Does What You Have Eaten Affect How You Handle Stress?

When you are facing a stressful situation, what you’ve eaten determines how you can react.  If you’ve eaten nutritional foods then your body can call upon its reserves for the extra energy necessary to deal with the stress.

Since dealing with stressful situations also has an affect on the way your body utilizes what you have recently eaten it is important to know what may be affected most.  Some vitamins like Vitamin C are required to maintain your energy level and prevent you from becoming listless and tired.  Stress also weakens your immune system to some extent.

Because stress causes the body to go into the fight or flight mode, blood is routed away from functions not necessary to assist in fight or flight.  Your heart rate also increases during these times.  This causes your blood pressure to rise as more blood is pumped around your body to provide oxygen to the muscles.

What are some foods/substances that may not help in dealing with stress?  Anything containing caffeine or large amounts of sugar may give an immediate boost but over the long term they have a negative affect.  During stressful times it may be better to take vitamins and minerals and drink non-caffeinated beverages instead of eating sweets or drinking high-caloric drinks.

Some of the best sources of beneficial minerals and vitamins are fruits and raw vegetables.  These can be kept handy with very little preparation and eaten when life becomes hectic.  Many fruits such as oranges, apples and melons are high in Vitamin C and some vegetables with high amounts of Vitamin C are spinach, green peppers, and tomatoes for example.  Of course carrots and leafy green vegetables are good sources of other nutrients.

If you want to lower your blood pressure during stressful times, some foods that will thin your blood are garlic, onion, cinnamon and peppermint.

Avoiding coffee and sweets will help deal with stress as these do not contain vital nutrients and may give a false impression they are helping to deal with the situation.

By eating healthy you can keep up your energy level for dealing with stress and fatigue.  Once you are eating properly, your energy level will increase and you will maintain the ability to deal with stress more effectively.

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