THE BLISS POINT

😍Hump Day Health Hack😍 with @amysfitnessandnutrition

Ever find that if you start on a bag of chips you just can’t stop? Or you reach for a pack of biscuits after dinner aiming to have one…only to end up having eight? We’re all been there. And the good news is that it’s not your fault. Big companies have spent millions of dollars formulating the right chemical formulation to hit what is called our bliss point. Hitting it is great for sales! It literally highjacks our hormones to make our dopamine censors fire. This is our happy hormone. If something triggers our dopamine our body says ‘go back for more’!

WHY ONCE YOU POP YOU CAN’T STOP

Modern and packaged foods are designed to ensure they hit our bliss point. That balance of sweet and salty is a combination that is super palatable and keeps us coming back for more. This formula mimics our mother’s breast milk and so desiring these foods is actually what keeps us alive as small children.

Pringles (which contain 26 ingredients by the way) are sweet, salty and even the shape of them has been engineered to be enjoyable and hit the right taste receptors. Biscuits? Sweet, salty, and crunchy? Many of these foods have even been formulated to ensure they have the right ‘mouth feel’ to make us want more. Creepy eh?

ULTRA-PROCESSED HEALTH FOOD

It’s not just chips, biscuits, and ‘junk food’. Today 90% of our shop's contents are ultra-processed food-like substances that barely resemble what they started as. That healthy ‘pesto dip’ that’s canola oil, salt, and sugar with some basil thrown in for good measure… or that gut healthy ‘yoghurt’, thats main ingredient is sugar?

Don’t even get me started on ‘healthy’ kid’s cereal. Messages like ‘20% Protein’ and ‘Fortified with Vitamin-D’ make us think that we’re making good choices for our children when really we’re filling them with ultra-processed grains and chemicals. There’s actually more nutrition and fewer ingredients in full-fat ice cream than there are in a lot of the supposedly healthy breakfast foods lining our shelves.

HOW TO AVOID OVEREATING

1. Eat Whole Foods (Fruit, Veggies, Meat & Fish, Nuts & Seeds)

2. If It Has An Ingredient Label Read It

3. More Than 5 Ingredients? Steer Well Clear

4. Replace Treats With Healthy Swaps:

- Fruit, Nut Butter & Cinnamon

- 90% Cocoa Dark Chocolate

- Homemade Cereal (nuts, seeds, goji berries)

- Unsweetened Greek Yoghurt With Honey

- Nuts & Seeds

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