The Good Way to Stress Eat

It is a well known fact that stress can lead to periods of over-eating. It is a way to temporarily cope with the stress. This binge-eating, however, can be bad for a persons health if they aren’t monitoring what they are eating and how much of it. My post relates directly to stress-eating involving students and adults in the workplace. What if they are paying attention to what they are eating? What foods should be considered when eating emotionally? Is there a good way to eat to reduce stress that can benefit them?

The first nutrient that should be considered when eating to fight stress is Vitamin C. This is great because it is so common in fruits and other healthy food. A German study showed that people who ingested more Vitamin C than others showed lower levels of stress when faced with acute psychological challenges. The test involved 120 people; half took 1,000 mg prior to a public speaking task combined with math problems. The people who took the Vitamin C reported lower levels than the others. This sounds like a helpful strategy for stressed out college students. An earlier study also showed that Vitamin C fought cortisol levels in animals. Specifically, in rats it not only prevented cortisol from being produced but eliminated physical signs of stress as well. These studies do show significant correlation to Vitamin C’s benefits against stress, and it can probably be considered a legitimate battler to stress. However, these studies do not prove causation.

Vitamin-C

The next nutrient worthy of attention is Vitamin B. Recently there was a rise in the workplace stress levels of working Australians. There was a randomized, double blind placebo-controlled study conducted in Australia which involved 200 full-time Australian workers between the age of 30-65, excluding smokers. All of the participants reported being stressed in the workplace. The workers were randomized and some were given a Vitamin B supplement for 6 months and some did not. The ones who received the Vitamin B reported less stress claims, lower absenteeism, and increased work productivity after 6 months. This study supports the correlation between Vitamin B and reduces stress levels in the workplace. With more studies showing the same results and lowering the P-value to lower than .05, then we can conclude that Vitamin B is another healthy nutrient to fight stress. You can find Vitamin B in foods like vegetables, cheese, pork, beef, eggs, liver, chicken, and whole-grains.

Vitamin-B-Foods

Chart of foods rich in Vitamin B.

While there are foods that help fight stress, you should also be careful to avoid the ones that trigger it. Some of these may be common sense but some stress triggering foods include:

  • Sweetened/caffeinated teas (natural teas can be beneficial)
  • Coffee/energy drinks
  • Alcohol
  • Sugar/soda
  • Fast foods
  • Butter

Next time you are stressed out, eating might be a healthy way to battle that feeling, as long as you do it right. Pay attention to what you eat, go heavy on the fruits, veggies, and fish. They are all very healthy alternatives that when incorporated into your diet will give you the right amount of Vitamins B and C to kick the stress out of you. Work to avoid the groups the foods I mentioned as well. The right diet is one step towards perfecting your stress management.

 

4 thoughts on “The Good Way to Stress Eat”

  1. Tyler John Sokolich Post author

    Hi Montana. In regards to your question about tea, I probably should have been more specific in my post. In natural teas there are tons of health benefits and there are some nutrients that do help combat stress. You are right about both of those things and I wouldn’t tell you to avoid them. What I should have said about the tea is what I just mentioned that the naturals are best, just don’t drink too much of them. Tea is high in oxalates, which can be bad for your kidneys posing health risks. That being said, you probably will only be affected by the oxalates if you are taking in above average amounts of tea each day. Avoid teas high in sugar or that are sweetened. Teas like iced tea or ones that are caffeinated are the ones that I was mainly pointing towards. Many people like to put their own sugar in tea as well; if you are one of those you probably already know to avoid artificial sweeteners like Splenda, and don’t sweeten it too much. Thanks for your feedback, I’ll edit my post so it is more accurate. Here is the article where I read about the oxolates, it also contains a pretty ridiculous story about a guy who almost drank himself to death with tea.

  3. Montana Telman

    I never knew that vitamins played such a key role in helping one avoid stress eating, my perspective until now was, if you’re stressed eat, but don’t eat food that is unhealthy or bad for your body. Now I see that may not be the case. What really surprised me was that you mentioned Tea as something that triggered stress, I understand that caffeine may trigger stress but I was always under the impression that tea helped you de-stress. I still believe that from my experience tea is a wonderful de-stressor, certain teas help me sleep, some engergize me, etc. This article posted on Harvard Medical School’s page expresses this benefits of drinking tea, (http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/health-benefits-linked-to-drinking-tea) and says tea has no harmful affects unless you drink too much and get caffeine jitters. A lot of teas also help curb stress eating which is why I found it shocking. I actually followed a tea regime to loss weight and kick start my immune system (not a fad diet tea regime). I drank natural teas such as white tea, oolong, green tea and rooibos and found that I was actually stress eating much less than I could normally.

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