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How to improve stress controlled by eating habits?


Stress eating


Yes, we heard about stress eating however any daily stress can lead us to order comfort foods. Feeling overwhelmed after work, not feeling like cooking, preparing dinner and doing the dishes after a hard day. And so, it is easy now to order online from lots of different choices and comfort food is right at the door as soon as you get in. These meals are ultra-processed (do you wonder about all those allergens now?), ready-to-eat and naturally convenient to consume. Bottom line, we will all turn to food to cope at one point or another in our lives, either because of one stressful scenario or day or due to a longer stressful period, which could be a personal one - someone ill in the family, as well as a professional one - an important deadline. Nevertheless, short-term, or long-term stress eating, both eventually lead to increased overweight.


Comfort food is greatly rewarding to our brain and typically high in fat and sugar, triggering positive memories such as being with family and friends, taking us back to the ‘happy times’. Experiencing stress leads to increased activity of the reward areas of the brain while naturally reducing the effectiveness of (self) control areas, which can lead to excessive overeating.


How does eating with family reduce stress?



According to the American Heart Association’s Healthy Food Survey:

  • Chronic stress can increase the risk of heart diseases and stroke. Via connecting with loved ones during regular meals together, helps people to slow down managing stress better.

  • 91% of parents reported lower stress levels when spending time with family. It also helps to increase self-esteem and improve social connections especially with kids.

  • Most people eat alone half of the time, but 84% wish to share a meal with others.

  • More than half of the people surveyed admit making healthy meals when eating with others, but they also have difficulties arranging/scheduling that time to spend that meal with family and friends.

  • 65% of adults say they are at least somewhat stressed, and more than 25% are very or extremely stressed.


How does reflexology treat stress?

  • During stress the body muscles tense up and reflexology helps to loosen them.

  • Regular reflexology is highly recommended for mental health, to release endorphins and serotonin, which helps to switch from a sympathetic state (flight or fight response) to a parasympathetic mode (resting state). It shifts the brain waves into a deeper consciousness where the body can heal itself. As a relaxed state results in self-awareness, the same way as we trigger our stresses, with a calm mind we are able to send a message to our body with the opposite, peaceful effect.

  • Stress introduces hormonal imbalance. When reducing stress with reflexology treatment, via lowering cortisol levels by flushing the excess cortisol out, the body is able to restore to a healthy, natural hormonal balance (homeostasis).

  • Reflexology reduces anxiety and stress, inducing a state of calm in the body and mind by re-balancing the lymphatic and endocrine system and boosting blood circulation.

  • Regular reflexology can provide a certain sensation of knowing what true relaxation feels like and you may return as many times as possible.


What else can be done about it?


As we saw above, the stressors, the source of turning to the food should be dealt with.

  • Exercise a bit more, a minimum of 30 minutes’ walk per day will suffice.

  • Keep a structured nighttime routine and sleep hygiene.

  • Implement more relaxation activities in your day, such as yoga or meditation.

  • Therapy, to treat stresses that aren’t going away on their own.

  • Get in touch with a trained dietitian, who can discuss stress eating in more details tailored to your needs.


Best

Klara

07912287453





Sources

Eating family meals together can reduce stress, Medscape, Medscape staff, January 2023, https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/986871



How stress leads us to reach for comfort foods, Medscape, Travis D. Materson, August 2023, https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/994793


 
 
 

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