Why is it so damn hard to stay off the cake?

We go out with the best intentions, but as soon as you see a big chocolatey dollop of cake or smell the wonderful aroma of a greasy pizza that's it. Thirty seconds later you're wolfing down both of them like a hungry gannet, and bang goes the diet. Unless you've got iron-clad will power or you genuinely just like the taste of salad, steering clear of the junk food is a gauntlet we're set up to fail. But there might just be one simple trick that could make life easy for you...and it will literally cost you less than a €1. Celebrity trainer and author of The 4x4 Diet Erin Oprea knows all too well how hard those sugar and sh*te cravings can strike. But according to Dr Oz The Good Life Oprea uses a simple pack of mint chewing gum, which won't even cost you a quid at the supermarket, to give her the power to say no to all those diet-ruining treats.

"I almost always have mint gum in my mouth. You have to take it out to have a bite of junk food, and it's a pain," Oprea says.

"Mint gum also ruins the flavour of most things. If I do take it out, nothing is going to taste good anyway."

Oprea says you should try this trick when you're going out to somewhere you know there's going to be piles of unhealthy good - office party, dinner out or a night on the town.

There's the double whammy gum chewing helping to supress your appetite - particularly where snacking is concerned.

Gum chewing was found to decrease desire for both sweet and salty snacks in a study in Appetite which also showed that people who chewed gum for 15 minutes after lunch at 10% less that those who didn't when offered a snack three hours later.

If you're not too keen on chewing gum, she says that Listerine PocketPaks work the same way.

"Those sheets will ruin your taste buds in a second. After having one in your mouth, everything tastes disgusting. It's like using mouthwash before you eat something," she says.

And that's your problem solved right there.

Thia article originally appeared on JOE.co.uk