An imminent target at work. An upcoming family gathering. Kid’s exams coming close. There’s always stress imbedded in your life no matter what stage of life you are in. All of us face anxiety and stress as a natural response to a number of situations. With increasing hassle in daily life, stress and anxiety has become a routine of life, as a matter of fact, many of them frequently follow mindfulness, therapy, exercise etc. to successfully muddle through the stress.
But do you know, there are certain foods that induce stress and anxiety? You can manage your stress and anxiety with some tools, however, if you still aren’t relieved of your stress or anxiety, it might be of great help to take a glance at the food you eating. Sometimes our body goes into fight or flight mode, this is due to the increase in the levels of cortisol in the body. Whilst this is helpful in facing a deadly animal, continued release of cortisol for a long period of time, can have a detrimental effect on your body. It can weaken your immune system, can increase the inflammation in the body which is a foundation for lifestyle related disorders like PCOD, type 2 diabetes etc., it can also cause weight gain, leading to obesity.
Here are the foods that needs to be cleared off or limited from your plate to hack the stress.
1. Salt
Salt is the common ingredient which gives taste to the food. However, excess of salt can increase the level of sodium in the body. This causes your blood pressure to raise, increases water retention. This puts a stress on the heart.
2. Processed meat
Processed meats are usually preservative laden and are loaded with sodium nitrate to increase their shelf life. These additives cause inflammation by producing more free radicals in the body and leads to decrease in the energy levels and imparts more stress in the body.
3. Caffeine
Caffeine is a major component present in coffees and teas, we often hear people say “I can’t function without my morning dose of coffee or tea”. Caffeine in coffee triggers the production of cortisol in the body. This can make you anxious and jittery. Caffeine can overexert your adrenal glands in response to the stimulated nervous system. This can raise your blood pressure and heart rate, leading to increased feeling of anxiousness. Limit your caffeine intake to 1 or 2 cups per day, this can help in reducing the stress.
4. Fried foods
Diets rich in fried foods can make you feel sluggish and uncomfortable because of the packed calories in the. Subjecting the food to higher temperatures, not only strips them off nutrients but also gives birth to various anti-nutrients like free-radicals, carcinogens etc., this leads to added stress to your body cells as they lack nutrients.
5. Alcohol
“I had a long day, I need a drink”, someone says and people often drink alcohol to destress without realising the fact that, alcohol adds up more stress to the body. We don’t recognise it as a stress booster rather than a buster because of the temporary calmness it gives you. It acts as a minor sedative and a depressant. But would you really stop with one drink? If you overdo your alcohol intake, it exacerbates the anxiety, it decreases your serotonin levels. And if you think, alcohol helps you sleep, you need to understand that, it disturbs your sleeping patterns. you might fall asleep more easily than usual but the quality of the sleep to refresh you is lessened.
6. Refined flours
White flours or refined flours are processed flours that miss out the outer bran layer. They get easily digested and absorbed quickly into the blood stream. This raises your blood sugar levels rapidly, leading to the increase in cortisol into the body, raising the stress levels.
7. Aged and fermented foods
Cheese platter or a glass of red wine with dinner! Sounds like an amazing food combination, right? But cured, fermented, aged, cultured foods can cause more damage to your body than you could ever think of! That is because of the production of histamine, a neurotransmitter, that is produced as a part of these processes. This aggravates most of the bodily processes like digestion, hormones, cardiovascular system and nervous systems. This can trigger anxiety and insomnia in people who already are suffering from these issues.
8. Artificial sweeteners
Sugar is bad on its own, but imagine those drinks and candies which are sweetened with artificial sweeteners! These artificial sweeteners can have an impact on digestion and metabolism, cardiovascular disorders, and headaches. They increase the insulin levels in blood, leading to glucose intolerance in the long run. They also impart the oxidative stress and increased nucleic acid oxidation leading to inflammation and stress in the body.
Steering clear of these stress inducing foods is as important as learning how to naturally relieve stress. You can indeed reduce your anxiety and stress levels by eliminating these foods along with following a healthy stress management regime.
9. Sugar
Did you ever think of the sugar rush you get after finishing a cola or eating a huge slice of cake or perhaps a large cookie or may be anything that is loaded with sugar? Your answer will positively be an “yes”. Here’s what sugar does. When you consume high sugar foods excessively and frequently, there will be numerous spikes in blood sugar levels, making them unstable. This instability, puts your body under stress and triggers the release of cortisol to deal with the stress. This imbalance of sugars and presence of cortisol in blood, makes you feel anxious and stressed out.
References:
1. https://happihomemade.com/foods-that-cause-stress/
2. https://www.runtastic.com/blog/en/foods-that-cause-stress/
3. https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/surprising-foods-trigger-anxiety#8
4. https://www.webmd.com/depression/ss/slideshow-avoid-foods-anxiety-depression
5. http://www.eatingwell.com/article/291444/7-foods-that-secretly-stress-you-out/
7. http://www.ncausa.org/Portals/56/PDFs/Communication/NCA_NCDT2017.pdf?ver=2017-03-29-115235-727