Ever wondered why quitting junk food makes you feel the same way you feel when you withdraw from abusing drugs? Recent studies have shown that when people cut junk food out of their diets, they can experience withdrawals similar to drug addiction.
Guilty pleasures like pastries, pizza, and soda can be a lot harder to let go of once they become a part of our routines. Cutting out unhealthy foods from our diets can be as hard as trying to get over drug abuse. And that’s because it contains ingredients that have the same effect as the components of drugs. Here’s why.
Why junk food can be addictive
Junk food is usually high in four addictive ingredients, which are salt, fat, caffeine, and sugar. And these ingredients, particularly sugar, readily generate dopamine – a neurotransmitter that delivers messages to the “rewards center” in the brain. This signal from the dopamine will trick the brain into thinking that it needs to seek out the cause of pleasure (the sugary treat) more than other healthier activities. When this happens, you continue to eat more and more of these foods, because your brain wants to keep getting that pleasurable feeling.
So the major reason why you’ll always feel the need to consume more sugar, soda, pizza, and caffeine is that your brain is constantly telling you that you want more and more of these substances.
Withdrawal symptoms for junk food
One conclusion that all researchers can agree on is that the addictive qualities of drugs or alcohol affect the brain similarly and cutting back can lead to negative side effects that can make it difficult to reduce intake. It’s the same way with junk food also. Attempting to withdraw can cause anxiety bouts, headaches, irritability, and depression a good number of times. And what happens is that the more intense the withdrawal symptom, the less likely the diet attempt will be a success. This is why cutting down on junk food becomes even tougher than it typically is.
Withdrawal symptoms may also lead to challenges when attempting to make dietary changes, which again is a leading contributor to why people revert back to their bad eating habits. Although this is not an attempt to trivialize the peculiarity of alcohol and drug addictions, it’s important to note that in the long run, it may have health-damaging consequences.
Detoxing from junk food can be hard, particularly in those first few weeks. But it’s not totally impossible. Drug detox center San Diego makes the process easy by helping patients all through the journey. Most of the time, detoxing from junk food requires a regimented process and a group of professionals who can guide you through the process of overcoming this type of “addiction”.
Aside from learning to take in more water, sleeping better, and making lifestyle adjustments, visiting detox centers and following professional consultation is a step in the right direction. Pacific Bay Recovery is a medical detox center in San Diego that offers you all the services you need to get on your journey to recovery. Visit us today!
