How to give up bad eating habits?

(Baonghean.vn) - Forget about diets. The secret to healthy eating is easier than you think.

Changing habits is difficult, but changing the environment around you is not. Photo: Internet.

Instead of staring at product labels to find out how many calories it contains, focus on your habits.

Research shows that habits are often so deep in your subconscious that you don’t even realize it, and that’s a big problem when you’re snacking mindlessly. In fact, according to Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, when you get used to doing something, your brain stops working when you do it.

“Habits become automatic. Our environment creates conditions for good habits and bad habits at the same time.”

The key is to create and maintain healthy eating habits. Willpower alone is not enough, you also need to change your environment.

“Simply put fruit where you pass by. You will eat up to 70% more fruit than usual,” says Wansink.

You can also make your kitchen smarter. A study of 29,000 schools in the US found that simply changing the way food was presented or named made students eat more nutritious food.

Just keeping your kitchen tidy can make a big difference in your eating habits. Research shows that messy kitchens make people snack 40% more. The size of your plates matters, too. Wansink's research found that using smaller plates reduced the amount of food consumed by about 22%.

In short, willpower is not going to help you change your bad habits. Like diets, they work for a while and then you fall back into your old ways. What you need to do is change your environment: your behavior and lifestyle. Keeping your kitchen clean and putting fruit in a place you frequent will help you form healthy eating habits. Changing habits is hard, but changing your environment is not.

Thanh Hien

(According to CNN)