Why you can’t stop at one Tim Tam!

The first one was so good, but where the heck did the empty packet come from? You’ll be happy (or dismayed) to learn that your willpower never stood a chance against those Tim Tams!
Biscuits and other fat-laden eats stimulate your brain’s reward system and set off a neural pattern that makes you want to scoff more.
Here’s how it works. The first time you ever ate a Tim Tam your brain registered the enjoyment of the unique taste sensation by flooding you with the pleasure chemicals dopamine and serotonin. That’s the reward system and it’s essential to human survival. It’s the anticipation of those feel-good chemicals that prompts you to pick up ‘just one more’, even if you are not hungry.
Our brains get the message that fats and sugars are more rewarding than vegetables – and the more we eat them the more we reinforce our attraction.
And another reason you can’t stop at just one is that human beings have what food-industry insiders call a “bliss point”; a nirvana of the tastebuds triggered by particular amounts of sugars, salt and fat. It’s the right combination of these ingredients that makes food palatable and therefore rewarding.
The trouble is, these combinations make for a taste experience so intense that it kicks the brain’s reward system into overdrive so that you’ll do almost anything to prolong it or re-live it.
If you are plagued by cravings for fatty food, you’ll know how easy it is to give in. There’s so much food everywhere and we’re endlessly bombarded with enticing images and words like ‘decadent’, ‘luxurious’ and ‘heavenly’.
FOUR WAYS TO REHAB YOUR FOOD HABITS

1. Become aware. Spend a week writing down your eating cues.
2. Break the link. If work stress makes you crave something fatty, do something different like make a cup of tea.
3. Rewrite the script. Instead of thinking “that slab of cake looks really good”, remind yourself of your goal and think “if I don’t eat that now, I’ll feel better about myself tomorrow”.
4. Get support. It helps you stay on the straight and narrow when you don’t want to let someone down!