How Does Stress Affect Our Eating Habits?

Everyday stress affects many of our habits in very different ways. Unfortunately, these changes pull our body out of its daily routine, paving the way for many diseases and impairing our quality of life. One of the most common questions about stress is how it affects eating, and whether people really experience “sugar cravings” during stressful periods.

All the systems in the human body are so interconnected that a change or disorder in one cannot fail to affect the others. Stress is not merely a psychological event; it is a process that also causes significant changes in brain chemistry. Under stress, eating behavior changes; as a result, body fat mass increases and waist circumference rises in ways that set the stage for serious diseases.

So does stress really affect our eating behavior? Do we eat more when we are stressed?

One of the most important effects of stress on the body is that it increases the body's need for energy and oxygen. This creates a craving for more processed foods, convenience foods and sweets. To supply the energy needed by a body that is, in a sense, caught in a storm of stress, a person chooses high-calorie convenience foods. This acts as one of the triggers on the path to obesity. Stressed people cannot concentrate on preparing meals or eating balanced meals, and their motivation suffers. Preparing food, especially healthy meals, requires a process of cognitive preparation. Because stressed people have impaired concentration and motivation in every area, they do not want to spend time preparing healthy meals. They simply want to fill their stomachs quickly in the moment, and so they choose convenience foods high in fat and sugar. This emerges as an important factor. Adrenaline released during acute stress suppresses appetite. That is why a person suddenly faced with stress does not think about eating at all. Chronic stress and coping with it, however, create an attraction to high-sugar, fatty foods. The person keeps the source of their chronic stress constantly in the foreground and adopts an unbalanced eating pattern that leads to constant eating. The hormone cortisol, released during stress, causes fat accumulation in the abdominal area. This sets the stage for the development of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It also reduces leptin, the hormone that creates a feeling of fullness, while increasing ghrelin, an appetite-stimulating hormone. The result of all this is a constantly increased appetite, a feeling of never being full and growing abdominal fat. Cardiovascular disease is much more common in these people.

Stress also affects sleep quality

Another problem stress creates in our lives is sleep disturbance and a poor-quality sleep pattern marked by frequent waking at night. People with this problem start the day tired and choose to consume large amounts of caffeine and sugary foods to stay awake during the day. Because sleep is closely linked to eating behavior, regular, good-quality sleep is essential for maintaining a healthy weight. People who start the day refreshed and do moderate exercise in the morning will feel less need for caffeine and sugary foods. The human nervous system has a highly developed ability to activate itself and stay alert, and as long as a regular lifestyle is followed, sufficient motivation and vitality can be achieved without any external factor.