Stress Eating

We all deal with stress in different ways. Some of us eat more and put weight on, while others skip meals and lose their appetite. Feeling tired, moody, emotional and anxious are all symptoms of stress. So we need to understand your stress reaction, and tailor our approach accordingly.

Which of these sounds familiar to you?

• coffee throughout the day to keep you perky
• reaching for high fat/sugar/salt foods to calm you down
• mindless snacking on junk food
• skipping meals altogether
• eating fast food because you don’t have time to cook
• going on crash diets to lose weight
• not drinking enough water during the day

If you react to stress in your life in this way, you just end up causing more stress for your body. The stress hormones Adrenaline and Cortisol need lots of nutrients to be made. An excess stress reaction in your body will get priority, and if your diet is nutritionally poor, it will take the vitamins and minerals needed for healthy thyroid and sex hormone production. The result can be a sluggish thyroid, which will affect every system in the body, lead to probable weight gain and heightened symptoms around menstruation for women and low testosterone production for men.

The constant release of stress hormones by your body primes you to store fat on the inside of your abdominal wall. This leaves you at high risk for developing conditions such as Fatty Liver, Heart Disease, Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome.

Treatment

Our Nutritional Therapists will help you construct a healthy eating plan that will bring your body back into balance so that regular function is resumed. Thyroid testing can be given with the necessary nutritional support. We will also look to reduce adrenal stress, by helping you cut back on stimulants. We will also show you how good blood sugar management will alleviate many of your symptoms of stress. A result for many will be weight loss and a new feeling of energy for life.

Our Eating Therapists can help you look at stress in your life through new eyes. Using CBT techniques, we will help you change your thinking style so that you perceive stress differently, and give you new coping strategies that will keep your body at optimal health.

Stress eating can make you feel you are stuck on an endless treadmill to nowhere. Call us today on 020 7499 8922 and let us show you how some simple interventions can quickly change the way you feel.