Diet and Exercise Planning: Your Diet and Stress
Learn more about today’s diet and exercise planning tip; how stress affects your diet.
For many of us there is a direct relationship between the foods we eat and stress. Many of us turn to snack foods during stressful situations. This is a way of comforting ourselves. However, this type of behavior can cause unwanted stress too.
Stress can play a big role in what we eat. Overeating can be attributed to stress as well. Caffeine which is found in coffee, certain teas, soda, and chocolate can also be related to our stress levels. Caffeine can elevate your heart rate and your blood pressure. This is one way it adds stress to the body. Many do not realize that decreasing your caffeine intake can help to reduce your stress. However, caffeine is highly addictive. When trying to cut back on your caffeine intake, decrease your caffeine intake slowly to avoid suffering ill effects of caffeine withdrawal.
Alcohol is another supposed stress reliever. However, alcohol can increase your stress. Alcohol can cause the body to produce adrenaline which affects your sleep. Alcohol consumption can make you tense and interfere with the body’s immune system.
Sugar is a common comfort food that many turn to. Eating foods high in sugar can increase your stress levels. How? Sugar affects the adrenal glands and can lead to irritability and depression. Eating foods high in sugar and fat can strain the cardiovascular system leading to more stress on the body.
Many snack foods are high in salt. Foods high in salt can also increase the body’s stress. High salt intake can raise one’s blood pressure.
In order to control your stress, eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole foods. These foods help you naturally fight stress. They also contain nutrients that are beneficial to your overall health. These foods can help to prevent weight gain. Try eating your fruits and vegetables raw, they contain maximum nutrition this way. Here are some warning signs of a diet high in stress. Headaches, neck or back pain, irritability after a meal, anxiety are common symptoms of food induced stress.
by Kristy Haugen
- Learn how green tea used in your diet and exercise plan may prevent heart disease.
Diet and exercise planning can incorporate heart disease prevention with supplements like green tea.
- Read more diet and exercise planning from this article-Stress And Your Diet.
Learn how stress can affect your diet.
