Stress And Cravings: The Connection
By Angela Esguerra

It wasn't long ago that the cause of food cravings was believed
to be rooted in emotional problems and in the overweight
individual's practice of "looking for love in food". So-called
weight-loss gurus would write books and give lectures, telling
overweight people how they needed to look for love elsewhere in
life and stop believing that food could fill their emotional
void.

Today science knows better. What may be the biggest (and often
insurmountable) challenge to overweight people who want to lose
weight is the fierce craving of foods high in carbohydrates and
fats, and there is a reason those cravings can be impossible to
ignore. It is now understood that food cravings occur as the
result of the body's response to chronic stress, a response
which differs from the response to acute stress. Acute stress is
when there is an immediate perceived threat. Under acute stress
the body responds with a stress response, but after the
perceived threat has passed the body returns to normal. Chronic
stress, as the term implies, refers to living under stress over
a long period of time. Under chronic stress the body remains
under a stress response, and since it essentially senses the
need to be returned to a normal state it begins to crave foods
that will (at least temporarily) reduce/end the high-stress
response state. This is a process that is rooted in evolution.
Its also one to which anyone who has ever felt better after
eating a chocolate bar can attest.

Under chronic stress glucocorticoid levels remain elevated.
This leads to maintaining high levels of hormones
(corticotrophin releasing factor, which then regulates
adrenocorticotropin) which incite the stress response.
Essentially, the stress response keeps itself going. Since the
effects of this stress response are not positive effects nature
has built into the system a way to reduce/eliminate those
negative effects. From an evolutionary standpoint, animals and
people are designed to respond to stress by eating high-energy
foods in order to be ready for anything. From the standpoint of
even the most evolved and overworked mother of a few children,
not only has Nature built in the cravings that are difficult
enough to ignore, but maternal instinct, too, will drive the
mother to eat high-energy foods in order to keep going for her
family. Under long-term stress the adrenal gland can become
fatigued and “run out of juices”. Adrenal fatigue can be
misdiagnosed as “depression”. Symptoms include craving sugar.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, who
identified a biochemical feedback system in rates which could
explain the cause of food cravings in humans, suspect that the
signal to inhibit the stress system may come directly from the
fat deposits.

The Catch-22 of the obesity problem is that while chronic
stress, itself, results in negative effects on the health, the
very eating that reduces those effects also leads to health
problems. In addition to normal stress and extraordinary stress,
trying to lose weight can add yet more stress, but having that
weight, in itself, is also stressful.

In a world where so much emphasis is placed on educating people
about health eating (under the presumption that most people need
that education) understanding the very real challenge faced by
many people with a weight problem may be the education that is
most needed.

About the Author: Slimvia Health & Fitness Team
http://www.slimvia.com

Source: http://www.isnare.com

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