How to STOP CRAVING JUNK FOOD (Top 14 Ways)

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How to Stop Craving Junk Food is both a personal article about methods I’ve used to overcome my taste for junk food over the years and a post that includes healthcare advice from peer reviewed studies.

It could also be called: 14 TIPS for Overcoming Temptation with Foods that are “Bad” for You.

Studies show that over 50% of people have food cravings. Cravings go hand in hand with binge eating, food addiction, health challenges and weight struggles.

While this article could be used alongside a weight loss protocol, it’s really for anyone who wants to be healthy: Some of us have health issues we’re trying to overcome, some weight loss goals, while a lot of us know we shouldn’t be eating white sugar, vegetable oils, fast foods or processed foods for best health.

But it’s hard to break the habits.

The first step is deciding we WANT to eat better.

Assuming we want to eat healthier, use these 14 best tips to stop cravings!

Once we start eating healthier, honestly, the cravings may or may not diminish right away. But at least we’ve tackled the first challenge: The foundational diet is intentionally better.

Why to Stop Craving Junk Food

Know that junk food causes disease; sugar poisons the liver, and processed foods are the enemy of all things healthy. The more we understand how gross processed foods are, the less many of us find them desirable.

But alas, when we just want that package of processed foods (or even homemade inflammatory food), here are some newer strategies to help.

14 Ways How to Stop Craving Junk Food

1. Remind yourself this meal will be over soon.

Remind yourself that this meal (or snack) will be over in a brief 15 minutes! (“What I do now will only taste good for 5 minutes, and then I’ll have the lasting ramifications for much longer.”)

Get past the 15 minutes with good food (instead of the junk food), and you’ve succeeded!

It’s like passing a challenge on an obstacle course.

2. Exercise after eating.

Exercise after eating your healthy meal. Go for a long walk (or another form of exercise you enjoy).

While you’re eating, think about the upcoming exercise with anticipation. This method really helps to prevent overeating (going back for “seconds”); instead, the exercise is what you’re looking forward to; it’s your better “seconds”.

Changing one’s thought pattern about food and one’s environment are helpful. But new hormones are also released. Our bodies get excited about something more active than eating, and that’s always a good thing.

My favorite weight loss method is to add more walks into each day. Get outside. Walk to your destination, if you can, instead of driving. This really changes the metabolism and one’s perspective.

If needed, get a dog, and take her for daily walks where you have to go with her. Make it a lifestyle to walk a lot each day.

Whether it’s a dedicated two laps around your block, a quick walk from your place of work and back again or a walk in the park or woods with your dog: Walk after eating and throughout the day. (Even if you have a separate official exercise schedule.)

3. Eat more fiber.

Eat more fiber: beans, apples and oatmeal without sweetener are all good examples. (I use unsweetened oat milk and sea salt on my oatmeal. It might seem unappealing, but it’s become delicious. Leave room for your tastes to change.)

Replace bad-for-you foods with these high-fiber foods.

Fiber really satisfies, and it’s also great for digestion and regularity.

Interestingly, the studies on this topic conflict with one another. But from personal experience, I feel so satisfied after I eat beans, oatmeal or an apple. And either way, these foods are excellent alternatives to junk food. But I hope you find them satisfying as well.

The next time you want junk food?: Reach for one or two of these foods instead. See what happens.

4. Drink DIY Electrolyte Water or potassium water.

Drink a glass of potassium water or DIY Electrolyte Water. Oftentimes we are deeply thirsty when we think we want sweets or more food. Drink that glass, and then see. Likely, we’ve had enough food, or that craving will be satisfied by what our body really needed.

(To make potassium water, simply add ¹⁄₁₆ to ¹/₈ teaspoon potassium chloride to your water bottle or glass of pure water, and give it a shake or stir.)

Tempted to drink sweet drinks? Instead: Eliminate all sweeteners, other than fresh fruits like apples, bananas, grapes and berries. Drink potassium or electrolyte water when you want a sweet drink.

Alternative to electrolyte water

For thousands of years, people have sipped on hot drinks.

Healthy hot drinks are very effective at staving off cravings. For example, instead of scooping ice cream, make a cup of tea. No, it might not sound as good at first. But it works. And if you stop buying ice cream, and start drinking hot tea as a way of life, you’ve created a new healthy habit that will help you overcome the longing for junk food in the long run.

