Why Stress Makes it Hard to Eat Well
You’ve had a long day at work: traffic was terrible, you hardly got a lunch break because you were so busy, and the hours seemed to just drag. You get home and suddenly you’ve become the Cookie Monster and you find yourself standing in front of your fridge mindlessly eating snacks. Afterwards, you may feel bloated, fatigued, and confused.
What happened? You had all the intentions to come home and eat a nourishing dinner but why do you find yourself in this scenario when you’ve had a stressful day at work?
Whilst it may be frustrating to experience, please know that stress eating is an incredibly common occurrence for many of us. When we experience stress, our stress hormone cortisol increases. Cortisol isn’t evil, in fact, we need it to regulate our metabolism and to form memories (What is Cortisol? 2018). It’s only when we have too much of it that we run into issues such as emotional and stress eating.
So, why do we stress eat?
Elevated levels of cortisol stimulate our ghrelin levels (hunger hormone) whilst inhibiting our leptin levels (satiety hormone) which leads to increased appetite (Zellner et al., 2006). Additionally, when we’re stressed, we’re more likely to reach for palatable foods such as chocolate, cakes, ice creams and pizzas as these are often perceived as ‘comfort’ foods (Zellner et al., 2006). Higher cortisol levels have also been shown to predict binge eating (Chao et al., 2017).
So, what can we do about it?
Stress is inevitable, we can’t control someone’s poor behaviour towards us, our long list of responsibilities, or the traffic. However, we can control how we react and cope with stress. Instead of using food as a coping strategy, we can find other more health-promoting ways to reduce stress.
Meditation is a popular tool to manage stress but it’s not the only stress-relieving tool. Journaling, calling a loved one to vent, going for a run, watching a hilarious cat video, or chuckling over some memes are some other ways to reduce stress. If you want more ideas on how to manage stress, click here for my extensive list of stress-relieving activities.
We can also improve our resilience to stress by exercising regularly, maintaining positive relationships with others, and eating a healthy diet. If you want more support on eating a healthy diet that’s sustainable, click here to book a consult.
REFERENCES
Chao, A., Jastreboff, A., White, M., Grilo, C. and Sinha, R., 2017. Stress, cortisol, and other appetite-related hormones: Prospective prediction of 6-month changes in food cravings and weight. Obesity, 25(4), pp.713-720.
Hormone Health Network. 2018. What is Cortisol?. [online] Available at: <https://www.hormone.org/your-health-and-hormones/glands-and-hormones-a-to-z/hormones/cortisol> [Accessed 9 December 2021].
Zellner, D., Loaiza, S., Gonzalez, Z., Pita, J., Morales, J., Pecora, D. and Wolf, A., 2006. Food selection changes under stress. Physiology & Behavior, 87(4), pp.789-793.
