Is Food Porn Derailing Your Healthy Eating Efforts?

Last week, I made a very colorful, delicious salad then took a picture of it and posted it on Facebook.  And then, because I liked the picture so much, I made it the wallpaper on my computer.  Over the next few days, I noticed that the more I saw the picture, which by the way looks awesome on a 15-inch screen, the more I focused on eating healthy.  The fresh garden tomatoes, the chunks of red pepper and avocado all felt appetizing and almost made me feel as if I was doing something good for myself.   In a way, I was, because I ate more salad last week than I had all summer!

Yesterday, I knew I was on to something when I picked up the September issue of Women’s Health Magazine and found an article entitled, The Food Porn Problem.    The article explains how the growing obsession with looking at images of sinfully seductive dishes not only make us hungrier, they can cause us to overeat, even hours later. 

A study in the journal Neuroscience found that viewing images of delicious food lit up the reward centers of the brain and caused overeating and a study in the journal Obesity found that seeing food caused an increase in the levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin, even if someone had just eaten.   And a study in the journal Appetite found that dieters were more susceptible to overeating in response to seeing food on TV  than non-dieters.   Yet another reason why diets don’t work!

I know I never pass up the opportunity to eyeball a gooey fudge brownie sundae or a crispy, creamy forkful of something comforting.  And I’m not alone because food pictures are surpassing clothing and style re-pins by 50% on Pinterest and some food blogs have eliminated recipes altogether in favor of decadent close-ups.

If you suspect that even the sight of food is having an impact on your eating habits, here are some ways to weaken your brain’s response to food:

1.  Shift your focus - rather than focus on food, get in the habit of viewing images of beauty - like your favorite places to visit, style, interior design, etc.

2.  Exercise - regular physical activity is believed to dampen the brain’s reward center so that you’ll have less of a desire to look for food.

3.  Get plenty of sleep - when you’re sleep deprived, you’re more susceptible to the temptations brought on by the images of food.

4.  Cook more - getting into the habit of cooking will provide a multi-sensory experience around food that can result in smaller portions and fewer calories eaten.

And if you must look at images of food, the next time you make a pretty salad, take a picture and pin it up somewhere, like your computer screen, to encourage you to eat healthy… : )

Source:  Women’s Health Magazine, September 2012

DIY - Salad Dressings

Two of the biggest motivators for choosing something prepared are convenience and taste. But if saving time means compromising our health, is it still a convenience? If it eventually contributes to disease, reduces our energy, negatively influences our mood, or promotes weight gain, has the time savings been a benefit? I would argue no.

This week’s posts have been about do-it-yourself foods that although they may take a little more time to prepare, will provide much greater benefits than a few minutes. In fact, the time spent preparing these foods may actually save time by keeping you healthier, happier, and more energetic – three very important factors that influence productivity.

We eat salad to get our vegetables and stay healthy, but depending on what we top our salads with, we can be undoing the goodness of the raw vegetables on our plates. For example, I checked three bottles of store-bought salad dressings and found that they contained on average, 30 ingredients, including those listed below. Some overlapped between bottles and some did not. I’ve described a few of them.

Soybean oil - This oil is high in omega -6 fatty acids that when are in excess in the diet, can lead to inflammation I the body. All three bottles listed soybean as their oil source.

Corn syrup - The bottle of salad dressing that had this had a banner above the Nutrition Facts that said “No High Fructose Corn Syrup”, yet listed corn syrup as the second ingredient after water. This means that besides water, corn syrup (i.e., sugar) is the most abundant ingredient in this salad dressing.

Monosodium glutamate - A flavor enhancer that has been linked to food allergies, migraine headaches, asthma, obesity and hyperactivity in children. It is considered an excitotoxin.

Disodium inositate - A flavor enhancer that works with MSG.

Caramel color - The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a petition against the use of this compound because it contains two cancer-causing chemicals, 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole which cause lung, liver, thyroid cancer, or leukemia in mice or rats.

Modified corn starch

Sugar

Salt

Cellulose gum

Cellulose gel

Propylene glycol alginate

Polysorbate 60

“Color added”

Phosphoric acid

Sorbic acid

Sodium benzoate

Maltodextrin

Lactic acid

Disodium guanylate

Autolyzed yeast extract

Calcium disodium EDTA

For a few extra minutes, you can make your own, fresh salad dressing free from the ingredients listed above and with only a handful of real-food ingredients. I've listed a few below. And by the way, you will save some time with the do-it-yourself method of preparing food. Trying to decipher the ingredient list on the back of the salad dressing bottle takes time! By using simple, real ingredients, you won’t have to read so many labels!

One of my favorite dressings:

One part lemon or lime juice

One part real maple syrup

Two parts olive oil

A quick savory option:

1 part balsamic vinegar

2 parts olive oil

a few drops of tamari or soy sauce

Here are three recipes from AllRecipes.com:

A Citrus-basil Vinaigrette

A No Mayonnaise Ranch Dressing - I would try to replace the sour cream with plain yogurt.

A Honey Mustard Dressing - Try using plain yogurt in place of the mayonnaise here too.

What are your favorite dressings to make? Please share them here!!