The hormone secretes when stress causes appetite, especially sweets, fat, easy to cause weight gain if not controlled.
Many people look for snacks or favorite food when stressed or experienced negative emotions. For example, after a quarrel, you may want to eat cakes, a bag of chips or a candy instead of solving them in healthier ways. This is called emotional eating behavior, ie eating to soothe or suppress discomfort. But this action only brings temporary relief.
Physiological, stress causes the adrenal gland to release a hormone called cortisol, thereby increasing cravings and desire to eat sweets, salty or fat.
This appetite is not the result of hunger. Too many non -controlled daily stress agents can lead to high cortisol levels that cause excess and weight gain. Typically, stress will decrease and cortisol returns to the basic level.
Eating sweets helps to soothe stress temporarily but not beneficial to health. Artwork: Ngoc Pham
Some of the following suggestions can help prevent stressful eating habits.
Identify stress agents
This begins by looking at yourself. Before going to the kitchen to find food, ask yourself if you are eating because of hunger or reacting to something else. Each time this happens, determine what you are reacting to and notes. Thanks to that, you determine which situation causes stress.
Eliminate unhealthy food from the kitchen
Most people can name the foods they eat when stressed. Remove foods that are high in sugar, processed foods, high in metabolites or saturated fat. Replacing them with more nutritious options can help curb hunger such as apples and natural peanut butter or carrots …
Participate in other activities
When tensions are high and unhealthy food right before your eyes, you should find other ways to reduce stress.
– Walk 10-15 minutes.
– Practice breathing by diaphragm for 3-5 minutes (abdominal breathing).
– Drink a glass of water, can add your favorite fruit to the water to add flavor.
– Chat with friends or relatives.
– Write a diary.
– Exercise or perform a few yoga postures to relieve stress such as a bow posture forward, butterfly posture, triangular posture or wall posture. According to the American Heart Association, physical activity can also reduce blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, chronic headache.
– Use color books for adults and relieve stress with creativity.
– Read books or letters.
– Keep your hands busy with a hobby like knitting, drawing or squeezing a stress.
If the lifestyle changing measures do not work or the level of stress is increasing, you should see a doctor and talk to a psychiatrist to control stress.