Blame the cavemen

Why is a bag of chips so much easier to eat than a bag of carrots? The siren call of pizza and other junk food has less to do with your willpower and more to do with marketing and genetics. To our ancestors, fat, sugar and salt were necessary to survive. Thus, they were built to crave it. The stuff was hard to find, so the self-control part of their brains remained underdeveloped. Today, neither our willpower nor our cravings has changed, but we can find those “bad” calories anywhere. Junk food also triggers happy hormones, leading manufacturers to spend millions to find the perfect ratio of fat, sugar and salt (known as the “the bliss point”) to seduce you. One suggestion is to cut down on sugar, so you become more sensitive to sweetness and, in theory, eat less of it. If that fails here and there, remember to cut yourself a break.

Source: CNN Health