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Stress And The Food We Eat

Stress is a part of everyone’s life. All of us encounter stressful situations. There are a number of reasons that can cause stress. A stressor can be in the form of financial trouble, losing a job or losing a loved one.

Dealing with stress head on is very important. Stress helps to put us through our paces. It is important to know what we should and what we should not do when faced with a stressful situation.

We can do little to change the reasons that cause stress. Our emphasis should be to take steps that can help us to overcome and fight stress. Heavy and strenuous exercise is a great stress buster. Exercise helps us to fight stress by releasing endorphins into our blood stream. Endorphins are feel good chemicals that promote a sense of well being.  Exercise makes you feel better about yourself and improves self-esteem.

A number of people are susceptible to binge eating when faced with stress. It is easy to fall prey to junk food such as pizza, hamburgers, doughnuts and milkshakes. It is okay once in a while. The fact is that stress at times reduces our will power and we find comfort in these types of foods. Junk food is unhealthy. We should try to avoid junk food.

It almost sounds like a cliché when we say that junk food is low on nutrition and high on calories and saturated fat. Junk food is high on the glycemic index and we should condition our minds on avoiding such foods. We should put a lot of stress on eating for energy and nutrition. This can be done by eating fiber rich food, lean meat, vegetables and fruit.

Simple steps such as getting enough exercise and fresh air can help us to deal with stress.  Most of us don’t realize that food and nutrition also play a very important part in helping us to fight stress. We need to do the right things to manage and deal with stress.