Stressed. Exhausted. Depleted. These are just some of the feelings I’ve most identified with over the past few months. Sure, over two years of hard work writing a book and navigating my first attempt at self-publishing – outside of full-time work – also has left me feeling a great sense of accomplishment, gratitude, and joy.

I’m finally ready to share this book with you. That is exciting!

In these difficult, stressful, overly busy times, how do I tend to make food choices differently? How do I deal with stress eating?

The thing I want to talk about today is stress, “stress eating”, and how harmful this can be when we don’t get a hold on it over time.

Everyone experiences stress from time to time. I won’t even discuss how difficult 2020 has been in comparison to the usual, everyday stressors most of us often also face.

The important lesson here is, what do we do about such stressful times in life? Well, it’s the diet choices during these times that I want to look closer at.

How do you respond with dietary choices during your most difficult times? Does your diet change during these difficult times?

Confession, my diet tends to! More than I’d like to admit. I’ve experienced more “emotional eating” this past year than any time before. Think, too much high-calorie snack foods, fried foods, and too many sweets!

It’s not something I’m proud of or would recommend. However, I want to share part of my story, my struggle, so you might identify with it and help you find some of your solutions. And, to understand. Understanding any problem is key to solving it.

What do I do in these difficult and trying times, to get back on track, to better manage my stress? In my attempt to at least cover some basics of a nutritious diet. I’ll come back to that soon.

But first, let’s take a closer look at some of the science behind stress eating and how harmful chronic stress can be for maintaining a healthy appetite and normal digestion of foods. 

How does stress affect the appetite?

Stress affects many different aspects of health. So it’s no wonder that too much stress can increase appetite and lead to stress eating for some. While for others, too much stress might be limiting a normal appetite and leave you with little- to- no desire to eat healthy, nourishing foods.

In shorter, more acute times of stress, it’s common for the appetite to be suppressed. This might lead to skipping meals and irregular meal pattern.

Over time, with chronic stress, increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol can lead to increased appetite and intake of calories.¹ Especially, high-fat, calorie-rich foods.

How about food cravings? Do you crave more high-calorie “comfort foods” when stressed? I must admit, I do.

To better understand food cravings, binge eating, and the idea of “food addiction”, there’s a lot to learn from the studies of neuropsychiatry and drug addiction. For example, substance abuse “results in neuroadaptations in brain reward and also stress pathways..”²

In turn, this modification of brain pathways is partially what explains for increased cravings for such substances and helps to reinforce the behavior. That is, increases the desire or urge to do the drug.

Or, in the case of overeating “rewarding” foods – for example, high in salt, sugar, and fat – these foods might also have similar effects on the brain.

Although the science on this topic is not very well understood, there’s a lot to be learned here when it comes to better dealing with stress-eating.

Long story short, the more often we choose these overindulgent “comfort foods”, the more likely we are to crave such unhealthy foods. Sort of a vicious cycle.

Is stress preventing your digestion?

First, to understand the effects of stress on diet, consider the two different parts of the nervous system, sympathetic and parasympathetic. You’ve probably heard of the sympathetic nervous system as the “fight or flight” system. This means that in times of high stress, sympathetic nervous system is activated to signal stress hormones to release, while inhibiting other hormones from releasing.

However, when this part of the nervous system is signaled on for too long, on a daily basis, this chronic level of stress causes more problems and prevents the opposing system from doing its job.

On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system is sometimes referred to as “rest and digest” system. Moreover, we need stress-relief and a sense of calm and peace to help keep this system working well.

So, if high stress is normal for you, and you don’t properly rest and recover from stress, this may be preventing important digestive enzymes and hormones from working normally. Think of high stress as kind of like shutting down the dimmer light switch on normal digestive processes. If we don’t properly digest foods, other worse problems can eventually happen such as micronutrient malabsorption and micronutrient deficiencies.

But the good news, you can do something to reverse this trend. If this state of chronic stress and poor digestion sounds like you, it’s time to learn to respect how powerful stress management techniques can actually be. And then, get to practicing them.

What to do about chronic stress and stress eating?

Unfortunately, I don’t have many easy answers here. That’s because what works well for one may not work well for another person. But the important lesson here is that stress-management is key to promoting normal digestive processes, and overall, for feeling the best we are meant to feel.

My top five recommendations for managing stress and limit stress-eating:

• Eat a consistent and regular meal pattern – three meals per day, about the same time, daily
• Balance out your meals and snacks – make sure each provides a good source of protein, some dietary fats and fibrous carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc.)
• Drink plenty of water and/or other unsweetened, non-caffeinated fluids – aim for over 64 ounces per day
• Get physical – even 10 minutes of physical activity once or twice daily can make a difference
• Practice intentional de-stressing activities – daily stretching, yoga, meditation, tai chi, etc.

What are some of you most effective ways at managing your daily stressors and limiting stress-eating? Leave a comment below if you’ve found some effective ways to manage your stress and limit stress eating.

Thanks for stopping by today!

References:

1. Harvard Medical School. Why stress causes people to overeat. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-stress-causes-people-to-overeat.
2. Chao, Ariana M et al. “Stress, cortisol, and other appetite-related hormones: Prospective prediction of 6-month changes in food cravings and weight.” Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) vol. 25,4 (2017): 713-720. doi:10.1002/oby.21790