SOURCE: HUBPAGES.com By Kathryn Vercillo

Junk food cravings. We all get them. Some of us give in to them without a second thought. Some of us exercise massive restraint and self-control and almost never give in to them. Either way, we experience them and most of us would prefer to have more control over them than we do. Luckily, there are many different things that we can do to assist us in avoid cravings for foods that aren’t good for us.

Here’s a look at some simple tips for avoiding junk food cravings (and even reducing how often they occur!)

Eat a healthy diet. One of the most common reasons that we experience junk food cravings in the first place is because we aren’t getting the right nutrition on a regular basis. By eating three healthy meals each day and drinking all of the water that we are supposed to be drinking, we can actually reduce the number of unhealthy cravings that we experience.

Learn about the meanings behind the cravings. You might get a craving for really salty foods or really sugary foods but salt and sugar are probably not the things that your body really wants. Instead, your body seeks a specific nutrient. For example, a craving for sugar usually means that you’re lacking in fatty acids which can be resolved by taking a tablespoon of flaxseed oil instead of eating a gallon of ice cream. If you know what the cravings indicate that you need then you can get what you need without resorting to the specific foods that your body feels like it is craving.
Learn about healthy substitutes for cravings. There are times when you want a certain kind of food and getting the right nutrients doesn’t curb the craving. In these cases, you may be able to trick your taste buds by eating foods that are similar to what you’re craving but less unhealthy. For example, you might eat fruit instead of candy or drinking sparkling water with lemon instead of having a soda.

Be aware of external reasons that you may be having food cravings. It’s a long-running joke that strange food cravings means your pregnant but it’s not really a joke if that’s the reason that you’re having those cravings! Of course, there are other non-dietary reasons that you may be having cravings.. For example, stress and depression can cause people to crave comfort foods. Dealing with the underlying issue in these cases will help you to avoid junk food.

Indulge appropriately. The thing about the body and mind is that deprivation causes us to obsess. If you never allow yourself to eat junk food then you’ll probably crave it all the more. You should allow yourself treats now and then - but not often. This will make you feel like you’re not completely deprived but won’t get you in the habit of eating junk.

The most important thing is really that you just remain aware of what is going on with your body. Knowing what is causing your food craving will give you the power to deal with it appropriately.

Avoid junk food

Don’t snack on sugary or fatty foods- try these alternatives instead.

SOURCE : SpunOut.ie

Go for a walk instead of watching TV, carry some fruit instead of that sticky bun or prepare extra food on Thursday evening to avoid eating out on Friday.

If there are certain things you do that always mean eating something fatty or sugary (snacking at the TV, your morning coffee and sticky bun, burgers on Friday evening) then change your routine to avoid these triggers.

Socialise and meet friends in places where there’s no food to tempt you. Ask friends not to encourage you to eat when you’re out for the night, especially when you’re will power is weakened after a few drinks.

Carry a healthy lunch with you to work, university or school. The easiest way to do this is to make sandwiches filled with plenty of salad or cook enough dinner to have leftovers for lunch the next day. Make sure it’s enough to keep you away from snacking on buns or crisps during breaks.

Eat more fruit and veg (at least 5 portions a day), they’ll fill you up and are perfect when you have the urge to snack on something.

ALWAYS eat breakfast so that you don’t crave fatty or sugary foods mid-morning. If you do skip meals then don’t overeat to compensate afterwards.

SOURCE: THEFRUITPAGES.com

Eat (more) fruit

These ideas might stimulate your fruit consumption!
Why should we have five to nine fresh pieces a day, organically grown if possible?
For the largest part fruit consists of water just like the human body does;
Fruit is 100% bad-cholesterol free;
Fruit stimulates the memory;
The idea that fruit is an expensive nutrition;
The miraculous healing effects of fruit;
Fibers;
Fruit makes you feel better;
Ethical reasons to eat fruit;
Fruit is the most natural food;
The human diet;
Fruit juices - squeeze those fruits!
For the largest part fruit consists of water just like the human body does
Like 80% of our body is water so does 80% of fruit consist of water!
If you think about it, it’s logical for the human body to consume food that contains as much water as the body itself. The nutrition that meets that requirement is fruit. There is no other food than fruit on this planet that contains on average 80% water.
Vegetables also contain a lot of water and are therefore second best.

Fruit is 100% bad-cholesterol free

No doubt about this argument. Too much bad-cholesterol is not good for our bodies and fruit doesn’t contain bad-cholesterol. Animal products like meat and dairy contain a lot of bad-cholesterol.

Fruit stimulates the memory

If you didn’t know yet: fruit is the ultimate brain fuel. Fruit has a positive effect on our brains. The way this works still has to be found out and many scientists are looking into it as we speak. What we do know is that if you consume fruit effectively, your brains can recall information faster and more easily. This is very useful information for people who are preparing for an exam. Students that want to go to this page immediately go to: improve your exam results with fruit.

The idea that fruit is an expensive nutrition

Did you always think that fruit was an expensive product? Take a good look at how much money you spend on other food. It could be worth something to replace some of those expenses with fruit. We think that fruit is the healthiest food on earth and therefore it is well worth spending our money on.

The miraculous healing effects of fruit

Spectacular stories about people that cured from uncurable diseases by a strict diet of raw fruits and/or vegetables are well known but do we want to believe them? We still don’t know that much about fruit and its contents.

