By: Karen Fullick
Did you know that 'stressed' spelled backwards is 'desserts' - Interesting don't you think when sweet foods are commonly eaten for comfort .
Stress plays a huge part of comfort eating. When we are stressed, in particular if the stress is on-going, we have many adverse side effects to our health. The three listed below are directly connected to the desire to comfort eat.
Fatigue - When feeling tired we often reach out for food high in sugar to give us energy. Typically desserts, chocolate, sweets which give an immediate energy burst.
Lack of Nutrients - The body craves nutrients blocked by stress, it will send signals to our brain to consume these vitamins and minerals and the brain being very clever makes us desire foods containing these nutrients.
Hypoglycaemia - Low blood sugar - makes us crave sugar which we find in - yes you've guessed it - desserts and other sweet related foods.
When we are stressed we desperately want to relieve the symptoms. Comfort eating is a way of doing this for short periods of time. Thinking about and seeing the dessert that you desire will give you instant relief by focusing your mind and sight on something that pleases you. Eating the dessert will give you a sugar rush and high that continues to take away the feelings of stress, however, this is short lived as the main cause of stress has not been addressed. When the effect of comfort eating is over the feelings related to stress return and you begin the vicious cycle of stress-comfort eating-stress-comfort eating.
The continued use of food to relieve stress is damaging to your health both mentally and physically. If you do not feel good on the inside you invariably do not feel good on the outside. Consuming high levels of sugar not only makes you gain weight but is damaging to your body. Too much sugar makes you produce too much insulin to counter balance your sugar levels, this puts a strain on your pancreas. If you continually consume too much sugar the pancreas keeps producing insulin and this can lead to hypoglycaemia which creates the effect of too little sugar which is harmful to your system.
Too much sugar in the diet can lead to diabetes. A condition that has become very common in the western world, another condition that leads to diabetes is being overweight, which is directly connected to excess sugar intake.
Don't forget hidden sugars found in crisps, savour pastry foods and processed meals - you may say you are not a sweet eater but I can guarantee you are getting excess sugar from somewhere.
The next time you feel stressed and reach for the dessert, put it down and work out what is causing the stress and what you can do to overcome this.
Copyright (c) 2009 Karen Fullick
Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com
About the Author:
My name is Karen and for many years I have struggled with my weight - until I lost 49lbs and discovered an amazing way to effortless, permanent weight loss. Visit my site to see how I did this
http://www.freetheslimyou.com
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