You could be stress eating these holidays – or eating your way to stress. 5 tips for the table
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The holiday season can be a time of joy, celebration, and indulgence in delicious foods and meals. However, for many, it can also be an emotional and stressful period.
This stress can manifest in our eating habits, leading to what is known as emotional or stress eating.
There are certain foods we tend to eat more of when we’re stressed, and these can affect our health. What’s more, our food choices can influence our stress levels and make us feel worse. Here’s how.
Why we might eat more when stressed
The human stress response is a complex signalling network across the body and brain. Our nervous system then responds to physical and psychological events to maintain our health. Our stress response – which can be subtle or trigger a fight-or-flight response – is essential and part of daily life.
The stress response increases production of the hormones cortisol and insulin and the release of glucose (blood sugars) and brain chemicals to meet demand. Eating when we experience stress is a normal behaviour to meet a spike in energy needs.
But sometimes our relationship with food becomes strained in response to different types of stress. We might attach shame or guilt to overeating. And anxiety or insecurity can mean some people under-eat in stressful times.
Over time, people can start to associate eating with negative emotions – such as anger, sadness, fear or worry. This link can create behavioural cycles of emotional eating. “Emotional eaters” may go on to develop altered brain responses to the sight or smell of food.
What stress eating can do to the body
Stress eating can include binge eating, grazing, eating late at night, eating quickly or eating past the feeling of fullness. It can also involve craving or eating foods we don’t normally choose. For example, stressed people often reach for ultra-processed foods. While eating these foods is not necessarily a sign of stress, having them can activate the reward system in our brain to alleviate stress and create a pattern.
Short-term stress eating, such as across the holiday period, can lead to symptoms such as acid reflux and poor sleep – particularly when combined with drinking alcohol.
In the longer term, stress eating can lead to weight gain and obesity, increasing the risks of cancer, heart diseases and diabetes.
While stress eating may help reduce stress in the moment, long-term stress eating is linked with an increase in depressive symptoms and poor mental health.
What we eat can make us more or less stressed
The foods we choose can also influence our stress levels.
Diets high in refined carbohydrates and sugar (such as sugary drinks, sweets, crackers, cakes and most chocolates) can make blood sugar levels spike and then crash.
Diets high in unhealthy saturated and trans fats (processed foods, animal fats and commercially fried foods) can increase inflammatory responses.
Rapid changes in blood sugar and inflammation can increase anxiety and can change our mood.
Meanwhile, certain foods can improve the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain that regulate stress and mood.
Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and flaxseeds, are known to reduce inflammation and support brain health. Magnesium, found in leafy greens and nuts, helps regulate cortisol levels and the body’s stress response.
Vitamin Bs, found in whole grains, nuts, seeds, beans and animal products (mostly B12), help maintain a healthy nervous system and energy metabolism, improving mood and cognitive performance.
5 tips for the holiday table and beyond
Food is a big part of the festive season, and treating yourself to delicious treats can be part of the fun. Here are some tips for enjoying festive foods, while avoiding stress eating:
1. slow down: be mindful about the speed of your eating. Slow down, chew food well and put down your utensils after each bite
2. watch the clock: even if you’re eating more food than you normally would, sticking to the same timing of eating can help maintain your body’s response to the food. If you normally have an eight-hour eating window (the time between your first meal and last meal of the day) then stick to this even if you’re eating more
3. continue other health behaviours: even if we are eating more food or different food during the festive season, try to keep up other healthy behaviours, such as sleep and exercise
4. stay hydrated: make sure to drink plenty of fluids, especially water. This helps our body function and can help with feelings of hunger. When our brain gets the message something has entered the stomach (what we drink) this can provide a temporary reduction in feelings of hunger
5. don’t restrict: if we have a big day of eating, it can be tempting to restrict eating in the days before or after. But it is never a good idea to overly constrain food intake. It can lead to more overeating and worsen stress.
Plus 3 bonus tips to manage holiday stress
1. shift your thinking: try reframing festive stress. Instead of viewing it as “something bad”, see it as “providing the energy” to reach your goals, such as a family gathering or present shopping
2. be kind to yourself and others: practise an act of compassion for someone else or try talking to yourself as you would a friend. These actions can stimulate our brains and improve wellbeing
3. do something enjoyable: being absorbed in enjoyable activities – such as crafting, movement or even breathing exercises – can help our brains and bodies to return to a more relaxed state, feel steady and connected.
For support and more information about eating disorders, contact the Butterfly Foundation on 1800 33 4673 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800. If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call 000.
Saman Khalesi, Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead in Nutrition, School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, CQUniversity Australia; Charlotte Gupta, Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Appleton Institute, HealthWise research group, CQUniversity Australia, and Talitha Best, Professor of Psychology, NeuroHealth Lab, Appleton Institute, CQUniversity Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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For people with ADHD, medication can reduce the risk of accidents, crime and suicide
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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects around 7% of children and 2.5% of adults.
ADHD causes difficulties holding and sustaining attention over periods of time. People with ADHD also experience hyperactivity and high levels of impulsiveness and arousal. This can make it difficult to plan, coordinate and remain engaged in tasks.
ADHD is linked to problems at work, school and home, and to higher rates of mental illnesses such as anxiety. It’s also associated with higher rates of long-term harms.
Stimulant medication, such as methylphenidate and dexamphetamine, is the most common treatment for managing ADHD symptoms. Most people with ADHD will respond to at least one ADHD medication.
