Feeling on edge a lot or jittery over simple things? Do you feel constantly agitated about something, yet you have no idea what it is? Your stomach churns, have a strong sense of impending doom or your heart racing? This is a sign of anxiety and stress. This can be caused by your stressful lifestyle and eating habits.
Your mood is affected by what you eat. Your blood sugar fluctuations can alter your body’s chemistry and cause stress related symptoms. When your blood sugars go down, your body goes into survival mode signaling the brain to eat something, anything quickly. This fluctuation in the blood sugar causes these stress like symptoms, hence the term stress eating.
When you become genuinely stress the body craves more food, mostly foods that are high in sugar and fat. Foods that can give you a sudden sugar rush or a burst of energy. Though, these types of food wear off as soon as they hit you. Making you crave again and again. This cause your blood sugar to alter like crazy.
When you change your diet to something more balance, it can help lower your craving and stress. However, there are certain foods that can alter your mood and still increase your stress levels. If there are certain foods that can increase your stress levels, there is also food that can lower them. Below are some stress banishing food that you need in your diet.
Eating Little, Every Few Hours
When we go longer than three hours without snacking our blood sugar start to drop causing unwanted physical symptoms. This can cause irritation and increase in stress levels. Try to eat three full meals a day and eat tiny snacks in between. You can snack on some high protein food before going to sleep, this will prevent you from getting low blood sugar in the morning.
Rich in Antioxidant
Antioxidants help repair the body and remove free radicals in the system. It can remove toxins in the body and can help control the symptoms of stress. Eating vegetables can give you the antioxidant your body needs. The best source is vegetables and fruits that are bright in color such as carrots, strawberries, tomatoes, oranges, and so much more. Make sure that you get at least one vegetable based or fruit based meal a day.
Protein
Adding more protein to your diet will balance your blood sugar levels. You can take in protein powders to get your needed protein or add more eggs, meat and fish to your diet. Eating protein early in the morning can help balance your blood sugar through the day, preventing spikes.
Smart Snacking
Instead of reaching for that bag of chops opt for the healthier choices. Foods that are high and sugar and fat can affect your mood and cause you to crash during the day. Some foods will also increase your stress levels such as fatty and greasy food. Pick foods that would boost your concentration and energy such as herbal teas, and whole meal foods.
Food has s huge impact on our physical and mental well being. Eating the wrong things can make our body go haywire. It can alter the balance of our body and create internal problems. That comfort food your always cling on after a stressful day can actually increase your stress levels. According to recent studies people that eat junk food everyday are 37% more likely to develop mental illness. So, before chowing down consider what you are putting in your body.
