A new study has found that Americans are eating more and eating more often – a likely contributor to the obesity epidemic in the country.  Part of the problem, researchers say, is that we’re thinking about eating all day.  Do you suffer from constant food cravings?  Check out these 5 tips to stop them.

Eat a Protein Rich Breakfast

Starting your morning off with protein – eggs and bacon, for example – has been proven to increase satiety and reduce hunger throughout the day.  It also reduced brain signals that control food motivation and reward-driven eating behavior.  Breakfast in general is important for avoiding weight gain, but protein-heavy breakfasts seem to be the most effective for reducing appetite, according to researchers.

Eat at Regular Intervals throughout the Day

If you let yourself go too long without eating during the day, your blood sugar will plummet.  Not only will this make you feel hungrier, it will also negatively affect your self-control, according to researchers.  That means you’ll be less likely to be able to say no to those high-calorie, nutritionally-empty foods you’re usually so good at staying away from.  Try keeping a baggie of almonds or a pack of yogurt on you during the day for a healthy snack to keep you satisfied.

Picture the Sights and Smells of a Garden

According to a new study, cravings are mainly fueled by picturing a specific (usually high-cal) food in your head and imagining how it smells.  But as any multi-tasker knows, the more occupied your brain is, the more likely you are to forget something.  Same concept here – occupy the visual and olfactory parts of your brain with other sights and smells, preferably strong images and scents, like those in a garden, and your brain will have to push out the idea of food to accommodate.

Tell Yourself What You’re Eating is Indulgent

In another study, researchers gave participants the same 300 calorie shake.  However, in one group, they told the participants they were drinking an indulgent 600 cal shake, and in the other group, they told participants what they were drinking was a healthy 300 cal shake.  Guess which group felt more satisfied afterwards?  The fact is, visualizing food as an indulgent treat leaves you feeling much fuller afterwards.  So appreciate what you eat!

Surf the Web for Funny Videos

Sometimes, our strongest food cravings don’t come from hunger.  When we feel depressed or just “down”, we’re more likely to engage in emotional eating as a way of comforting ourselves.  Instead of reaching for that ice cream, pull up Youtube (or your favorite comedy website) and click on the links that’ll make you laugh and lift your mood.  Even a small lift in your mood can restore your self-control.

Whether it’s Hershey’s, Skittles or Reese’s, candy is often the bane of health-conscious parents who want to instill healthy eating habits in their children.  However, new study suggests that kids who eat candy actually weigh less and are less likely to be overweight than those who don’t.

Louisiana State researchers tracked the eating habits of more than 11,000 children aged two to 17 between the years of 1999 and 2004.  They found that children and teens who ate candy were 22 percent less likely to be overweight and 28 percent less likely to be obese.

Despite the findings, lead researcher Carol O’Neil warned that parents and children should still follow proper food guidelines and eat candy sparingly.

“The results of this study should not be construed as a hall-pass to overindulge,” O’Neil said. “Candy should not replace nutrient-dense foods in the diet; it is a special treat and should be enjoyed in moderation.”

O’Neil speculated that the children who ate candy were able to balance “calories in, calories out” over time, meaning they ate other foods that were lower in calories.

Another potential explanation was that the children who ate more candy and weighed less were more active than the children who did not eat candy and weighed more.

Overall, however, she said the whole group had very poor eating habits – a likely contributor to the U.S. obesity epidemic.  O’Neil recommended that parents not only keep tabs on their children’s candy consumption, but also on their consumption of other high fat foods, such as potato chips, and on the amount of time per day they spent being sedentary.

The study was published in the Food & Nutrition Research journal.

Gaining inches on your waistline?  The problem may lie in your morning commute, Men’s Health reported.

A new study has found a link between Americans driving for longer distances and an increase in the obesity rate.

“Each minute that we spend in a car is probably the most deadly minute that we can spend in a day—in terms of activity,” said Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., professor of computer science at the University of Illinois, and author of the study. “We’re not using any energy.”

While we’re also seated at the office, there are options for getting up or moving around, Jacobson explained.  Those options, of course, don’t exist behind the wheel.

Luckily, there are a few simple rules you can follow to avoid excess weight gain from driving your car.  Take a look:

-Eat before you leave your house.  Prepare yourself a healthy breakfast or snack, so you’re less likely to be tempted by calorie-packed fast food restaurants.

