Is Your Food Stressing You Out?
Running errands, gift shopping, returns to be made, school activities, doctor’s appointments, family functions and the list goes on and on. We leave the house with a plan about the tasks we need to accomplish, but did we think about how we were going to fuel our bodies and our health on the way out the door? As you sit in traffic or find yourself late for one of those to do’s your stress levels rise. Screaming children in the grocery store, rude tellers at the department store or doctors who keep you waiting the room for many minutes all fuel your distress. Your nerves are shot, your stomach is rumbling and you need a quick fix, something to eat on the run. You swing into the drive-thru and order a burger and fries, rationalizing that you’ll eat better at dinner or tomorrow.
When dinner time arrives, or tomorrow comes you’re still on edge. It’s the pattern so many of us fall into. Our “short on time” eating choices only rob us of the ability to cope with our daily stress, which is not going to magically go away. Those fatty, salty, sugary foods and those caffeinated beverages, (loaded with sugar) contribute to those stress levels. They lack the nutrients our body needs, craves even, during those stressful times in our lives, without them it will just get tougher and tougher.
We Need Better Fuel
Physiologically our body reacts to the everyday stress we heap onto it with the tempting choices we make, like the candy bars, potato chips and cookies. During those times of feeling overwhelmed and run down our bodies releases a stress hormone called cortisol, which, in turn, triggers the release of neuropeptide Y and galanin, two neurotransmitters (brain chemicals that affect our mood and keeps us alert). These also are the culprits to our insatiable need for sugary and fatty foods, by increasing our hunger for them. While those two culprits go to work the cortisol is busy suppressing serotonin, another neurotransmitter that plays a major role in balancing anger, aggression, body temperature, mood, sleep, human sexuality, appetite, and metabolism. No wonder why it’s so hard to make good food choices!
Start to reduce the stress you’re experiencing by limitng or eliminating the consumption of processed foods, refined carbs and most especially fast foods. The trans-fats that most fast foods contain reduce circulation and raise our blood pressure, even without a screaming baby, keeping our bodies in a constant state of stress. Scarfing those sugary beverages or candy bars aren’t much better, they raise our insulin levels only to let them crash right back down. This can affect our moods as well, if you don’t believe that to be true ask any parent after their child has had their fill of birthday cake.
The plan is simple, sit down to three nutirtious meals a day and have two light snakcs planned for mid morning and mid afternoon. Fresh fruit, unslated nuts or seeds, granola bars or whole grain crackers can serve you very well, keep you feeling full and lower that stress level. Skip the extra large coffe, downsize the caffienated beverages and cut your sugar in half. Better yet try replacing that cup of joe with tea, green, balck and oolong each contain L-theanine, an amino acid that helps calm our frazzled nerves.
Getting More Fuel for Your Buck
Keep in mind not all foods are created equally. In helping to reduce stress we want to hone in on foods high in B vitamins, folate, omega-3’s, and magnesium. Being short on these has been linked to depression. Things like avocados, baked potatoes skin and all, bananas, chickpeas, salmon, wild rice, sunflower seeds, almonds, broccoli, strawberries oatmeal, plain yogurt, sardines or red and green peppers all contirbute to those necessary nutrients. Sit down and eat slowly, remeber the brain takes up to twenty minutes to sense fullness.