Late for work-grab a take-away on the way. The report is due-pour another cup of coffee. The children are yelling-take an ice cream break. Stress is all around us, and food often provides a welcome, if momentary, break. Unfortunately, the food we often turn to in times of stress, like coffee and chocolate, have a way of making us feel even more frazzled later on.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Research has shown that eating more of some foods and less of others can cause stress hormones in your body to decline. Making slight changes in your diet will produce physical changes in the brain that can make the world’s problems just a little bit easier to handle.
Calming Carbohydrates
Freshly baked cheese rolls or doughnuts. “Slap-chips” with a dash of vinegar. Delicious Alfredo pasta. These are just a few of the “comfort foods” that many of us turn to instinctively in times of stress. As it turns out, our instincts are dead-on. Researchers have found that foods high in carbohydrates produce changes in the brain that can that the edge off of stress. During emotionally trying times, the brain quickly uses up the supply of serotonin, a chemical that imparts feelings of well-being. When serotonin levels fall, negative feelings tend to rise. Eating foods that are high in carbohydrates, like bread, doughnuts, “slap chips” or pasta can quickly raise low serotonin levels, making you feel less stressed and more relaxed.
Beneficial Vitamin B6
Foods that are high in vitamin B6, such as bananas, prunes and potatoes, can relieve irritability and stress, making people feel a little bit better. Vitamin B6 improves mood by raising levels of dopamine, a chemical in the brain that is related to feeling good. When you don’t get enough Vitamin B6 in your diet, dopamine levels fall, and you can experience negative feelings. In addition, people who get very little Vitamin B6 do not produce enough serotonin, which will make them feel even worse.
The Caffeine Crash
Just about anywhere there are people hard at work; there will also be a coffeepot. Research has shown that people drink more coffee and caffeine-containing soft drinks during high-pressure times. Caffeine produces a quick “zing” that can momentarily make you feel more relaxed and confident. Fairly quickly however, it stimulates the production of cortisol, a stress hormone that raises heart rate and blood pressure. This can make you feel more stressed than before.
The Stress-Chocolate Connection
There is a good reason we head for chocolates and biscuits when we are under pressure. Eating sugar- and fat-rich foods help blunt the effects of our physiological response to chronic stress. During chronic stress, levels of glucocorticoid hormones increase, these elevated glucocorticoid levels result in people engaging in pleasure-seeking activities such as eating fat and sugar. When they do so, they gain abdominal fat. In the short term, “comfort eating” may be worth the extra kilograms if it helps us to calm down. In the long-term, however, fixing the source of stress or finding alternatives such as exercise or watching a movie, are healthier for our waistlines.
The other problem with the stress/carbohydrate connection is roller-coaster cravings. Firstly your blood sugar soars, and you feel great. Then the pancreas pumps out a big dose of insulin, which pushes all that sugar into your body cells, and blood sugar plummets. You feel irritable again….so you reach for more chocolates and biscuits. The result? More irritability…and finally not fitting into your favourite jeans.