Fibers

We do know now that a diet with plenty of fibers helps against corpulence, high blood pressure, and other factors that increase the chance for a heart disease. The consumed amount of fibers maybe even a more important factor than the amount of fat that is consumed by people!
The food that contains these healthy (natural) fibers is…. right: fruit! (vegetables as well). The American Heart Association advises to consume 25 to 30 grams of fibers out of fresh fruits and/or vegetables. In practice this means: have five to nine portions of fresh fruits or vegetables a day. Check out the dietary Recommendations of the American Heart Association here..

Fruit makes you feel better

Several stories have told us about people that were frequently depressed and how they got out of their depression slowly but surely after consuming substantial amounts of fresh fruit on a regular basis. Eating much fruit can have a mysterious healing effect on human beings. Even better is to drink a lot of freshly squeezed fruit drinks on a regular basis. It will take approximately 30 days until you start to notice the effects. Don’t forget to drink these smoothies 20 minutes before the consumption of other meals. This way the fruit will not ferment in the stomach and the nutritious elements can be absorbed by the blood effectively.

Ethical reasons to eat fruit

Fruit doesn’t have to be killed and slaughtered before you can eat it. The fruits are just hanging there waiting to be picked by you!
This ethical argument (often used by vegetarians and vegans to not eat meat) claims that fruit is a non-animal food. Many people see animals, especially mammals, as living creatures just like humans. There are religions that say that animals have souls like us. The native Americans first asked the animal’s spirit if they could kill it before they did so. Fruit has never been said to have a soul and thus can be eaten without causing any harm. Ethical or religious arguments aside, we think it’s a shame that we as human beings don’t eat much fruit when there is such an abundant assortment of fruits and vegetables available.

Fruit is the most natural food

When you see a piece of fruit hanging from a tree that tree is telling you something: “Eat my fruits and help me spread my seeds.” That’s how nature works. Humans eat vegetables and fruits and consequently help the plants to spread. Humans use animals to work the land to grow the plants and trees that produce these fruits and vegetables. In more and more people’s opinion this is the way it was all meant to be.

A human diet

A healthy diet should consist for a great deal of freshly squeezed fruit juices, raw fruits and vegetables. Some tips:

A good start is to eat and drink more fresh fruits;
it’s as simple as that. Before you know it you will feel much better;
Don’t forget to eat fruit on an empty stomach, not after other meals and;
inform yourself about the substances that our ‘modern’ food contains.

The Sanguinello (Sahn-gwin-AY-oh), also called Sanguinelli in the US, discovered in Spain in 1929, has a reddish skin, few seeds, and a sweet and tender flesh. Sanguinello, the Sicilian late “full-blood” orange, is close in characteristics to the Moro. It matures in February, but can remain on trees unharvested until April. Fruit can last until the end of May. The peel is compact, and clear yellow with a red tinge. The flesh is orange with multiple blood-colored streaks.

The Tarocco is a medium-sized fruit and is perhaps the sweetest and most flavorful of the three types. The most popular table orange in Italy, the Tarocco is thought to have derived from a mutation of the “Sanguinello”. It is referred to as “half-blood”, because the flesh is not accentuated in red pigmentation as much as with the Moro and Sanguinello varieties. It has thin orange skin, slightly blushed in red tones. The Tarocco is one of the world’s most popular oranges because of its sweetness Brix to acid ratio is generally above 12.0) and juiciness. It has the highest Vitamin C content of any orange variety grown in the world.

The Moro, a recent addition to the blood orange family, is the most colorful of the three types, with a deep purple flesh and reddish orange rind. The flavor is stronger and the aroma is more intense than a normal orange. This fruit has a distinct, sweet flavor with a hint of raspberry particular to blood oranges. The Moro variety is believed to have originated at the beginning of the 19th century in the citrus-growing area around Lentini (in the Province of Siracusa in Sicily) as a bud mutation of the “Sanguigno”.

Washington Navel, California Navel is originally a mutant from Bahia, Brazil, arriving in North America via a missionary who was so impressed with the rich flavour and its seedlessness, that she sent twelve nursery-sized trees to the USDA, who propagated them and offered them to anyone who cared to give the species a try. Today, the fruit is commercially grown, not only in Brazil and California, but also in Paraguay, Spain, South Africa, Australia, and Japan.

Valencia is the most important commercial variety in the world, living up to its nickname of the “King of Juice Oranges”. Valencia accounts for 50% of the total Florida fruit crop and the principal variety used for processing into juice. The Valencia originated in China and taken to Europe by Portuguese or Spanish voyagers. It has a thin and slightly pebbly rind. The flesh is bright orange and extremely juicy and nearly seedless. Valencia is a late orange, which has a smooth, thin skin, and contains few if any seeds, pale flesh, a sharp flavour, and is very juicy.

Rhode Red is a Valencia orange, but has a more highly colored flesh, more juice, and less acidity than the Valencia. It also has less Vitamin C. It was discovered in 1955 in a grove near Sebring, Florida, by Paul Rhode when a budwood was put on sour orange stock. The result was a large, vigorous, productive tree. In 1974, five trees were accepted into the Citrus Budwood Registration Program, and the rest is history. This round, medium to large fruit has few seeds, and a deep orange color with juicy flesh that tastes like an apple.

Parson Brown is an orange developed in Florida from a seedling taken to Savannah, Georgia, from China. The resulting fruit was named after the Reverend N. L. Brown of Wester, Florida, who discovered the chance seedling in his grove around 1856. Although small and productive, the fruit is very seedy, but is recognized for its thick, pebbly, orange rind and dull yellow pulp that holds an abundance of juice with low sugar and acidity. It is better suited to recipes that call for citrus as it has a plum-like character and taste.