Eat Your Way Through Stress, the Healthy Way

For the record: Eating a pint of ice cream after a bad day at work and ordering pizza when your relationship is in the dumps is not our recommended MO. However , snacking can relieve stress without being totally unhealthy, overindulgent, and counter-productive, according to Men’s Health magazine. Stressing out over eating perfectly on top of other stress factors can make you feel worse, but reaching for fatty comfort foods like a burger and fries isn’t going to make you feel awesome, either. Instead, their article, The 7 Best Stress-Fighting Foods , gives a few suggestions for eating your way through stress, the healthy way: 1. Stuck in Traffic? Sip a skim chai latte and munch on half a bagel with cream cheese. The protein from your skim chai will help you feel alert, and the carbohydrates from the bagel will give you energy. Plus, they’re both easy to eat in your car. 2. Lost your notes for a big meeting? Chill out with skim milk. Stress can lower your body’s natural levels of seratonin, but milk contains tryptophan, which helps your body produce seratonin. Just skip added sugars and caffeine — a double scoop of vanilla ice cream doesn’t count. 3. Stressing over your 6-month review? Eat your leafy greens, with a side of protein. Take the edge off a lunch with your boss with a leafy green salad — the vitamin B in spinach, arugula, and chard help your body build natural stress blockers like seratonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Get some fish or chicken on the side to avoid an energy crash. 4. Your big speech was a big flop: Grab some peanut M&Ms. (Seriously.) If you just bombed a client meeting or lost a sale, you need something to calm your nerves quickly, and chocolate will help give you the rush of endorphins you need to chill out. The protein from peanuts will balance the sugar and give you some longer-lasting energy, too. 5. All’s not well on the home front: Grill some salmon. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish like salmon, mackerel, and trout have been found to lower feelings of hostility, according to a study from a California-based health care provider. 6. Your favorite Top Chef contestant is about to lose: Eat a whole orange. Natural sugars in fruits can help take the edge off your adrenaline rush, but peeling the orange also keeps your jittery hands busy (doing something besides stuffing your face with buttered popcorn and Oreos). 7. Can’t sleep? Turn on your snooze button with oatmeal and bananas. If watching the season finale of Biggest Loser got you too wired to sleep, try making a small bowl of oatmeal and sliced banana. They’re two of the only foods that contain melatonin, a natural sleep-aide. Post from: BlissTree Eat Your Way Through Stress, the Healthy Way

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Eat Your Way Through Stress, the Healthy Way