emulsify fats, which aid in metabolizing vitamins A, D, E and K from the food we consume.

It is also important to understand that although cholesterol can be found in certain foods, the body itself produces cholesterol. On any given day, we have between 1,100 and 1,700 milligrams of cholesterol in our body, up to 85% of which is actually produced by the body in our liver.  In fact, because cholesterol is so vital to human life, your body will produce cholesterol in response to what you eat. The body tightly regulates the amount of cholesterol in our blood by controlling its internal production; when cholesterol intake in the diet goes down, the body makes more cholesterol, and when cholesterol intake in the diet goes up, the body makes less cholesterol. In other words, trying to avoid cholesterol in your food has little to no impact on your body’s cholesterol levels since it will simply regulate its own needs.

The Vital Roles of Cholesterol

Although for years we have been told to avoid cholesterol, it turns out that, not only is cholesterol as harmful as it was thought to be, but cholesterol has many important functions in the body, including:

• Formation of cell walls;
• Making the cell walls waterproof for protection;
• Repairing wounds, including tears and irritations in the arteries;
• Creation of vital hormones, including sex hormones;
• Creation of bile salts, needed for the digestion of fats;
• Function of the brain and nervous system;
• Acting as a precursor for vitamin D, formed by the action of ultra-violet (UV-B) light on cholesterol in the skin;
• Protection against depression; it plays a role in the utilization of serotonin, the body’s “feel-good” chemical;
• Protection as an antioxidant against free radicals and cancer;
• Absorption of fats and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K)

Cholesterol & Heart Disease

However, because cholesterol and heart disease has been so tightly linked for decades it is easy to understand why the concept that cholesterol is beneficial can be tough for many to grasp. The fear of cholesterol began in the 1940s and 50s when the diet-heart hypothesis began to unfold, and the fear of saturated fat and cholesterol began. This theory was launched by a researcher named Ancel Keys who is said to have linked heart disease with the consumption of saturated fat and cholesterol. However, as it turns out, his research and findings were heavily flawed and remained undisputed for many years, and despite the fact that they have been debunked many times, the concept that saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for you remains one of the biggest nutrition myths of all time.

Although a picture has been painted of cholesterol accumulating in the bloodstream, it is crucial to understand that you don’t have a cholesterol level directly in your blood.  Cholesterol is fat-soluble and our blood is primarily composed of water, in other words, they don’t mix well. In order for cholesterol to be transported around the body in the blood, it has to be carried by special proteins called lipoproteins. These lipoproteins are classified according to their density; two of the most important in cardiovascular disease are low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). LDL, known as “bad cholesterol”, carries cholesterol from the liver to the cells of the body, while HDL, known as “good cholesterol”, carries cholesterol from the cells of the body to the liver where it is eliminated as waste.

Consider this analogy, if your bloodstream is like a highway, cholesterol is the passengers on the highway, while the lipoproteins are the vehicles carrying them. It used to be believed that it was the total number of passengers on the highway (i.e. total cholesterol) that was problematic, however, it is now understood that it is the total number of vehicles  (i.e. total LDL vs. HDL) on the highway that is problematic, not the number of passengers. The more vehicles you have on your highway the more prone you are the back-ups and accidents. So, if 200 hundred passengers are traveling in 4 buses, there will be far less traffic and accidents than if 200 passengers were traveling in 200 vehicles.

Our arteries are essentially hollow tubes with a very thin lining and our blood is in constant contact with this lining. Therefore, going back to our analogy, the more vehicles (lipoproteins) there are on the road, the more prone they will be to crashes and running into (damaging) our artery lining. The kicker? Because cholesterol is vital in the creation and protection of cell membranes, when these “crashes” occur, cholesterol arrives at the site of the accident to repair the damage to the lining. So, although cholesterol may be present in the arteries at the “crash” sites, it is a symptom, not the cause.

But, knowing this, it does beg the question, what is causing the damage? To answer that question you need to go to the root, and the root of the cause is inflammation. If cholesterol is nature’s repair substance, you need to look at what is causing the original damage, and the original damage is caused by inflammation. What exactly is causing the inflammation? That can vary from person to person based on diet and lifestyle factors, and include; alcohol, smoking, stress, lack of activity, consumption of trans fats and vegetable oils, consumption of refined carbohydrates, and excess consumption of refined sugar. Of course, there are some people with rare genetic disorders or diseases, but in many cases, inflammation can be managed through diet and lifestyle factors.

So, by following conventional guidelines of opting for low-fat foods, vegetable oils, egg whites, and refined grain products you actually end up doing far more harm than good. Why? Because it is these exact types of foods that contribute to inflammation, which causes more damage. Instead, it is best to focus on a diet of whole foods, and that should include foods that contain cholesterol. It is ideal to consume fresh fruit, fiber-rich vegetables, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds, whole grains, whole eggs, seafood, and meat, not to mention managing stress, getting adequate sleep, and staying active. It is these whole foods that are rich in essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals, and essential lifestyle factors that help to reduce inflammation, as opposed to causing it and then asking cholesterol to come to repair the damage.

The Bottom Line

The reality is, cholesterol is not a demon or the cause of heart disease, it is actually a nutrient that is vital for our health. Not only does it not significantly affect blood levels, but it is no longer considered a “nutrient of concern” when it comes to heart disease. That is not to say that you can eat all of the fat and cholesterol-based foods you possibly can, but at the end of the day, you should be far more concerned about your sugar-laden granola bars than any little old egg yolk.