Nutrition

Digestion

Eating right, especially during stressful times is not only important in regard to getting the proper nutrition for vitamins and minerals sake. It is extremely important to your digestive system. When the stress response is activated, blood is drawn away from the digestive system. The flow of digestive juices is halted. Thus, digestion and absorption processes are altered. If you react to stress by overeating, particularly an overindulgence in fatty foods, you are really putting stress on your digestive system. A few guidelines to keep in mind to eliminate stress to your digestive system are:

1. Eat a number of small meals rather than fewer larger meals. Besides aiding your digestion, this will keep your blood-sugar level up, which will help you to avoid getting fatigued.
2. Gradually include more and more fiber to your diet. Your system will need about 2 - 3 weeks to adjust to the change.
3. Eat breakfast. Studies show that people who skip breakfast tend to overeat the rest of the day.
4. During a stressful time, dont forget to eat. This can lead to starving all day and overeating at night.

Following these guidelines and developing sound nutritional habits will increase your resistance to stress. The key word is habit. Dont start some kind of diet program that you do not feel you could do for your whole life. Diets are temporary and most people end up in worse condition after dieting than had they just continued their normal eating habits. Changing the way you eat permanently is what works permanently. It is as simple as that.

Some of us cope with stress by eating food; sometimes lots of food. Others cannot eat anything as the first signs of stress appear. Some of us cope with stress by eating ice cream or potato chips. Others cope by eating carrot sticks or an apple.

Proper nutrition is one of the first things that gets tossed aside under stress.

You may feel like you are too busy because you are on the go all the time, so you turn to fast food. Or you may start snacking on garbage. And even worse, skip meals all together.

Unfortunately, by eating poorly you're making a bad situation worse.

A diet consisting of the same foods everyday or eating less than 1000 calories a day, or consisting mainly of high fat and high sugar will eventually result in nutritional deficiencies that may cause illness.

There are some foods which activate the stress response in you. Foods that contain caffeine and foods with sugar. And while not a food, I thought I would also mention that nicotine activates the nervous system, adding to your stress.

Not only do people deprive themselves of normal amounts of nutrition while under stress, but the body needs some nutrients in great amounts when under stress

Especially during stressful times, high levels of certain vitamins are needed to maintain proper functioning of the nervous and endocrine systems. These vitamins are vitamin C and the vitamins found in the B-Complex vitamin. Deficiencies of vitamins B-1, B-5, and B-6 can lead to anxiety, depression, insomnia, and cardiovascular weaknesses, while B-2 and niacin deficiencies have been known to cause stomach irritability and muscular weakness. Their depletion lowers your tolerance to and ability to cope with stress.

The need for vitamin C also increases when under stress. Vitamin C is stored in the adrenal gland. After the gland releases adrenal hormones as part of the stress response, the supply needs to be replenished. The production of adrenal hormones is accelerated by vitamin C. Vitamin C is also needed for the synthesis of the thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone production regulates the bodys metabolism. Thus when the metabolic rate increases under stress, so does the need for vitamin C.

The point of eating a balanced meal is to get all the vitamins your body needs on a daily basis to function properly. Just knowing and being aware of which foods contain these vitamins and what the vitamins do, may motivate you to eat the foods that provide you what your body needs. The B vitamins are supplied in protein rich foods, such as meats and cheeses. Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits, broccoli, strawberries, tomatoes, cauliflower, and green peppers.

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