-Maximize your movement outside of the car.  Park farther away, even when there’s a close parking spot.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator.  At pit stops, take a brief walk, if possible.

-Avoid road rage.  Leave earlier to beat traffic, take a more scenic route, or pop in a favorite CD, because studies have shown that stress leads to weight gain.

Click here to read more from Men’s Health.

Contrary to prior research, a new study has found that elderly people with excess body fat have a shorter life expectancy than their thinner counterparts.

In past studies, it has been suggested that people who carry a few extra pounds in their 70s live longer than those who do not.

However, this latest study, which followed elderly people for a longer period of time, showed that men over 75 with a body mass index greater than 22.3 had a 3.7 year shorter life expectancy, and women over 75 with a BMI greater than 27.4 had a 2.1 year shorter life expectancy.

Normal weight BMIs range between 18.5 and 24.9. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, while a BMI over 30 is considered obese.

The researchers said that past studies, which found high body weight to be protective among the eldery, may have been inaccurate because only a single baseline measure of weight was taken, which did not account for weight changes or how those changes affected life expectancy.

Additionally, most of the studies only followed elderly people for a period of fewer than 19 years, which is considered an inadequate amount of time to study risks associated with weight.

“We had a unique opportunity to do 29 years of follow-up with a cohort that was also followed for mortality outcomes,” said lead author Pramil Singh, DrPH. “Across this long period of time, we had multiple measures of body weight, which provided a more accurate assessment.”

The study focused on 6,030 adults who never smoked and who were free of major chronic diseases at enrollment and who maintained a stable weight.

The researchers found that not only was excess weight related to shorter life expectancy, but that men were more sensitive to body fat than women. Men started to experience a greater risk of mortality at a BMI of 22.3, while this risk did not affect women until a BMI of 27.4.

One possible reason for the difference between genders is that body fat is the primary source of estrogen in post-menopausal females, and a minimum level of estrogen in those years can be protective against heart disease and hip fractures, the researchers hypothesized.

“This is not to say that extra weight is good for women over 75,” Singh said, “but rather that the negative effects of extra weight in women over 75 appear at a higher weight than in males.”

The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

As childhood obesity rates continue to rise, a new study has found that fast food is now the largest source of calories for kids outside of the home.

University of North Carolina researchers have found that over the years, the average American diet has steadily shifted towards eating meals prepared outside of the home.

In particular, there has been a significant increase in the calories consumed from fast food, which is typically nutritionally-deficit and high in calories.

In regards to children’s diets, the percentage of calories consumed from fast food has surpassed intake from school meals.  Fast food has now become the largest source of calories for meals prepared outside of the home for all age groups.

This increase in eating out is associated with a corresponding increase in total calories consumed, according to the researchers.  Today’s youth are eating about 200 calories more than they did 30 years ago.

“Overall, this study highlights the continuing rapid shifts in the sources of food for children in the US—both where it’s eaten and where it’s prepared,” said Barry Popkin, PhD, professor of nutrition at UNC.

“Because of the increased energy intake and lower nutritional quality associated with away-from-home prepared foods, such insight can be used to focus future efforts to reduce calorie intake and improve dietary quality for American children,” he added.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

In the “land of the plenty,” some researchers suggest it may be too much choice that may be spurring America’s high rates of obesity.

The researchers say that when people are repeatedly exposed to a certain food, they become disinterested and eat less of it.  This process is called habituation.

However, when people are given a variety of different choices every day, the opposite may occur – they eat more of it.

This possibility, called the “food addiction hypothesis,” presents the idea that people may overeat because they are insensitive to normal habituation and therefore need even more exposure to food to trigger disinterest.

“We’ve known for years that foods – even eating, itself – can trigger release of various brain chemicals, some of which are also involved in what happens with drug addiction and withdrawal,” explained Shelley McGuire, PhD. “And, as can happen with substance abusers, tolerance or ‘habituation’ can occur, meaning that repeated exposure is sometimes accompanied by a lack of response or disinterest.”

“The study provides a very interesting new piece to the obesity puzzle by suggesting that meal monotony may actually lead to reduced calorie consumption,” she added.

The researchers recommend, based on the results of the study, that reducing variety of food choices may be a potential strategy for weight loss.  They also believe the study could hold implications for school-lunch planners and public health officials who wish to curb obesity in a community.

The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.