Stress and the Spoon

April 7, 2012 // Digestion, Innate Intelligence

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Everyone hears from one time to another how stress is bad for your health–but WHY?

Let’s examine a few key ways stress affects the body (and your nutrition).

  • Our bodies have two modes of operation: the parasympathetic (relaxed) nervous system and the sympathetic (stress, fight or flight response) nervous system.
  • Under the stress response (sympathetic nervous system) the body works on preparing for and fighting a life threatening stressor. This causes our body to re-direct energy from normal priorities (digestion, reproduction, vitality) to stress priorities (survival by any means). These changes  include: turning proper digestion off, increasing heart rate, & dilating the bronchial tubes. For a visual representation please click the pic below to watch this (2 minute YouTube video, I promise):

    stress_youtube

    Retrieved from YouTube via Dr. Mohamed EL Aidy

Our bodies are equipped to deal with short-term stress (ie. running away from a predator, etc). It’s CHRONIC STRESS that our bodies are unable to sustain over the long-term; causing us to burn our bodies energy from both ends. Stress eats away at our nutrient stores, while we are unable to assimilate nutrients from food coming in.

Some things to think about:

  • Do you regularly eat when you are stressed? If so, how does that make you feel after a meal?
  • What things in your life drive stress? What can you do lessen the occurrence or respond differently?
  • What brings you joy? Are you able to increase these?

Finding ways to balance stress is a lifetime skill. For me, knowing the WHY behind its harmfulness has been a key to preventing it from eating away at my life!


About

As a nutritional therapist, my passion is education. It is my purpose to help people re-align their lives and environment to support a lifestyle where health is never a stressor, and you can truly live life without your physical body getting in your way. My goal is to help guide you to improve your nutrition through strategic eating (not dieting) and without expensive supplements! Because when you know better, you can feel better!

Comments

  1. healthylivingexpose says: April 11, 2012

    Very interesting post! You should look into stress and blood types. I did a paper on it last year; because I am type A, my body produces more cortisol than most and therefore I am more prone to chronic stress!

  2. butternutrition says: April 13, 2012

    Thanks! I will look into that for sure ;)

  3. Frances antoinette says: April 17, 2012

    When I get stressed, I crave for a nice fresh, colorful salad. I find that raw ingredients help calm me and give me a quick feeling of “healthy”; and therefore, increases my outlook on the tasks that lay before me.

  4. butternutrition says: April 20, 2012

    Yes! I think that’s one of the beautiful thing about fresh vegetables, they make us slow down and chew, while nourishing us at a deep level!

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