That’s a very easy, straightforward concept, isn’t it?  If something that is not good for you is not easy to get, you are less likely to think of it, or eat it.  If the bad stuff is not in your mind, you are less likely to seek it out.  This is the big secret of advertising: put a product in people’s minds and they are likely to buy it.  This is the big secret of junk food, too: put it everywhere, make it easy to get, remind everyone of its presence, and people will buy it.

Junk food is everywhere.  It’s so easy to get.  We are reminded of high-fat, high calorie candy, chips, sugary sodas, coated nuts, snacks, snacks, snacks everywhere.  It is in stores placed at eye level and at checkout lanes.  Junk food is in vending machines where we work, play, and in our children’s schools.  It is in advertising on billboards on streets, on TV and radio in our homes, on the net on almost every website, in newspapers and magazines, and plastered on the sides of buses.

Although it is very obvious that the omnipresence of junk food advertising and the easy availability of the stuff affects how much we eat, the results of a conclusive two-year study conducted by Yale University of Connecticut middle schools has found that if junk food is not made available, young students don’t buy it.  The results were published in the December issue of “Health, Education and Behavior” journal.  Here’s a Washington Post article from today, that describes it.

It was a well-researched study, conducted by Marlene Schwartz, deputy director at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.  They replaced junk food with healthier alternatives at several schools, and compared them with schools that had junk food vending machines.  The results?  Students ate what was in front of them, and those offered healthier snacks didn’t seek out junk food elsewhere.  Not surprising.

The Washington Post article also makes the claim that since the 1970’s we have increased our overall consumption of calories, and this is mostly due to snacking.  Not surprising, either.

THEREFORE, if you want to eat healthy, and be healthy, limit snacks!  If you do snack, have something that is better for you.  Instead of chips and cheese, have a few nuts and whole-grain crackers.  Instead of candy, have raisins, dried fruit, or fresh fruit.

THEREFORE, keep unhealthy junk foods out of your mind, and out of your life.  Don’t buy them, much less even think of them!

Please COMMENT:  what are YOUR ideas for healthier snacks, and limiting junk food?