- Alex Ruani ate a lot of food that was not nutritious.
- A few changes transformed her relationship with snacking.
- She started eating her meals at the same time every day and sleeping more.
A nutrition scientist who was addicted to junk food like cookies and chips shared how she transformed her relationship with junk food.
Alex Ruani, a diet misinformation researcher at University College London, used to crave high-fat, high-sugar foods like white chocolate and sugary iced coffees throughout the day.
Once it started, she tried to stop eating. “Those of us who have this tendency to eat, we can’t stop until the whole package is empty,” she told Business Insider.
Now, Ruani said her relationship with food is healthier. She rarely eats anymore, but when she feels hungry between meals, she chooses something nutritious.
“It’s a great opportunity for you to include more nutrients in your diet, more polyphenols, more fiber,” she said.
“Eating snacks is not a bad thing, just keep an eye on what those snacks are,” she said.
Ruani shared three changes she made that helped.
Redesign your food environment
The first thing Ruan did was remove the foods he wanted to avoid. That way, she didn’t have to rely on willpower alone to resist temptation.
“Redesign your food environments so they serve you, and they’re not against you,” she said.
In practice, this meant not buying chocolates and chips, removing them from the suggested items in her online grocery order, and avoiding the tempting aisle at the grocery store.
“I can’t be trusted around those things, so I just let my environment make those decisions for me,” Ruani said.
Instead, she kept nutritious snacks like fruit and nuts in her fridge or on her desk at work.
You are much more likely to eat what is immediately available to you, she said.
In a 2015 study published in the journal Society for Public Health Education, 710 households were asked what foods, if any, appeared on their kitchen counters and what the height and weight of the residents were. The researchers found that fruit exposure was associated with a lower BMI. Whereas counters featuring candy, cereal or soft drinks were associated with higher BMI.
Eat your meals at the same time every day
Early in her career, Ruani ate at random times. “Some days at 8 p.m., some days at seven, some days at midnight, it was a disaster,” she said. Once she started eating at more consistent times, she found that her cravings began to naturally disappear.
Whether you stick to three meals a day or another arrangement, eating them at the same time each day can help regulate hunger hormones, Ruani said. This, in turn, means you’re less likely to crave food between meals.
There is a branch of nutritional science that studies how the circadian rhythm, which is our sleep-wake cycles, appetite signals and food consumption are interconnected, she said. The body loves routine and predictability, she said, so when these elements are in sync, it can function more efficiently.
“Let’s say your dinner on Monday is at 9 p.m., then on Tuesday at 8 p.m., and then on Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. Your body is a little more confused, and that can also affect your hormones. your hunger signals, in their production and how they signal satiety in the brain,” she said.
Get enough sleep
Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day also helped Ruan stop eating.
“Constant hours of sleep during the week have been associated with better hunger regulation,” she said.
Research suggests that getting poor or insufficient quality sleep causes people to consume more calories, mostly from food, especially foods high in fat and carbohydrates, according to a 2022 review published in Nutrients.
A 2022 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that when a group of overweight adults slept 8.5 hours a night instead of the usual 6.5 hours, they ate an average of 270 fewer calories per day than a control group.
