Using Diet to Control Stress
Last updated: 07/09/2006 - 10:44
Make sure you're working at your best. Take a look at energy boosting tips to maximise your potential at work.
Learn to check for signs of overstress.
Watch for the telltale disturbances in your sleep pattern. Read your body signs in much the same way as the diabetic learns the early warning signs of abnormal blood sugar levels.
Get off the Rollercoaster
Learn to Read Body Signs
Learn to check for signs of overstress. Watch for the telltale disturbances in your sleep pattern. Read your body signs in much the same way as the diabetic learns the early warning signs of abnormal blood sugar levels.
Likewise, if you are prone to overstress, you must learn to look for warning signs.
Exchange Your Stresses
If a new stress comes into your life, eliminate another stress. The tendency is for people to let their stresses pile up rather than reducing them.
Use Your Toolbox
You now have a toolbox full of ways to deal with overstress. You can use the tools from this guide to set yourself back on the path of well being. Start today!
People who are overstressed almost always begin to use sugar as a pick-me-up. Their blood sugar goes up and down wildly. Thus, the most important dietary consideration is to keep your blood sugar from swinging between high and low levels.
In order to feel well, you must level out your blood sugar, avoiding the sugar highs and sugar lows. Take your sugar in the form of complex carbohydrates, such as cereals, rice, pasta, bread and potatoes.
These foods, comprised of tightly interlinked sugars, are broken down slowly by the body, releasing their sugar over long periods. Eating frequent small meals, instead of a few large ones, also helps keep your blood sugar stable.
Eat More Vegetables
Your brain's production of one of the happy messengers (serotonin) is sensitive to your diet. Eating more vegetables can increase serotonin production. This increase is due to improved absorption of the amino acid L-tryptophan.
Vegetables contain the natural, safe, form of L tryptophan. Meats contain natural L-tryptophan also, but when you eat meat, the L-tryptophan has to compete with so many other amino acids for absorption that the L-tryptophan loses out. The net result is that you get better absorption when you eat vegetables.
In other words: eat a salad for lunch.
Reduce use of Pick-me-ups
To cut down on your intake of pick-me-ups, remove them from the house and any other place that is within easy reach. Do not forget to clear your desk drawer at work and the glove compartment of the car.
Even though you want to reduce your sugar, caffeine, tobacco or alcohol consumption, just the sight of a cookie can lead you to eat it; just the sight of a beer might lead you to drink it - before you even have a chance to stop yourself.
Start Exercising
Begin an exercise that you enjoy. It's often best to do something that brings you into contact with other people. The value of such exercise, three times a week for 20 minutes to two hours, cannot be overemphasised. Enjoyable exercise, in moderation, boosts your happy messengers in a smooth sustained fashion.
Exercise has another beneficial effect. Most people, when exercising, do not worry. They are actually resting the nerve cells in the brain that worry, giving those cells time to renew their stores of happy messengers, so they can function normally the next time needed.
Consult your GP
If you have tried all of the preceding tips and still have symptoms of overstress, it is time you got some assistance – visit your doctor. It may be an early warning sign of some hidden illness:
These are examples of physical illnesses that you might not be aware of - but which cause enough stress on your body to create overstress.
Reduce the Pace of Change in your Life
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