Food can be a stress too.......

Stress is a modern "buzz word". Everybody talks about stress now-a-days and even small children are prone to stressful situations.

Common symptoms, or rather physiological effects of stress include Immunological suppression (frequent infections), food cravings, weight loss, constant fatigue, loss of appetite, anxiety, depression, mood swings or even skin irritations.

"Stress" becomes further more interesting because it can be experienced very very individually and uniquely by everyone of us. That is, what may be a very stressful situation for me, may not be a problem for someone else. What frightens me may not be as alarming to you.

Stress gets funnier to interpret as it can be altered in every consecutive similar situation you come across. To give a personal example, i was frightened and had sweaty palms and could feel my heart thumping in my body at the time i was supposed to deliver my 1st lecture in front of about 50 people. Now, i am a bit more seasoned and am a bit better off in dealing with this situation. So....... that thumping has gone away but still that nervousness may be there.

What i mean is, the situation is the same, but its interpretation by our body can change. So, we can actually learn to acknowledge stress and understand it to minimize it.

BUT IN A CATCH 22 SITUATION , FOOD WE EAT CAN BECOME A STRESS TOO...................


Think about the "food-stress" you are giving to your body when

1: you eat food you are allergic to

2: you are on a crash diet

3: you buy and eat FAD foods

4:you load yourself with lots of salty or sweet foods

5: you eat the tantalizing wadapav or pakodas

6:you smoke and think it is helping you to relax and take a break

7: you have alcohol and are sure it is helping you to unwind from the daily grill

8:you end up eating ready made dinner options...........................

The list can thus go on, but what we can do to atleast help our body to cope with and to eliminate the internal causes of stress is to

" BE WATCHFUL AND THINK ABOUT WHAT AND WHEN AND HOW WE EAT"

It may not be posible to eliminate the external stressors in our lives, but,

WE DEFINATELY HAVE THE POWER TO ALTER OUR EATING HABITS AND CHANGE OUR LIFESTYLE.