Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Foods that Fight Stress

Some advice from Parents magazine.
As a dietitian, I often give moms advice on feeding their family and themselves healthfully. With three young children myself, I know how tough it can be to balance nutrition, convenience, and taste. Moms often tell me they tend to often reach for sugary, fatty comfort foods, and there's a physical reason for it: When your body is under stress, it releases the hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Both cause blood sugar to spike but then eventually plummet, leading to a craving for sweets. However, certain healthier foods may help your body deal better with the various physical effects of stress, and others may actually improve your mood. Of course, food alone won't do the trick, since so many variables affect the way we feel. But proper nutrition is one of the few factors that we can control, points out Parents advisor Connie Diekman, R.D., director of University Nutrition at Washington University, in St. Louis. So put down the bag of chips and read on. (Read entire article.)
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4 comments:

The North Coast said...

I'm amazed that well-educated young mothers still feed their kids these sugary cereals. Is this why we have so much obesity among our children-not to mention our adults? It is well-known that the excess of sugar in our diets is the cause of a huge number of serious health problems and that too much of it makes a person feel horrible, not better.

elena maria vidal said...

You are so right, NC. Not only sugary foods but all the processed foods are bad.

The North Coast said...

Processed foods, such as the packaged dinners and pot pies, and canned food, contain massive quantities of corn derivatives, which are high in glucose, which of course is sugar.

I've always said that this country won't go down on drugs, but on fast food and packaged food. Looks like that is what's happening.

Julygirl said...

The abundance of prepared processed food available in super-markets is astounding especially during the current era when there is so much info out there about healthy eating.