Why do i crave comfort food when i am stressed?
I used to be a busy + burnt out Nurse Practitioner, overwhelmed with the amount of patients I had to see. I had to round on about 60+ patients a day in dialysis unit. Before that, I was a busy nurse on a cardiac step down unit who sometimes worked 16 hour shifts when we were short staffed. After my third 12 hour shift for the week, I often felt exhausted and always found myself wanting comfort food.
Mexican food + nachos are my comfort foods of choice.
But why? Why do we crave comfort food when we are stressed?
There's something soothing about indulging in certain foods during difficult times. Could this habit actually be reducing our body's natural stress response?
Recent research suggests that may be the case, and it is actually a concerning thought. Research suggests that in certain people, fatty and sugary foods may decrease the body’s stress response in the long term. Which means, self soothing with food is actually impacting our God designed bodies at a cellular level. This is something we need to be aware of because while we may feel momentarily comforted by self-medicating with food, we cannot ignore the potential long-term effects if this is a chronic habit for us. The effects include type 2 diabetes, abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and heart disease.
The answer however is not found in extreme dieting. Dieting can actually worsen stress because many women decide to go on low carb diets which are actually associated with increased levels of cortisol. We need carbs, and without them, our bodies run on stress hormones.
So what can we do?
The answer is not found in dieting. Dieting can actually worsen stress because many women decide to go on low carb diets which are actually associated with increased levels of cortisol. We need carbs, and without them, our bodies run on stress hormones.
So what can we actually do?
Tune into your stress triggers + perception of life (I have an entire course on this).
Avoid extreme diets
Increase your intake of anti-inflammatory foods
Practice a pause + awareness: Before reaching for fatty + sugary foods after a long stressful day, pause and ask yourself what you really want in that moment? And then think about another way you can get it that does not just involve self soothing with food. This is how I quit smoking. Check this concept out here.
For heathy swaps and a protocol for cravings, you can check out my Tuning into Cravings video in the Refined Wellness Membership.
Sources:
A. J. Tomiyama, M. F. Dallman, and E. S. Epel, “Comfort food is comforting to those most stressed: evidence of the chronic stress response network in high stress women,” Psychoneuroendocrinology 36, no. 10 (2011): 1513–19, doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.04.005.
R. R. Klatzkin, A. Baldassaro, and E. Hayden, “The impact of chronic stress on the predictors of acute stress-induced eating in women,” Appetite 123 (2018): 343–51, doi:10.1016/j.appet.2018.01.007.
