Controlled Diet Improves Mental and Physical Health

My whole life as far back as I can remember has been spent compulsively eating lots of sugar-rich foods.  I remember coming home from school and raiding the kitchen cabinets for tasty treats to eat while watching television.  That's not to say that I didn't eat some nutritious food from time to time, but there was certainly a great deal of empty-calorie bingeing.  I developed an emotional attachment to eating; it became something that I did mindlessly when feeling lonely, afraid or bored.  During my first stint at college, I would eat a pint of Ben&Jerry's before bed on a whim at the same time that I was seeing the nutritionist at the school's wellness center about my out-of-control habit.  I was very secretive about eating, something which persists even today, as it had become a source of embarassment to me.  I was ashamed of my lack of self-control.  

Judging from the increasing obesity level in the US and around the globe, it seems clear that I'm not alone in my addiction to unhealthy foods.  Food is such a familiar comfort, and we've become very used to the sugar and preservative laden convenience foods that fill the supermarket shelves.  The phrase "convenience kills" comes to mind.  Indeed, one of my long-time sticking points with eating food that was better for me was that it always seemed to take longer to prepare than my junk food favourites.  I would enter into the kitchen and inevitably pull that which was instant out of the cabinet instead of taking a few moments to make something that would better satisfy my hunger and nourish my body.