By Design

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.

We have to be mindful and learn how to incorporate processed foods into a healthy lifestyle.

Keep Moving - Coach Dom