How processed foods make you overeat is by design, not pure chance.
Here's how the big food manufactures make it happen.
#1 Marketing
Marketing is how a company/business tries to make you aware of their product or service. The powerful corporations behind food use the following marketing strategies to make you aware of their products:
- Bright colored packaging, cartoon characters and celebrity endorsements.
- Disguise unhealthy foods as healthy with powerful words and phases like – organic, vegan, gluten free that create an illusion or “halo” of health around them.
- Catchy slogans – Have a break, You deserve it……
#2 Big portions make you feel like you are getting a good deal
- We were raised not to waste food.
- Be financially responsible and buy more for less.
- Purchase a small one-serving drink or a large cup with free refills?
We perceive big portions are a better value for our money, but we forget about the “health tax” that comes with them.
Health Tax - The toll you pay for eating processed foods over time.
#3 Variety makes us hungrier
- Choices excite us.
- Party mix snacks and self-serve frozen yogurt bars with endless toppings are a couple of examples.
- Try eating one thing with one flavor in abundance. Go ahead and let me know how many apples you can eat at one sitting.
- When we take away all the variety, we are able to slow down, chew our food mindfully and recognize hunger/fullness cues.
#4 Multiple flavors at once are irresistible
- Sugar
- Salt
- Fat
You may not crave spoonfuls of sugar, but that chocolate square filled with caramel and sprinkled with sea-salt is diabolical!
#5 Stimuli-stacking
- Fat and salt – nachos, fries and cheesy items.
- Fat and sugar – baked goods, ice cream
- Fat, sugar and salt – french fries with ketchup or a chocolate caramel brownie sprinkled with sea salt.
Make sure to check out Friday’s email and learn how to incorporate processed foods into a healthy lifestyle.
Keep Moving,
Coach Dom
