One of the hardest parts about starting to eat healthier is cutting down on delicious fried foods. But if it helps, there are so many benefits to cutting out these foods that there’s no way you’ll miss them for very long.
- You’ll cut your risk for heart disease in half. One study found that eating fast food more than twice a week makes you 1.5 times more likely to develop heart disease. Get rid of it, and you’re that much more heart healthy.
- Your memory and learning skills will improve. A study found that rats who ate a diet of junk food showed an increase in memory loss and a decrease in cognitive ability in just a week. Even more studies found that trans fats can have a real effect on your gray matter in your brain, making it shrink and decreasing its functionality.
- Your diabetes risk goes down, too. Saturated and trans fats have been strongly connected to increased insulin resistance. Soon enough, your body can’t deal with sugar, you’re gaining weight, and that’s an almost guaranteed road to diabetes. Cut out your fast food, and you’re saving yourself from that future.
- You have more energy. All those empty carbs only cause your pancreas to work overtime to process it, which means you’re left tired and experiencing that all-too-familiar blood sugar crash. With more complex carbs and protein, you’ll have way more energy and you’ll break the sugary craving cycle.
- You’ll lose weight. It’s the benefit you’ve been waiting to hear, and it’s true. One of the sneakiest causes of weight gain is sodium, which fast food has in spades. This leaves you bloated and retaining water weight. Cutting fast food means you’ll both be taking in less sodium and fewer calories, meaning you’ll probably drop a few pounds without even trying.
