Our environment and media shape our relationship with food.

Our environment and media shape our relationship with food.

Commercial advertising is very effective because it targets the reward centers of the brain, often linking junk food to pleasure through strong sensory cues like bright visuals, satisfying sounds, and appealing scents.

It is possible to retrain your brain to prefer healthy foods and reduce the addictive power of unhealthy ones, often by re-engaging those same senses with whole, nutritious foods.  

Strategies for retraining your brain using your different senses to overcome the conditioning of junk food advertising:

🧠 Sight and Presentation

Make Healthy Food Visually Appealing: highlight the concept of "Eating all the colors of the rainbow," which is a key visual strategy. Present your healthy meals to look appealing and varied to engage your eyes first.

Focus on the "Why": Use cognitive reframing by consciously focusing on the positive consequences of eating healthy foods (energy, better mood, long-term health) and the negative consequences of consuming junk food (sluggishness, weight gain) when a craving hits.  

Keep Junk Food Out of Sight: Reduce exposure to visual triggers by keeping unhealthy snacks hidden or out of the house entirely, and keep colorful fruits and vegetables visible on your counter or in the front of your fridge.

👃 Smell and Taste

Prolonged Smell as a Deterrent: One study suggests that smelling fatty or sugary junk food for more than two minutes can actually reduce the craving by satisfying the brain's reward center olfactorily, without the calories.  

Maximize Aroma of Healthy Foods: Since much of what we "taste" is actually smell, focus on preparation methods that maximize the aroma of healthy foods, like roasting vegetables with herbs or brewing fragrant tea. This enhances the sensory experience and satisfaction.  

Flavor Front-Loading: For foods you are trying to moderate, research suggests that maximizing the flavor in the first bite can lead to earlier satisfaction, potentially reducing the total amount consumed.

👂 Sound and Touch

Mindful Eating with Sound: Pay attention to the sounds of eating healthy food—the crunch of an apple or a carrot, the sizzling of vegetables cooking. This increases mindfulness, which can help you distinguish between a craving and true hunger.

Engage Touch with Preparation: Get your hands involved! Cooking and preparing your own healthy food creates a deeper connection and appreciation for the wholesome ingredients, utilizing the sense of touch.

Tactile Satisfaction: If you crave the crunchy texture of chips, substitute with a healthy, crunchy option like raw carrots, nuts, or seeds. Similarly, if you crave a certain mouthfeel, find a whole food that satisfies that texture (orosensation).  

📝 Key Overcoming Strategy

Break Conditioned Responses:

Junk food advertising often creates a conditioned response where a cue (like an ad, a time of day, or an emotional state) triggers a craving.  

Identify Triggers:

Keep a journal to note when, where, and why you crave junk food (e.g., boredom, stress).  

Replace the Response:

When the craving is triggered, replace the impulse to eat with a non-food-related activity, such as a quick walk, calling a friend, or engaging in a relaxing hobby. Cravings often pass after a short period (about 10–20 minutes).