Firstly let me clarify what stress is. It’s essentially anything that causes your body to mount a stress response.
A stress response is where stress hormones are released from your adrenal glands, your heart rate increases and blood vessels widen, your pupils dilate, energy shifts from housekeeping processes such as digestion to your muscles and your blood sugar levels increase. This all happens so that you are prepared to fight or take flight away from the very thing that stressed you.
Many moons ago this response would have been invaluable in ensuring that you stayed alive by helping you run away from a hungry mountain lion however modern stressors are more subtle but still trigger the same stress response. Things like relationship conflicts, financial worries, whether your children are struggling at all school, training for a marathon – these are modern stressors that can bubble underneath our radar so that our body doesn’t always know when to switch off the ‘got to fight/run away’ mode and restore calm and balance. Our adrenal glands are able to deal with increased demands over a short period of time but if the stress becomes more long term and chronic then this can put an incredible strain on the body and contribute to a wide range of health issues.
The following is by no means an exhaustive list but features some effects of stress you may have experienced:
- Irritability
- Poor sleep
- Feeling tearful
- Sugar cravings
- Headaches
- Feeling exhausted
- Loss of concentration
So what role does food play in helping us deal with stress? Well, when our stress response is trigger, vital nutrients may be depleted more rapidly and we may find ourselves needing an increased supply of energy to fuel our body – both of these things can be found in food and the way we eat can also play a part in minimising the effects of stress on our body.
Some basics of a stress busting diet include:
- Eat regularly: ideally a meal or snack every 2-3 hours BUT it is important to be guided by your own appetite here, don’t eat for the sake of eating! Eating regularly can help your blood sugar levels remain even rather than experiencing highs and lows
- Eat a rainbow: aim for 5 portions of vegetables and 2 of fruit every day. Eating a rainbow is the surest way of getting a plethora of nutrients into your body
- Prioritise protein: when chronically stressed the body has an increased demand for protein plus protein can also help slow the release of sugar into the blood stream so aim to have some protein with every meal and snack. Sources include meat, eggs, fish, quinoa, peas, lentils, beans and pulses. You could also try a protein powder for a quick and easy solution.
- Stay hydrated: This is so important as hydration is needed for digestion, circulation, temperature control and for our brains to work well – basically water is an essential component of the human body. Research suggests that losing as little as 1% of your body weight in fluid may reduce mental performance as well as potentially inducing fatigue and headaches.
- Each individual’s needs are unique to them and depend on their health, age, size and weight as well as activity levels, the type of job they do and the climate they live in. Drinking little and often is the best way to stay hydrated. In the UK, the guideline is 6-8 glasses of water and other liquids each day to replace normal water loss – around 1.2 to 1.5 litres. Water, lower fat milk and sugar-free drinks, including tea and coffee, all count.
But what about actual foods you could eat?
Ideally we want to have a diet rich in magnesium, b-vitamins, vitamin C, zinc and essential fatty acids (EFAs) as these all have great stress busting properties. I’m a big fan of diet first rather than supplementation so putting the following in your trolley during your next food shop will be a great first step to increasing your intake of these nutrients:
- Green leafy vegetables
- Pumpkin seeds
- Nuts – especially brazil nuts, cashews and almonds
- Oily fish including mackerel, herring, salmon and sardines
- Blueberries
- Chamomile tea
- Dark chocolate
- Oats
- Chickpeas
- Fermented foods such as kefir or sauerkraut
And it goes without saying that the kind of foods to avoid are those high in sugar or fat, processed foods, caffeine and alcohol. All of these foods can seem like a quick fix in times of stress but sadly they can actually rob the body of the very nutrients you need to help you cope with the stress response thereby making the problem worse.
Whilst the above offers some tips and foods to consider, everyone is individual so if you want to find out more about how changing your diet may help you cope with stress more easily then contact me at [email protected]