With the health of the nation in regards to weight being a popular topic especially in relation to COVID. Here are a few sensible tips on how to support your stress response and your waistline.
Have you ever wondered no matter what you do you always seem to carry a little extra weight around your core? Use a measuring tape to measure your waist (at the smallest circumference of your natural waist, usually just above the belly button) and the circumference of your hips (at the widest part of your buttocks). A healthy measurement for the waist to hip ration to aim for is below 0.8 for women and 0.9 for men.
How does Stress play havoc with the waist line?
Millions of years ago, our bodies were designed to react quickly to danger, just like wild animals, on constant alert to fight or run if threatened – called the fight or flight response. When your brain thinks your life is under threat, it releases a substance called corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) which immediately stimulates the adrenal glands to release the hormones adrenaline and cortisol. At this point a number of physical changes take place in your body. This is the fight or flight bit –
- Your heart speeds up and your blood pressure rises.
- The clotting ability of your blood increases so that you will recover more quickly if you are injured and start to bleed.
- Your ability to conceive is reduced as you don’t need to make a baby when you are ‘in danger.’
- Your digestion shuts down and the energy needed for that system is diverted elsewhere.
- Your liver immediately releases emergency stores of glucose into the bloodstream to provide instant energy to fight or run.
- Your immune system produces more white blood cells so that you’ll be better equipped to fight foreign viruses or bacteria.
- Your muscles tense and blood is moved away from the skin and internal organs (except the heart and lungs) and towards the muscles.
- Breathing becomes faster and shallower to supply oxygen to your brain, heart and muscles.
- Sweating increases to release toxins produced by the body.
- Bladder and rectum muscles relax – you can even wet yourself or open your bowels.
- Adrenaline is released directly into the blood stream and cortisol levels rise, boosting blood sugar to give you energy.
The problem is evolution is lagging a little behind modern-day life. These days, many of us live under chronic stress but this stress comes from deadlines, traffic jams or children having tantrums, rather than spear wielding attackers or sabre-tooth tigers. The body can’t distinguish between late trains, missed appointments, spiralling debt, family disputes and the truly life-threatening stress. So, it reacts in exactly the same way as it always has – fight or flight.
The bottom line is that people who suffer constant stress, will have constant high Cortisol levels. Cortisol makes your body think it needs refuelling after all this fighting and flighting so it increases your appetite. This is fine if you have been fighting or running for your life since your body clears the stock, if however, you are chained to a desk constant refuelling is hardly appropriate. The extra fat will be deposited around your middle. It targets the middle because it’s close to the liver, where it can most quickly be converted back into energy if needed. It provides you with a cunning form of protection, ready for the next stress attack.
So, people under constant stress quite often feel hungry all the time. Worse still, their body urges them to stock up on foods it thinks will be most useful for this activity namely carbohydrates and fats.
Lifestyle tips to support stress response
- Stop dieting and don’t count calories. Dieting is a biological unnatural state. It simply does not give your body enough food for what it needs to do. You mind and body goes into survival mode: holding on to the weight you have, slowing your metabolism and telling you to eat, eat. Eat.
- Eat little & often the idea is to convince your body that food is abundant, that it does not need to store extra fat and that it can burn off excess that is already stored. If you go for more than 3 hours without food your body will start to go into survival mode. By eating three meals and two snacks daily it will increase energy levels, decrease cravings and blood sugar levels will steady.
- Don’t skip breakfast – remember that blood sugar rollercoaster
- Eliminate refined sugars and carbohydrates from your life, these foods are digested too quickly causing huge high then dips in blood sugar, which triggers adrenal hormones. The more refined a food, the faster it hits the blood stream. If you eat more food in its natural form, your blood sugar will be much steadier. Be vigilant. Sugar is added to savoury foods like canned, vegetables, baked beans, ketchup soups and pasta. Bananas and grapes are among the fastest releasing, so don’t eat a lot of them and always mix with protein like nuts and seeds.
The bottom line is the body does need carbohydrate, but it is the quality of the carbohydrate that matters and the balance with protein with each meal. Your brain runs on carbohydrates and that is why you can feel depressed, moody and unable to think straight if you are not eating enough of them. Do no LOW-CARB diets please.
Restricting your carbohydrates over a few weeks has been shown to effect thyroid function by lowering the hormones, thus effecting your metabolism. Too few carbohydrates will cause a blood sugar drop and your body to release adrenaline to raise blood glucose. Resulting in high cortisol levels which encourages the storage of fat around the middle.
- Add protein to every meal – protein is vital, as it is the basic building block for cells muscles, bone, hair, skin and nails. Protein should be included in each meal as it slows down the digestion of carbohydrates. As soon as you add protein to a carbohydrate it changes to slow releasing. Another mission in your quest to reduce fat around the middle is to control your body’s natural inflammatory process. Limit foods like red meat and dairy and use other forms of protein like eggs and fish. Contrary to the old myth, although eggs are high in cholesterol, they are low in saturated fat and can contain good levels of omega 3 if the chickens have been fed well. Choose organic, free-range eggs, as the diet is extremely important to the quality of the egg. Vegetarians should be careful of soya products, which are genetically modified. Read the labels if it contains soy protein isolate don’t buy it. Quinoa is an excellent source of protein for vegetarians.
- Eat essential fats – whilst many people believe that fat makes you fat, the real culprits are sugar and refined carbohydrates. They are essential because they slow down the release of carbohydrates, boost your metabolism, make you less insulin resistant and reduce inflammation. Research has shown that if you reduce the amount of Omega 6 vegetable oils in your diet the conversion rate of Omega 3 to EPA will be higher.
- Don’t eat on the run – this will give your body the message that time is scarce, that you are under pressure and that you are stressed, increasing stress hormones. Give your body a different message and try to sit down and eat your meals as calm as possible. Remember to chew well, digestion begins in the mouth. Don’t drink whilst eating.
- Watch your alcohol intake drinking caffeinated beverages, alcohol and fizzy drinks all tell your body that is under attack so it stores fat around the middle. Alcohol is also an anti-nutrient depleting the body of vitamins and minerals. Give your liver a rest for 4 weeks from alcohol. If you need to drink alcohol for a special occasion then make sure you have a meal containing some fats or oils to slow the release of alcohol. Avoid fruit juice for 4 weeks this also hits the bloodstream too quickly then reintroduce in diluted form. Water is essential for digestion, absorption, circulation and excretion.
- Change the way you think about food Change the way you think about food.
Thank you for reading.
Fiona Waring
Dip Nut, BSc.(Hons), MSc PHN, ANutr
Nutritional Therapist
M: +44 07957 267 964
eatyourgreens@fionawaring.com
‘Registered with the Association for Nutrition – www.associationfornutrition.org
Protecting the public and promoting high standards in evidence-based science and professional practice of nutrition.’
