Proven Ways to Manage Stress with your Diet

Stress is never good for healthy living. As a person, when we experience stress it causes the body to go into a "fight or flight" mode, especially when the stress is caused by impending danger. However, as a Nigerian living in the modern day community, it is clear that impending dangers are not the only reasons for stress.  Physical stress could be caused as a result of tight schedules, accumulated fatigue, bad sleeping habits and so on. When any of this happens and the body is stressed, the human body will look to fight off the stressors.

To do this, it has to offer priority to certain parts of the body. Less urgent functions such as digestion are affected and it could lead to some adverse effects on the body. First of all, when digestion is given lesser priority due to stressful scenarios it could make you feel unwell. Also, it could lead to some unhealthy eating habits which cause weight gain.

The danger of putting the body through stress is obvious but sometimes unavoidable. Then, how can you handle stress using nutrition and diet?

When stressed, try to eat lesser quantities often. It will help to keep your metabolism where it should be for the entire duration of the day. It will also help to ensure that your energy levels are maximized and you're in top physical shape. This is one the best ways to ensure that you don't store too much food in your stomach which will then be unable to digest properly. By keeping your energy levels up with this feeding pattern, there's enough strength to go through strenuous conditions.

Take note that not everything that goes into your body will help you fight stress. Some are more effective than others. Let's take a look at some of the best examples of foods that fight stress.

• Dark Chocolate
• Whole-Grain carbohydrates
• Bananas
• Fatty Fish
• Water
• Milk
• Nuts
• Oranges and Vitamin C-rich fruits
• Leafy Greens
• Avocados

Foods to Avoid when stressed

When in a stressful scenario, you should look to avoid any of the following foods for optimal health. These include;

• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Refined Sugar

It's very much possible to combat stress with food and food items, but care has to be taken to identify what goes into your system and what shouldn't. If you're in a stress-prone environment, try to build a meal plan around the food items discussed earlier.
Kindly drop your questions and comments.