Stress and Health - Is Stress Wrecking Your Diet?

4 February 2010

Are you feeling stressed at the moment? Or have you ever had a period of life when you felt stressed? Stress can be caused by work or relationship issues, illness or injury, loss of a loved one and many other things. Nowadays stress has become a part of life for many of us, something we just accept - but should we?

In some situations stress is extremely useful. But, when we experience chronic unresolved stress it starts to talk a toll on our body. Stress changes the hormone levels in our bodies causing significant changes to occur to our nutritional stores. Supplies of fat and protein are mobilised and readied for use, for example. And as you're probably aware - stress can trigger poor eating habits...

Stress Can Trigger Poor Eating Habits

Daily hassles and stress cause people to eat more high fat and high sugar snacks and eat fewer main meals and vegetables, according to a 2008 study published in the journal Health Psychology. Researchers found that 'ego-threatening', 'inter-personal' and 'work-related' hassles led to increased snacking whereas physical hassles reduced snacking. All-in-all the British researchers concluded that daily problems were associated with unhealthy eating behaviours.

Stress increases the secretion of glucocorticoids, a group of steroid hormones, this increases our desire for food, increases our insulin levels and helps to promote food intake, according to a 2009 journal article on stress-induced obesity. Eating a pleasurable meal or snack then reduces our feelings of stress and this reinforces our habit of eating when we feel stressed.

This all comes as no surprise to me, because I know when I'm stressed out, trying to meet a deadline, my first port-of-call is often the pantry... and I'm not looking for a piece of fruit in the pantry, trust me. But clearly no good can come from using food to treat stress, as the foods we pick when stressed are typically unhealthy and if we allow this to happen we can unwittingly build a habit of using food to cope with stress and unintended weight gain may result.

Managing Stress To Improve Your Eating Habits

In order to improve your eating habits its imperative that you focus on dealing with the root cause of the problem - the stress. Managing stress appropriately can help to reduce overeating. So rather than focussing on the 'eating behaviour' we need to focus on the 'cause' of the eating behaviour - the stress. If we focus solely on our eating behaviour it would be like sticking a small plaster over a large gaping wound, highly ineffective.  if you try to improve your eating habits without dealing with any stressors that are causing dietary problems. This can happen from two angles:

1. Learn how to reduce and prevent stress - obviously the best way to manage stress is to avoid it altogether if possible. Use these tips to reduce and prevent stress:

• Cut down your to-do list, don't over-commit yourself... which brings me to the next point...
• Learn how to say 'no', you don't have to do everything that people ask you to do - remember you have a choice, you have limits, respect yourself and your limits and just say no!
• Avoid specific topics, situations and people who stress you out - there is no point subjecting yourself to experiences that you know stress you out. Learn from your past stressful experiences and alter your choices to minimise your exposure to stress-inducing people, places and conversation topics.
  

If you can't avoid the stress then it's time to learn how to alter the situation, adapt to the situation and accept the things you can't change, according to www.helpguide.org, read on to learn more...

Helpguide.org: Stress Management - How to Reduce, Prevent and Cope with Stress.

2. Learn how to cope with stress - if you can't avoid certain stressors then it's important to learn how to cope with them by using the following techniques:

• Give yourself regular times to relax and have fun - all work and no play is not good for us, make sure you spend time relaxing in a way you relish - maybe reading a book, watching your favourite TV programme, going for a walk in the bush or at the beach, catching up with a friend for a coffee - whatever works best for you. Don't let your life get so busy that you miss out on your relaxing/fun break times, if need be book fun/relaxing appointments into your schedule to ensure they happen regularly.
• Make a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle a top priority - when we're stressed we may feel like ditching our exercise routine and healthy home-made meals in order to save time - don't do this! This is exactly the time when you need to stick it out, keep regularly exercising and make healthy eating a priority, otherwise you'll get into a vicious circle and end up more wound up and stressed than ever. So exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, cut down on alcohol, sugar, caffeine and other stimulants, and make sure you give yourself plenty of time for a good night's sleep.
• Use a relaxation technique daily to reduce your stress levels - performing relaxation exercises helps your body to counteract the stress response and its negative effects on your body. Research clearly shows that performing relaxation exercises regularly will help you to breath more deeply, reduce stress hormones, lower your blood pressure, slow your heart rate and relax your muscles. Useful relaxation techniques include - deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, guided imagery, yoga, tai chi or massage. Check out the following link to a www.helpguide.org article for more information on how to start using relaxation techniques to reduce your stress levels:
  

Helpguide.org: Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief

Remember the best fix for stress-related overeating or other poor eating habits caused by stress is to deal with the stress. Improvements in your eating habits will naturally follow when you deal to the stress - so that's one less thing you'll need to worry about for day, just get started on relaxing.

Improve Your Eating Habits Now

About The Author

Jennifer Bowden Nutritionist, MSc (Dist), BSc (Hons) - Human Nutrition

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