Better managing stress would allow you to eat less fast foods and fatty dishes.
- The reduction in stress felt by the women during and after participating in the study is the main factor that helped them eat better.
- Feeling restless, having head and neck pain, and trouble sleeping are signs of stress that lead to eating too much fatty food.
Fast foods, prepared meals, fatty foods… It is well known that this type of diet necessarily leads to weight gain, but is also a risk factor for several diseases, such as diabetes, cholesterol or cardiovascular pathologies. So why do we continue to consume them if they are so harmful to the body? Researchers at Ohio State University in the United States have just found one of the reasons: stress. Their work has been published in the journal Nutrients. The study included 338 participants, overweight or obese mothers aged 18 to 39 with low economic resources. These were recruited as part of a sixteen-week nutrition program whose aim was to prevent and reduce weight gain in these women. For this, three methods were used: stress management, a balanced diet and physical activity. It is in this context that scientists have observed them.
Be aware of your stress to better control it
All the participants were made aware of these three methods – but more particularly of stress management – by watching short videos depicting mothers in their daily lives. “We used women’s testimonials in the videos and showed their interactions with their families to raise awareness of stressors, points out Mei-Wei Chang, lead author of the study. After watching the videos, many intervention participants said, “This is the first time I’ve realized I’m so stressed.”.” In these videos, there were also testimonials from these women who gave practical advice to be less stressed, manage time better, prioritize tasks, eat in a more balanced way, include sport in their weeks, etc. “Many of these women are aware of feeling restless, having head and neck pain and trouble sleeping – but they don’t know these are signs of stress,“ continues the researcher.
Better manage stress especially when the problems are insoluble
According to the results, the reduction in stress felt by the women during and after participating in the study is the main factor that helped them to have a better diet. Thus, they naturally consumed fewer fast foods and fatty dishes, without any particular effort. The authors were able to measure this ratio: a reduction of one point on the stress measurement scale would be linked to a drop of nearly 7% in the frequency with which women ate fast foods and fatty dishes. In other words, reducing stress a little makes it possible to eat much better.
Stress management is more difficult for mothers who participated in the study because most of them have low incomes and live in precarious social conditions. The problems they face can hardly be solved: financial difficulties, dilapidated living quarters, single mother with young children, etc. Thus, the advice they received was not aimed at solving these problems but at changing their perception, at better managing the stress they cause. “We made them aware of the stressors in their lives, and unfortunately many of these issues are not within their control, concludes Mei-Wei Chang. So we teach them ways to control their negative emotions.”