Reevaluating Food Choices to Cope with Stress
It’s 7:40 in the morning, and you have yet to leave for school. Naturally, breakfast is the last thing on your mind when you, more importantly, have to take your math test first period. Without those nutrients and carbohydrates, you may find yourself struggling to focus and recall facts, as well as dealing with low energy and motivation levels. In neglecting your primary source of energy, you are not allowing your body and mind to perform at its greatest potential.
As high school students, we often find ourselves completely swamped with homework, studying, sports commitments, and various other extracurricular activities. With a combination of tight schedules and an overwhelmed mind, it is so easy to get lost in your own stress and neglect healthy choices that could help your mind function at its greatest potential. It is important to consider the ways in which the food you consume directly impacts your physical and mental wellbeing, and to take a step back to look at poor eating habits as a potential stimulant for your overwhelmed mind.
Not only do unhealthy eating habits contribute to increased levels of stress and anxiety, but increased levels of stress and anxiety in turn often lead to unhealthy eating choices. Stress can trigger a desire for comfort food, especially very sweetened drinks and foods. There can often be a craving to excessively snack and grab fast eating choices rather than whole foods, fruits, and vegetables. This emotional eating, or “stress eating,” means using food as a coping mechanism to suppress uncomfortable feelings. Although you may have been picking up these unhealthy habits because stress may hinder your ability to make those nutritious choices, you are, as a result, increasing stress levels in the long run.
Nutrition and stress are a two-way street, and a vicious cycle to say the least. As your stress levels increase and you find yourself more and more often reaching for junk food and snacks, you are simultaneously increasing stress levels through fueling yourself with excessive amounts of sugar and carbohydrates.
So, what is the solution? Stress often feels endless and overwhelming, and so breaking out of an unhealthy cycle requires you to take a step back and build routine. Look for those healthy choices in the cafeteria, leave nutritious granola or protein bars in your bag during the day, and either wake up a couple of minutes earlier to start your day with breakfast or prepare an on-the-go breakfast the night before to take with you the next morning.
It is important to maximize the instances in which you feel more calm to build structure to your eating schedule and put those good habits into place. Thus, when the stress kicks in, and as high school students inevitably will, you will have tools in place to help manage your eating habits. Hopefully, in turn, those new habits will reduce the severity and frequency of your overwhelmingly stressed mind. Food is fuel, so it is important to fuel yourself correctly to take care of your body and mind.
