The links between stress and diet

Relationship between Diet and Stress

There is an important relationship between diet and stress and there is some helpful information about it that you should know. We can get upset due to the emotional problems, financial fears or deadlines. Every single one of them causes the physical effect of the adrenaline that can be felt as changes in appetite, compressed immunity, problems with sleep, irritability and aggression, increased utilization of blood sugar or energy fluctuations, higher blood pressure, or faster beating of the heart. People who get stressed very easily and quite often need to know that the food is not going to help them get rid of the stress as much as it is going to harm them. Stressed people tend to eat food rich in carbohydrate and sweet things. Because of the stress your body produces more cartisol then before and it causes a disturbed insulin activity. People over 40 years old are more prone to be stressed because of their slow metabolism, which releases some hormones that stimulate storage of fat and the appetite as well.

Helpful Tips

There are a couple of tips that you should keep in mind in order to adopt the healthy habits. You should relax through exercising on daily basis by doing the exercises for about half an hour. These exercises can improve your overall health. You should avoid drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. Avoiding the overuse of drugs and food will help you reduce the stress. You have to set up your own goals and try to meet your own expectations. Try not to skip meals, but don`t eat just to satisfy the presence of stress. Make a list of the food you want to eat and some of the foods that will help you get rid of the stress, include lean meat, low-fat milk, fruit juice, low-fat yoghurt, and high-fiber cereal.

You can prevent your low blood sugar by eating regularly and healthy. In case you are stressed and you have a need to eat, you can always eat foods like rice cakes spread with Marmite, chewing gum, unbuttered popcorn, celery sticks and carrot. In reducing your stress, valerian herbal teas, lavender, lemon balm or chamomile can also help you. Take care and avoid fatty foods, but eat tryptophane rich foods like bananas and nuts. You can always try having small portions of the meat, chicken, eggs, or cheese to help you get rid of the stress, but try avoiding potatoes, rice, pasta and white bread.

The glycaemic Index (GI) is the term used to describe how quickly carbohydrates dissolve into sugar. It affects the blood sugar to go up, thus increasing the chance of piling any fat that was in the meal. Foods that are high in GI include cornflakes, potatoes, bread, sweets and mielie pap. If you want to stabilize your blood sugar level, you can eat foods that lower GI and those foods are sweet potatoes, beans, Basmati rice, pasta, etc.