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.

Stress-buster Garlic

Stress is a modern BUZZ word and I am sure all of us use this word more often than our earlier generations used to. We all experience increased stress in our lives today and try to manage it, combat it and cope with it all the time.


Stress is a natural element of life and has been there ever since man has existed on this earth. But for our ancestors, stress used to exist in the form of a life threatening situation with usually a "FIGHT or FLIGHT " response. Anthropologists say that our ancestors spent their time in sport, recreation, family life, ritual and community dance and music. Stress, for them was occasional, and existed while hunting or warfare only. Their body also got enough time to regain and rebuild itself in between 2 episodes of major stress.





Unfortunately, many of us are already into the trap of continual STRESS to meet the complexities of modern civilization and our modern lifestyle. Our body is exposed to stress all the time and many of us are able to relax only rarely, are not able to enjoy even our exercise, many of us have completely forgotten about our hobbies, and whatever relaxation we may have, is of a poor quality. I have come across many people who claim that watching TV is very relaxing.......... Its time to look back and see if TV watching is relaxing or Taxing?



All of us experience the symptoms of stress in every day life like reduced energy levels, chronic Fatigue, debility, exhaustion, indigestion, insomnia, depletion of immune system, recurring illnesses, headaches, shortness of breath, back pain, muscle stiffness..... the list is endless.


So, if stress has become an inevitable part of our modern lifestyle,
Let us find if Garlic can be useful in fighting Stress.

• Crushed Garlic with milk early in the morning acts like a TONIC and builds energy slowly and steadily over weeks or months.
  
• Using garlic in everyday cooking, improves digestion and absorption of several nutrients and helps in improving general resistance and immunity.
  
• Animal trials confirm that garlic is useful in fighting fatigue and resisting environmental stress.
  
• Garlic helps in reducing the blood levels of our stress hormone significantly and helps to keep the symptoms of stress away.
  
• Clinical Anti fatigue trials on humans in Japan, have shown that garlic extracts improved the symptoms of fatigue, depression, anxiety and stress.

I honestly feel that including atleast 1-2 cloves of garlic in our diet everyday will help us all to fight the day to day stress and emerge in a better shape at the end of the day.