You Can Retrain Your Brain to Prefer Healthier Foods!

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If you find it hard to say no to candies, cookies, chips, it may be because your brain is addicted to them, according to a new study.
In short, your brain is actually hooked on junk food, which, of course, leads to weight gain and obesity and other harmful dieases.
But promising news came out recently, which reveals taht you you can literally ‘reprogram’ your brain so that you not only break your food addictions, but you actually develop a preference for healthier non-fattening foods so you lose weight.
For my part, I’m simply thrilled by this exciting news.
You may wonder, though, is this just too good to be true? Not so!
Some definitive proof this is possible came from a September 2014 study by scientists at Tufts University and Harvard Medical School. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to show how the brains of volunteers had been altered during a six-month experiment, during which they forsake high caloric foods for low caloric ones.
Thirteen overweight or obese adults between the ages of 21 and 65 were placed in either an intervention group or a control group. The intervention group received 19 hour-long support group sessions during the 24 weeks in which they were taught how to use portion-controlled menus and recipe suggestions designed for high-satiety. The foods consumed in this plan were low-glycemic index carbohydrates along with high fiber and high protein (known as the idiet.) FYI, these are the foods I recommend, too, as you can discover in Beyond Sugar Shock.
These foods” have “a slower digestion profile and reduction fluctuations in blood glucose that could reduce hunger,” according to the study. The control group received no such counseling or support.
What’s intriguing is that before the experiment began and six months later, on its completion, all study participants underwent the fMRI scans as they were shown 40 food and 40 non-food images. The foods were half high caloric and half low caloric.
While being scanned, the volunteers rated the desirability of the images they saw on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being undesirable and 4 being extremely desirable. Those who had gone through the six months of intervention measured significantly less response in the striatum region of their brains (an area governing reward processing) when shown the high caloric foods and more responsivity when shown the low caloric images.
It was as if the brain charges they previously got from these foods had been disconnected. They also achieved significant weight loss, whereas the control group lost little weight and still had no control over how their brains craved certain unhealthy foods.
One of the study co-authors, Sai Krupa Das, Ph.D., who is with the United States Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center, observed how the weight loss program they used with high-fiber, low glycemic foods worked hand in hand with behavior change education to bring about the remarkable changes in weight and brain activity related to cravings.
“The weight loss program is specifically designed to change how people react to different foods, and our study shows those who participated in it had an increased desire for healthier foods along with a decreased preference for unhealthy foods, the combined effects of which are probably critical for sustainable weight control,” according to Dr. Das. “To the best of our knowledge this is the first demonstration of this important switch.”
Sources: “Training your brain to prefer healthy foods.” Tufts University. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-09-brain-healthy-foods.html.
“Pilot randomized trial demonstrating reversal of obesity-related abnormalities in reward system responsivity to food cues with a behavioral intervention.” Deckersbach T. Et al. Nutrition & Diabetes. September 2014. http://www.nature.com/nutd/journal/v4/n9/full/nutd201426a.html
iDiet program. https://www.theidiet.com/content/food
Join the Conversation: Does this news excite you, too?

It’s Not About the Cookies: Shed Weight with Colette Baron-Reid

Do you turn to cookies, cakes, pasta and other junk foods for comfort?
When stress hits you, do you gain extra weight without even eating extra food?
Do worry and overeating go together?
If so, you want to join today’s special Gab with the Gurus Show with Colette Baron-Reid, the internationally renowned intuitive counselor, life coach, speaker and author of Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much.
On today’s Gab with the Gurus Show, you will learn:
How emotional eating is not about the food.
How to set healthy boundaries.
How your thoughts can make you fat or think.
What the connection is between stress and cortisol.
How to let go of self-bullying, which will help you release the weight.
How do discover radical self-acceptance.
Listen to this show live or later, at your convenience. Please spread the word about this show to your friends and colleagues.
More Health Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Gab With the Gurus on BlogTalkRadio

Thanksgiving: How Not to Pig Out

People often wonder how to make it through Thanksgiving without pigging out on sweets and quickie carbs and going into sugar shock.
They don’t want to wake up having gained weight, feeling fuzzy-headed and moody.
Just think: Wouldn’t it be nice to feel happy and self assured that you didn’t cave into those candied yams, pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes?
So today’s Tip of the Week will offer you three simple tactics to put into action at your Thanksgiving meal:
1. Imagine What If… Just think about how you’ll feel the day after Thanksgiving if you allowed yourself to have some “treats. Would you feel angry and disappointed at yourself? Would you lose self-respect? Would you feel discouraged that you couldn’t control yourself? My clients say that all of the above emotions would hit them—and hard. So before you put those Thanksgiving “goodies” into your mouth, just “Imagine What If…”