During times of stress, it is easy to forget about maintaining physical health but it is at this very time when your body needs sufficient amounts of nutrients. Some vitamins such as B vitamins are important because they affect the nervous system as well as calcium because it is necessary to help with the tense muscles produced during stress. Without these nutrients and others, your body is not well equipt to fight off stress.
To learn about which vitamins are essential on an everyday basis and which ones are important during the damaging effects of stress, visit this web site: http://www.holisticonline.com/Stress/stress_vitamins.htm.
Here is a list of things to avoid during stressful situations because even though you might want to feel better at times like these, it will be hard to fight off the things that are increasing your stress when you unintentionally consume foods that are more harmful:
Artificial Sweeteners
Processed / Refined Foods
Additives / Preservatives
Caffeine
Alcohol
Drugs / Nicotine
Sugar
Not only are they un-nutrious, they also rob your body of the nutrients it has stored. These substances effect your heart rate, mood, behaviors and brain chemistry. They also start to make you dependent on them.
The above substances are both nutrient deficient and depleting (meaning they actually rob your body of its stores of nutrients). They also stimulate heart rate, affect mood, behaviors and brain chemistry, and can lead to dependence. These are all things that will only compound the health issues associated with stress.
Here is a list of substances to increase when under stress:
B-vitamins-This helps the entire nervous system, and helps produce energy and supports the immune system.
Vitamin C- boosts health, and reduces blood pressure and symptoms of stress.
Amino Acids- help build proteins and supports brain functioning.
Magnesium- relaxes tense muscles and regulates heartbeats.
5 comments:
Hey, great post by the way, but I do want to add a bit to it.
I would say that your "mind set" while consuming certain items has an effect on your stress levels. It can't be just what you're consuming. There has to be an x factor. For instance, when one consumes alcohol their heart rate slows down. Usually stress levels are signified by a heightened heart rate. Right?
But at the same time, I know that I can be completely calm and relaxed while smoking a cigarette and drinking a nice strong cup of coffee. Both of which are stimulants.
What do you think?
Your are totally correct, but the problem is that even though you might feel calm after drinking alcohol, it is actually doing you harm. Not when your just stressing out a little bit, but when you are really really stressed out and you are unable to over come it for a long time. The consumption of these substances are harmful during pro-longed stress not much during moderate stress. During pro-longed stress, you might not realize that your consumption of these substances are actually what is causing you not to become well again.
Oh, I gotcha, basically it's like you would be holding off you overcoming the stress and just trying to bury it?
Understandable. If you were completely stressed out, boarderline anxiety disorder and you were using alcohol as an escape, then sure. But, I wasn't really hitting on that aspect. We'll say person "y" works 9-5 in a low level management job. He has low to moderate stress at work, and none at home. He consumes alcohol at the end of the day to relax.
Now, what's to say that his consumption of alcohol to relax is different than say, someone else praying to relax, or someone else reading a book to relax.
I know that your section was on nutrition stress by the way, but just a thought.
I never knew caffine could add stress into my life. WOW! That was an eye opener. There were a few things on that list that I need to stay away from. Thanks for the info!
I would say my stress level has reached it max. My plate has been completely overloaded and it finally has taken its toll. I never realized that nutrition had a huge impact on stress. The way I have been eating the past 6 months has been terrible. I also drink caffeine non stop. I def need to reevaluate my dieting and nutrition intake to maybe simmer down some of this stress. Great blog!
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