Stress can be caused by many issues in our life on all levels. Stress can come from emotional upset, thoughts that disturb us, physical pain or illness, spiritual disconnection and lack of harmony or from incorrect energy flow and blockages. Stress can also be increased by the incorrect foods that we eat.
The foods we eat play a huge role in our wellbeing. Stress and anxiety can cause lots of unpleasant feelings in the body, everything from headaches to hot flushes. The irony is that when we are stressed we usually don’t feel like cooking. Often our judgement goes out the window and we grab the first food in front of us. Usually it’s a food that has little or no nutritional value and is bad for us. At the time it’s just a quick fix to get rid of our hunger and, we think, to give us more fuel to continue our day but that’s not true.
The cup of coffee, tea or energy drink that you have in the morning or in the afternoon to give you a boost is full of caffeine which puts a strain on your adrenals, can cause shakiness, put pressure on your heart, give you palpitations and even interrupt your sleep patterns. Cut down on your coffee and tea and cut out the energy drinks. Instead substitute with herbal tea, chamomile at night to assist sleep and, in between, drink lots of water – up to two litres a day. Water is good for you. If you crave a hot drink and don’t like herbal teas then have hot water (minus the tea bag). It will calm your stress levels and flush your system.
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Often when we are rushed and stressed we tend to grab foods that are high in fat and sugar. These are referred to as junk food and can contribute to many illnesses. The sugar fix you need emotionally and get from junk food actually increases your stress because your glucose levels in the body increase temporarily and artificially. Then when the artificial kick disappears and your glucose levels drop you feel bad and stressed (physically this time) again and need another fix of some kind. This creates a vicious cycle between food and stress fed by the bad foods we eat. If you must have a sugar fix, eat fruit and mix it with some nuts. The chewing action of nuts often releases suppressed anger we hold in our jaws and gives us that quick temporarily relief from whatever is stressing us out.
Stress and food have been connected for such a long time many of us don’t even realise the addictions we have built up over the years, even as young children, to soothe our frayed nerves and emotions. The lollies you were offered as a child to quieten you when you cry laid a foundation for sweet soothing and the times you were told to be quiet and you would get your favourite food laid the foundation for you stifling your feelings and pushing them down with foods. That led over the years, for some of us, to bad eating habits and weight issues – emotional eating. Your parents of course did not do this intentionally. They were trying to assist a stressed-out child the best way they knew how so there is no blame factor here. You will also probably find they were pacified in the same way. However this created in you a search for foods, bad foods, foods that perhaps lacked nutrition and with our fast food era, plastic foods with no nutritional value at all. They are fast and fill the gaping hole in our frayed emotions so in the mouth they go and settle in our tummies not to be digested properly and to cause inflammation and weight gain.
Add to this the fact that many of these foods are laced with lots of salt and we have a population that in a very short time have built up a salt addiction to add to the sugar addiction. High salt intake will clog your arteries, increase blood pressure, mess up how you metabolise fluid in your body so you become bloated and even long term it lays the foundations for heart disease. Yet what is one of the things we go for when stressed – hot chips.
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Hot chips are usually cooked in unhealthy oils that have been there for ages and turned into saturated, trans fats which only add to your stress and anxiety long term. Add to this the salt you crave and you have a cocktail which temporarily pacifies your stress but has just added kilos (which will stress you more), made you feel bloated and dumped a heap of fat into your bloodstream plus added to elevating your blood pressure.
The above adds to already stimulated adrenal glands only more cortisol stimulation and this makes for a recipe of even more stress. Often we may feel a glass of wine could calm our stress levels but nothing could be further from the truth. Alcohol releases adrenalin which can also increase your heartbeat and could be adding to the stress. You don’t feel it at the time but after a while the addiction of needing the glass of wine (or beer) at the end of the day becomes stronger and before you know it you have become hooked on an alcoholic drink which is not really helping and you are as stressed as ever in your day to day affairs.
Really the best way to handle stress is not through food. You need a way to directly alleviate whatever is causing the issue. Seek help from someone who can empower you to learn the techniques of how to relax. Yoga, Pilates, tai chi and meditation are a good start. If you are an active person, expend that stressed energy through running, cycling or aerobics. Balance that with the meditation to quieten the mind. That is the start to having a stress-free life and, from there, you can learn ways to have a healthier diet and fill up that hole that stress creates in you by using good foods, not foods that will poison your system.
