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The No. 1 Dietary Bad Habit

By Jiri Kaloc

Is it skipping breakfast? Or is it eating late at night? How about eating too often or not regularly enough? Those might be bad for you but compared to the number one bad habit they are just details. If you want to make one single change that will have the biggest impact, read carefully.

Aren’t sugar, fat, and, wheat the big killers?

Yes, those are probably most often cited as dangerous to health. And they are certainly a part of the problem. But how many people sit down and eat a box of table sugar? How often do you crave a bowl of wheat flour? And do you overeat on sticks of butter in front of the TV? Things like this just don’t happen. It can’t be any single ingredient that’s at fault.

The lethal combo

It’s all about how we use the ingredients mentioned above. One by one, they are not particularly appealing but put them together in the right proportions and you have a formula for a food that everyone wants and nobody should eat. The number one dietary habit holding you back is:

Eating addictive foods

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Why is it so bad?

I’m sure you can guess which foods I’m talking about – chocolate, ice cream, pizza, chips, cakes – everyone has their own favourite. What do they have in common? They taste really, really good, they don’t carry many useful nutrients, and they aren’t very satiating. The resulting effect is they make you eat past the point of when you’re full. And, perhaps most importantly, they change your behaviour so that you want more of them more often.

How to get rid of this habit?

Don’t eat addictive foods. Easier said than done, I know. But it really is the only way to free yourself from the vicious cycle of wanting, trying to resist, and inevitably losing the battle and eating them again. As you cut them out of your diet (slowly or all at once depending on how your brain works) you will find that your palate changes. When you eliminate these foods you will again start appreciating home cooked meals and whole food snacks. You will rediscover that they are really tasty and rewarding, too.