A research by the American Psychological Association, reveals that about 25% of America's population is experiencing high levels of stress (Harvard health publications, 2016). Consequently, a significant number of America’s population is also experiencing eating disorders. The case of obesity, high blood pressure, and heart problems is on the increase. Undoubtedly stress is playing a huge role in jeopardizing the health of the people of America. Unfortunately, most Americans are stressed, and food seems to be the answer.
The human body is always designed to find a mechanism to ease stressful situations. When the body is under pressure, it always looks for ways to alleviate the conditions. Scientists have discovered that the body craves for rich foods when in a stressful situation (Marano, 2016). A simple explanation as to why we crave for such food is because they taste good. It is not uncommon for one to crave sweets, chocolate or ice cream. A scientific explanation to this is that with foods like ice-cream and chocolate or nay other foods rich in chocolate, the body is looking for a break on the machinery of chronic stress.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Foods that trigger stress response are pleasurable high energy foodstuffs with a lot of fats and sugar (Oliver, 1998). One of the reasons is that whenever one is stressed the body always looks for a way to get comfort and the obvious way is through eating foods that are pleasing and will give you comfort. Another reason is that chronic stress depleted energy reservoirs, therefore, prompting your system to find an immediate solution to build the reserves hence the sugar; laden foods. Nonetheless, eating is beneficial in triggering the stress response. If you have chronic stress, it is advisable to eat and sleep more to calm down. However, it is more advisable t0o seek a long-term solution to fixing the source of stress rather that eating at the expense of gaining unnecessary weight.
References
Oliver, G. (1998). Stress and food choice . The University of London.
Harvard health publications. (2016). Understanding stress response. Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu
Marano, H. E. (2016). Stress and eating. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com
