Dietary Information Article

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How to stop stress eating

The silver lining in this cloudy situation is the fact that you recognize you are stress-eating.  This gives you more power over your behaviour than you might think.

While the question targets eating as the source of concern, the underlying problem is stress.  If you deal with the stress, the binge eating will become easier to resolve and may subside on its own.

The Effects of Stress

The adrenal glands are significantly involved in the physiological experience of stress which is mediated by hormones, adrenaline (also called epinephrine) and cortisol in particular. 

Adrenal hormones:

• help regulate your body’s stores of salt and water,
• influence the physiology of stress, metabolism and inflammation, and
• contribute to sex hormone levels for androgens such as DHEA and testosterone.

Chronic and/or recurrent levels of high stress cause your adrenals to work hard and they can eventually begin to underperform.  Naturopaths call this “adrenal fatigue”.

Adrenal fatigue can be characterized by abnormal patterns of cortisol secretion that contribute to cravings for sugar, salt and comfort foods.  The alteration in the pattern of cortisol secretion can result in chronic low energy or low energy in the morning and a high energy “wired” state at night.

Dealing with Stress Eating

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a fantastic tool for managing perceptions that promote stress.  Support from a therapist or counsellor can be very helpful too.

There are, however, two very simple things you could begin to do RIGHT NOW that would make an immediate difference:

1. Substitute water for soda – even diet soda.  Cortisol can distort your blood sugar level, as can the caffeine and aspartame in diet soft drinks – you need to stabilize your blood sugar.  Moreover, there are several studies that show aspartame can affect cognitive function and mood.
2. Until you feel ready to get regular exercise, do deep breathing exercises.  Your body’s response to stress is largely controlled by the part of your nervous system called the Sympathetic Nervous System.  It’s partner, the Parasympathetic Nervous System, is the main controller of the relaxation response.  Deep (diaphragmatic) breathing triggers parasympathetic activity. This page on marksdailyapple.com provides details on the how’s and why’s.

Parts of this article originally appeared on Quora.

What are some strategies to sneak more protein into one’s diet?

It’s not difficult to get enough protein. Adults require a 0.8 – 1 gram per kilogram of body weight.

Once you work out what your target intake is, familiarize yourself with the protein content of your favourites. If you can’t tolerate a lot of meat, try more easily digested protein sources, such as poultry, fish, eggs and tofu or tempeh. Chicken breast is 31% protein by weight; tuna is 30%; eggs are 12% and tofu is 8%.

For example, if you weigh 150 lbs or 68 kilograms, you need about 54 – 68 grams of protein per day, depending on your level of physical activity. If you have a 3 egg omelet for breakfast (18 grams), lentil soup with swiss cheese on soda crackers for lunch (23 grams) and a chicken caesar salad for dinner (29 grams), you will have consumed 70 grams of protein. This total does not include protein from beverages or other foods you would probably consume in a day.

If you need to, you can increase your protein intake by having a protein drink once per day as a snack. You can purchase prepared products (e.g. Glucerna, Boost or Ensure) or make your own using Greek yogurt, milk or soy milk as the protein source.

This article originally appeared as an answer on Quora.

Children of all ages (and some adults, too) can be finicky about food.

Ensuring a healthy variety of vegetables in the diet can be difficult.  If this is your challenge, you’ll find some strategies in this article for getting vegetables into your picky eater.  Here are some ideas to consider for making vegetables more palatable:

• You can hide almost any cooked vegetable in tomato/spaghetti sauce. If you’re pressed for time, buy pre-made sauces that include multiple vegetables like Catelli’s Garden Select line of sauces.
• A number of companies make fruit juices that also contain vegetable juices: V8, Bolthouse, Arthurs.
• It’s easy to “hide” mashed sweet potato and grated carrot or zucchini in sandwich fillings like egg salad or tuna salad.
• Vegetables can easily be added to meat loaf – try sweet potato, zucchini, carrot, or cabbage. The key is to mash or grate the vegetable finely so it doesn’t make an obvious change to the texture of the meatloaf. None of these vegetables will alter the flavour significantly. Serve the meatloaf with tomato sauce instead of ketchup for added nutrition.
• Kids will often eat vegetables in a soup that they won’t eat when served as a side dish. As a time saver, fold left-over or frozen vegetables into a pre-prepared soup. If you’re buying canned soups, look for ones that are lower in sodium.
• It’s easy to serve fruits and vegetables in baked goods. Substitute apple sauce for up to 1/3 the amount of oil called for in muffin or cake recipes. Chocolate zucchini cake and carrot cake are favourites in many families.
• Sometimes renaming a dish makes a difference. For example, kids who won’t go near Vegetarian Chilli will try Spicy Mexican Casserole, particularly if they don’t know what the ingredients are.

“Invisible illnesses” and conditions of chronic pain tend to be characterized by other symptoms too, such as intense fatigue and brain fog.

Pain, fatigue and cognitive difficulties can have their roots in inflammation, and diet can be a driver of this, as explained in the basic diet information article. Other drivers of these symptoms include blood sugar dysregulation, gluten and food intolerances and nutrient deficits.

The brain is very sensitive to changes in blood sugar (glucose). Research has shown low glucose can alter the perception of pain [1]. Low glucose can also contribute to fatigue [2]. Dietary strategies that reduce wide blood sugar fluctuations can improve symptoms of pain and fatigue in chronic pain conditions.

What About Gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in grains such as barley, rye, wheat and oats. Gluten sensitivity can result in a wide variety of symptoms, including pain, fatigue and brain fog.

Sensitivity to gluten can range from mild to extreme, with the extreme form being known as celiac disease or sprue. Blood tests and biopsies are usually performed to confirm a celiac disease diagnosis, and blood tests are also available to test for milder forms of sensitivity, such as non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS).

“You are what you eat.”

It is literally true. Pain often results from inflammation, and inflammation can result from too many pro-inflammatory foods and not enough ant-inflammatory ones. Following the tips on this info sheet will help you maintain the right balance.

What’s your strategy?

To make the most of your energy peaks and minimize the limitations of the valleys, you will need to be strategic about how you eat. This article presents the dietary strategies you’ll want to use: self-assessment, implementing the basics of good nutrition and avoiding CRAP.

Three Important Questions for Self-Assessment

• Do you have at least one bowel movement daily?
• Is passing gas a rare thing for you?
• Is your breath inoffensive? (Maybe you should ask someone…)