Very few truly healthy drink options exist, other than pure water. But here are a few:

Hot herbal tea — Examples include mint and ginger. Learn to enjoy unsweetened.
Oat milk — Hot or cold. Be sure to look for a brand that doesn’t contain vitamins or oils. The best “clean” brands are Malk, Willa’s and Mooala. (Or, skip the packaging, and make your own. This oat milk machine is fabulous and comes with a 2 year warranty. It saves money in the long run, and it’s quick to make milk and clean.)
Coconut water — With no added ingredients (this one).

5. Eat more protein.

Eat more protein, at every meal, and for snacks (including these best meat sticks, one of the smartest snack choices).

Meat intake increases satiety; it’s needed for detox processes and increasing muscle mass.

Starting a lifting protocol to build more muscle and reduce fat? Protein is a key player in this process.

6. Choose healthy snacks (even for your car).

Carry a bag of olive oil popcorn, rice cakes, macadamia nuts (this brand) (the healthiest nut) or meat sticks in the car or in your purse. These snacks provide a healthy, satisfying carb or protein to get you by between meals.

Having healthy snacks on hand helps you to avoid making bad choices like “health food” bars and other worse convenience items.

Having on hand and eating alternatives is one major key I use personally. In fact, it’s a way of life for me now.

7. Invest in a good finishing salt.

Just like our bodies need the electrolytes magnesium and potassium, we also need sodium.

But oftentimes, salts are contaminated with lead and other toxins.

And why this issue is so often misunderstood is: Many people get too much sodium from prepared processed foods. When you cut those foods out (YAY!), you need good quality sea salt.

Invest in a really good finishing sea salt. Use it in place of sweeteners and savory condiments that are less healthy. Really taste the flavors in the sea salt. For most people: Use it as liberally as you want. It is actually good for you. Most people need the electrolyte sodium chloride in their diet (when processed foods are removed), and a sea salt that’s not contaminated is a healthy food and mineral.

(This is the only finishing sea salt I buy, because it’s lead-free, unlike its competitors.)

Enjoy each meal more thoroughly, and avoid junk food cravings, by using good quality sea salt. Truly satiate yourself.

Or, if you have the nibbles, walk by the salt jar, and savor a pinch on your tongue!

8. Practice mindful eating.

Studies show that when we take time away from our phones and other distractions — and instead, really listen to our physical sensations, emotions and hunger, binge eating decreases by more than 50%.

Mindfulness increases the effectiveness of long term weight loss goals in studies of obese patients.

Practice mindful eating by focusing on your food, chewing and body, enjoying those you may be eating with, being aware of your physical surroundings, leaving your phone untouched and elsewhere and increasing awareness of your own emotions.

9. Reduce stress.

Stress increases cortisol, which oftentimes leads to craving more sweet foods and other negative changes in eating behavior.

Stress is also an important causal factor in addiction development.

Reduce stress by making wise changes in one’s job, relationships, exercise protocol or mindset.

10. Eat proper meals, and don’t get overly hungry.

It’s not uncommon for people to skip a meal, and then binge afterwards because they’re too hungry.

Instead, plan meals. If you do get too hungry, make yourself sit down so you can still count how much you’re eating; don’t graze. Choose wisely: protein, banana etc.

Shop before you get hungry, as junk foods are often grabbed at the store when we get overly hungry.

Eat better one meal (or snack) at a time.

What else medical experts say

11. Learn from setbacks.

If you have an emotional eating episode, forgive yourself, and move forward. Remind yourself why you’re avoiding junk food: What’s your motivation? (Health problems, weight loss goals etc) With that in mind, make a plan to prevent the setback in the future. Remind yourself of the positive changes you’ve already made.

12. Get enough sleep.

Sleep duration correlates with obesity, with bad sleep increasing the likelihood of overeating by 55%.

More specifically, sleep deprived individuals are more likely to have hormone fluctuations that cause cravings.

13. Short term, try chewing gum.

Chewing gum can help.

This habit may be better used short term, as all gums, other than mastic gum (like this or this), come with undesirable sweeteners.

Of course, it could be argued that chewing gum is also junk food. If you use it to overcome food temptations, think of it as an incremental stepping stone.

Choose mastic gum or chewing gum with xylitol (here’s a good one), not sugar-based or other sugar alternatives.

14. Make an official commitment to change.

Write it down, share it on social media, whatever you need to do to make it official: You’re turning over a new leaf (and avoiding junk food for the health benefits).

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