How Stress Impacts Nutrition
While it may not be the first thing that you think about, stress can directly impact your nutrition. So, instead of wanting to just change what you eat in hopes that it will then fix many of the nutrition-related problems that you have or think that you have, you also have to work on first managing stressors in your life.
Let’s talk stress—whether it comes from your job, your lifestyle, your friends, your family, your negative thoughts about how you look, this can truly impact everything from your gut, your sleep, your neuroendocrine system [hormones, intestines, lungs, colon].
>>So, what does that mean? This can then cause poor food breakdown and absorption, difficulties in the GI tract, raised blood pressure, poor metabolism of glucose in the blood, higher difficulties in bone and muscle health/recovery.
>>Want to break it down even more? When it comes to hormones that stress can impact, we’re talking serotonin, gastrin, epinephrine, cortisol. So, again, this then impacts your digestion and GI [serotonin, gastrin], your adrenaline in relation to higher heart rate and blood pressure [epinephrine], your sleep, inflammation, fight/flight mode, proper nutrient usage [cortisol].
>>What is the main conclusion to all of this? Yes, you can eat foods that will help to lower cortisol levels, help to keep inflammation at a manageable range, even adapt to heavier loads of stress, all of which are beneficial. But what I want you to keep in mind that it is important to remove stressors that you can or find ways that deal with those stressors in a way that they don’t overtake every thought. Whether this looks like meditation, movement, dedicating more time to your selfcare, having difficult talks with those around you in order to focus more on you, these are all examples of ways in which you can make changes outside of nutrition in order to have a better end result with your food.
>>Some examples of stress reducing foods include: chicken, eggs, nutritional yeast [vitamin B12; aids in metabolizing cortisol], fatty fish, chia seeds, flax seeds, avocado [omega-3s], bananas, leafy greens, dark chocolate [magnesium; lowers cortisol and relaxes both the body + mind], yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha [probiotic; gut health].
All in all, working towards managing the stress in your life should be top priority in order to then manage your nutrition and find peace through food. You can eat the most nutrient dense foods each day, but when there is high stress, this can then end up leading to poor sleep, higher blood pressure, weight gain, high cholesterol, high inflammation. Focusing on both lowering stress and having a healthy relationship with all foods is the perfect combination in the healthier body and mind.
By, Katie Henry, MS, CNS-c