Ways of breaking your addiction

But is it that easy to just decide that you will not eat junk again after reading about the effects that they can have on you?

Dr Shchukin recognises that there are a lot of other factors affecting our decision to consume or not consume junk, and that is why getting any solution requires much more than just average effort.

The first step is to admit that there is a problem. “Consuming too much junk is a problem,” she says, and adds: “ Once you have this acknowledgement down, begin to look at what makes you eat junk a lot more often than you should.”

“In most cases, it is not just the feeling of hunger. There are other factors that draw us to these junk food such as food addiction that we can compare even with cigarette and drugs addiction, food temptation, overeating, reaction to stress, using food as a method of socialising or overcoming the boredom and so on,” she says.

Several foods have addictive components and if you find yourself addicted to junk food that has a lot of sugar, for example, chances are that you are addicted to the sugar.

Dr Shchukina says that food choices and consumption is influenced heavily at the subconscious mind. So begin by thinking seriously about the consequences of the excessive junk in your system before you consume, where it will lead and the complications that could arise.

Dr Shchukina gives six questions which you can use as a guide to help regulate your eating:

• *What do I eat?

• *How much do I eat?

• *Do I have enough proteins, vitamins, saturated fat, fibre - vegetables, whale grain cereal, water and vegetarian proteins?

• *How are the foods that I am eating affecting my body?

• *What is your Body Mass Index

• *What is your waist Circumference

These pointers can help you begin to account for the foods that you eat to ensure that you are not consuming anything that could be slowly poisoning your body.

World Health Organisation lists 65 diseases that are directly linked to obesity. There is ischemic heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, diabetes, infertility, reduced sexual activity, swollen legs and some forms of cancer to mention just a few of them. And the reason  there seems to be very heavy penalties for eating junk food is because our bodies are genetically tuned to eat natural foods and all the other foods that we eat, if not checked, can wreak havoc in our systems.

Dr Shchukin advises that you check your BMI and weight regularly so as to ensure that you are not overweight or obese and you are functioning within the normal weight.

“If your BMI is 25 to 29.9 – you are overweight, if BMI is above 30, you are obese,” she says.

“But if you are unable to lose weight even after dieting and exercising for six months, you need to seek specialised medical  assistance because you may have developed weight-loss resistance,” she says.

Malnutrition is also a factor that goes both ways – you could be slim and malnourished just as you could be obese and malnourished, so do not depend on your body size alone to tell whether or not junk food is putting your life in danger.

“Fill your mind with happiness from healthy food and keep the healthy style of life. And only then, your general condition, your weight, your health and your outlook will become brilliant,” says the doctor.