Optimizing Your Eating Habits for Stress Management

As a high-performing individual, you most likely already have a running list of stress management hacks to balance a demanding work schedule, family time, and your interests. However, if you still have bouts of stress (and nothing on your 'hack' list is working), you might be overlooking a key component in stress management–your diet.

How does your diet affect stress management? Some foods and food-centered habits exacerbate stress management symptoms while others improve them.

The Link Between Stress and Food

We're all familiar with the stress hormone cortisol. It spikes when we're faced with a stressful situation, ranging from something work-related to environmental stressors. All stress causes the body to respond with various symptoms, such as a quickening pulse and shallow breaths. Short-term stress can cause you to make less healthy decisions, and long-term stress can have detrimental effects on the body.

Diet and related habits play a huge role in stress levels. Certain foods help reduce cortisol levels by providing the brain and gut with proper nutrients to help perform your best by helping with digestion, controlling blood pressure and sugar levels, and improving your immune system.

Improving Stress with Diet-Related Tips

1) Consume Healthy Fats

Healthy fats such as avocados, salmon, nuts and seeds, dark chocolate, and eggs contain omega-3 fatty acids, which help regulate cortisol levels and provide your body with extra energy to help with spikes. Omega-3 fatty acids also possess an anti-inflammatory property, which helps with the inflammation that stress causes.

2) Choose Whole Foods and Hydrate

Depending on the microbiome's health, the gut can positively or negatively affect the brain and body, so support it with a diet that includes whole foods to create a positive connection.

Alongside eating whole, nutrient-dense foods, increase your water intake. Your body can't function properly without an adequate water intake, and if it is dehydrated, it becomes stressed. Start your day with a big glass of water and aim for a gallon a day! If that's too difficult, increase water increments every few days, and you'll get there.

3) Eat Intentionally

Remember that gut microbiome I mentioned? Well, it is tied to how you eat, not just what you eat. I know it can be tempting to eat in the car on your way to work or plop down in front of the TV after work to binge a series and have a meal, but one way to reduce stress is to be fully present and engaged while eating.

It helps you make better food choices, improves digestion, and gives you a break from the day to enjoy the food.