What are 10 easy tricks to stop cravings for food?

These have all been tested in research:

1) Tap your forehead (distraction)

2) Change how you think (MRI scans show that people who think about the ill effects of poor eating, increase the activity in the part of the brain responsible for self-regulation.

3) Play a computer game for 3 minutes (based on Elaborated Intrusion Theory)

4) Imagine colours, smells, sounds which will ground you in present time.

5) Surround yourself with pictures of food (The Instagram Diet).

6) Go for a walk (or any physical activity).

7) Eat protein rich breakfasts.

8) Chew gum.

9) Sleep well (frontol lobes which help provide self-control are less active in the sleep deprived)

10) Pay attention to your emotions.

What is the Instagram diet?

A study by Dr Ryan Elder found that looking at pictures of a particular food, can make that food less enjoyable to eat.

The more pictures of a certain food one looks at, the less pleasure one gains from eating it.

The implication is that if one craves, let's say chocolate, to spend time every day looking at pictures of chocolate. Eventually the cravings to eat and gain pleasure from it will diminish.

The old saying: "Out of sight, out of mind" no longer applies.

Can imagining eating a specific food decease a craving for it?

A study found that imagining eating a specific food, let's say ice cream, can decrease the cravings for that food.

This idea is counterintuitive, as most people think that to suppress thoughts of a particular food, will eliminate cravings for it.

The key is to imagine eating a specific food, rather than thinking about that food. Imagine the feel of smooth ice cream in your mouth.  Imagine your favourite flavour, like chocolate....or the smell of strawberry ice cream. Imagine the coldness of ice cream  with your first spoon full.

Eating the food you crave, in your mind... with your imagination...will  decreases the motivation to eat that food, and also creates boredom with it.

Why does eating a protein rich breakfast help reduce cravings?

1) Protein takes loger to metabolize in the body, therefore one feels fuller (satiated) longer after eating protein.

2) Protein boosts levels of  dopamine in the brain which regulates cravings.

3) Protein reduces brain signals controlling food motivation and reward driven eating behaviour.

The worst thing someone could do is skip breakfast altogether.

Is food addictive?

A recent study on 120 University of Michigan students found that the more processed the food, the more addictive it was. Highly processed foods (that is, added fats and/or refined carbs) are altered specifically to be rewarding and therefore trigger the addictive-like response in the human brain.

What are hunger hormones?

The three hunger hormones are

insulin
ghrelin
leptin

They must be kept in balance for healthy weight management.

Insulin is the hormone which allows the cells to take sugar/glucose from the blood and use it as energy. If your body is insulin resistant , meaning that the cells don't take up sugar/glucose from the blood, the pancreas will secrete more insulin after eating a high sugar meal, because the cells aren't getting their glucose. The "starving" cells generate the signal to eat more carbohydrates, which is experienced as a carb craving, sweet tooth, or a gnawing desire to eat.

Ghrelin is the hormone which makes you feel hungry. Leptin lowers appetite. If your diet ( protein, fat, carbohydrates) is out of balance,  the body does not receive proper signams to stop eating.

A study from the University of Washington in 2007 (David Cummings) found that proteins suppressed appetite, fats had no effect on appetite, and carbohydrates initially lowered appetite but then rebounded with a much stronger appetite.

Researchers also found that sleep deprivation altered appetite. Essentially that sleep deprivation increases hunger levels as well as slows metabolism.

What is Neuroadaptation?

This term refers to the process  of our senses getting used to sensations because of the way our sensory nerves and brain interact.  When we ease into a tub of very hot water, we slowly adapt until the temperature feels normal. When we enter a room with a humming fridge, we soon get used to the irritating buzz and forget about it.  We all eventually get used to accustomary smells, sounds, sights, tastes, and tactile sensations.  

Unfortunately  taste buds have maladapted (gotten used to ) to our industrialized diet of high sugars, fat, and sodium.  A diet without the stimulatory effects of the Standard American Diet (SAD) tastes bad.  A health promoting diet of no sugars, less animal fats, less salt is not as enjoyable to the palate used to the excess stimulation of refined foods, artificially concentrated delights, and hormonally  engineered meats. "Ice cream is an extraordinary invention for intensifying taste pleasure- an artificial concoction of pure fat and refined sugar". (The Pleasure Trap by Douglas Lisle and Alan Goldhammer)  French fries and potato chips are by far the most popular vegetable in our Western society.

A major obstacle in changing to a "clean" diet is this concept of the neuroadaption to artificially intense foods.  A change to  less stimulating foods can result in a reduced pleasure experience, hence many people continue to crave their former diets.  

Scientific research shows that re-sensitization of taste nerves can take 30 to 90 days of consistent exposure to less stimulating foods.
And during this period most people experience less pleasure from eating food. It requires more motivation and self-discipline to re-calibrate the taste buds, hence the frequent relapses to former ways of eating.  Most Western citizens are addicted to processed foods and many feels that a switch to clean food is being condemned to less pleasurable eating.  

Some people manage this "food addiction" by allowing their palates to detox. Experiences have shown that a one week water  only fast is enough to re-calibrate the taste buds. After this detox week,  clean foods can actually tastes better than artificial and processed ones.

Others,  just knowing, that food will once again become pleasurable in one to three months,  is enough to stay on course.