Food Porn! Are You Hooked?

“All porn is not created equally!” Every day and night we are constantly bombarded by illicit images of saucy, wet, syrup-slathered naughty delights that just make our mouths water for a taste. This, of course, being the ploy of the food industry and manufacturers to get us to just, “hurry up and buy!” As we fall victim and indulge in these palatable pleasures, our wallets only get thinner as our waistlines get thicker.

The real trick is that these commercials toy with the ‘pleasure/reward’ centers of the brain that secrete the ‘feel-good’ endorphin, dopamine, which gives us the same feeling as being ‘high’ on drugs or that we get when having sex. Our brain gets so excited at these images that our appetite increases and it’s almost as if you can already taste that new double-stacked, grilled, BBQ burger and actually feel the sauce drip down the side of your lips. After one of those Popeye’s ‘Wicked Chicken’ commercials, my stomach literally growls and I can imagine yanking a strip of  chicken straight out of that sweet Louisiana lady’s hands! Bad, bad girl!

There are things we can do however, to avoid falling prey to the palpable porn that overwhelms us on a daily basis. I’ve put together this list:

• Simply ignore it, look away or change the channel. (Although most times you change the channel you’ll more than likely find that they’re on commercial break as well!) “Out of sight, out of mind.”

 

• Turn off the tellie. Take a break from TV for a bit and engage in something more constructive that will distract you from focusing on food. Get busy and you’ll soon forget all about      Guy Fieri’s carnage at that Steakhouse/burger joint!
• Train your brain to like healthy food porn. (if there is such a thing.) Try fixing up a nice salad or dressing up a healthy recipe and take a picture of it to re-associate the same ‘good feeling’ with healthy foods.

• Think about the killer calories, the gimmicks played on you by restaurants and manufacturers as well as the poor souls whose lives have been ruined by losing control of what they put into their bodies. If you could eat all of those things, you’d be 600lbs by now!