But, rising rates of prescriptions in recent years has prompted concern for their effectiveness and safety.
New research published today in the journal BMJ points to additional longer-term benefits. It found people with ADHD who took medication were less likely to have suicidal behaviours, transport accidents, issues with substance misuse, or be convicted of a crime.
What did the study do?
The study tracked 148,581 people who received a new diagnosis of ADHD between 2007 and 2018.
The authors used population-based data from Swedish national registers, including everyone aged six to 64 who was newly diagnosed with ADHD. The average age was 17.4 years and 41% were female.
Participants either started or did not start medication within three months of their ADHD diagnosis.
The authors examined the effects of drug treatment for ADHD on five critical outcomes: suicidal behaviours, substance misuse, accidental injuries, transport accidents and committing crime. They looked at both first-time and recurrent events.
This study used a method that uses data from health records or registries to mimic the design of a randomised controlled trial, in an attempt to reduce bias.
The researchers accounted for age, education, other mental and physical illnesses, prior history and use of other drugs, to account for factors that may influence results.
What did they find?
Within three months of receiving an ADHD diagnosis, 84,282 (56.7%) of people had started drug treatment for ADHD. Methylphenidate was the most commonly prescribed drug, accounting for 88.4% of prescriptions.
Drug treatment for ADHD was associated with reduced rates of a first occurrence for four out of the five outcomes: a 17% reduction for suicidal behaviours, 15% for substance misuse, 12% for transport accidents and 13% for committing crime.
When the researchers looked at people with recurrent events, the rate reductions associated with ADHD medication were seen for all five outcomes (including accidental injury).
The effect of medication was particularly strong when someone had a history of these events happening frequently. This means those with the most severe symptoms may benefit most.
Stimulant drugs were associated with lower rates of all five outcomes compared with non-stimulant drugs.
It’s likely these benefits are associated with improvements in attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. People may be less likely to be distracted while driving, to self-medicate and show impacts from other mental health challenges.
What didn’t the study do?
The large sample size, use of national linked registers and sophisticated design give greater confidence that these findings are due to medication use and not due to other factors.
But the study was not able to examine medication dosages or track whether people reliably took their medication as prescribed. It also had no way to track the severity of ADHD symptoms. This means it can’t tell us if this helped most people or just some people with severe symptoms.
We know that ADHD medication helps most people, but it is not effective for everyone. So, we still need to understand why some people don’t benefit from ADHD medication, and what other treatments might also be helpful.
Finally, even though the study was rigorous in its design and adjusted for many factors, we can’t rule out that other unaccounted factors could be associated with these effects.
As prescribing increases, the size of the benefit decreases
A second study, published in June, used the same Swedish national registers and self-controlled case series design.
This study also concluded ADHD medication was associated with reduced risks for self-harm, accidental injuries, transport accidents and committing crime.
However, this study also showed that as prescribing rates increased nearly five-fold between years 2006 to 2020, the size of the observed benefits of ADHD medications reduced.
While remaining significant, the size of the associations between ADHD medication use and lower risks of unintentional injury, traffic crashes, and crime weakened over this time.
This could mean people who are less likely to need ADHD medications are now receiving them.
What are the impacts for patients and policymakers?
People need to know that if ADHD medications are helpful for them or their children, it might also improve many other areas of life.
These findings can also give governments confidence that their recent initiatives and efforts to increase access to ADHD support and treatment may have positive downstream impacts on broader social outcomes.
But medications aren’t the only ADHD treatment. Medication should only represent one part of a solution, with other psychological supports for managing emotional regulation, executive and organisational skills and problem-solving also beneficial.
Psychological therapies are effective and can be used in combination with, or separately to, medication.
Yet research shows drug treatments are relied on more frequently in more disadvantaged communities where it’s harder to access psychological supports.
Policymakers need to ensure medication does not become the only treatment people have access to. People with suspected ADHD need a high-quality diagnostic assessment to ensure they get the right diagnosis and the treatment most suitable for them.
Adam Guastella, Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Michael Crouch Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health, University of Sydney and Kelsie Boulton, Senior Research Fellow in Child Neurodevelopment, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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How Metformin Reduces Long COVID Risk By 63%
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Like GLP-1 receptor agonists, metformin was first developed for type 2 diabetes management, before enjoying wider-scale use as a weight loss drug with some other fringe benefits.
Metformin works in 3 main ways:
- it decreases glucose absorption from the gut
- it decreases glucose production in the liver
- it increases insulin sensitivity (for why this matters, see: Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity!)
It doesn’t change how much insulin is secreted, and is unlikely to cause hypoglycemia, making it relatively safe as diabetes drugs go.
You can read more about these aspects of it, here: Metformin For Weight-Loss & More
Its benefits don’t stop there, though! See also: How Metformin Slows Aging
And there’s more…
Metformin vs long COVID
Researchers (Dr. Carolyn Bramante et al.) have put together a lot of recent research, including randomized trials and epidemiological data, showing that starting metformin even during acute COVID infection (i.e. it doesn’t have to be taken prophylactically beforehand) still consistently reduces long COVID risk.
You might be wondering: why would a diabetes drug help after a viral infection? Metformin exerts these effects by means of modulating inflammation and cellular metabolism, rather than attacking a virus directly:
❝In 2020, observational, in silico computer modeling and in vitro studies of SARS-CoV-2 added to the rationale for studying metformin as acute SARS-CoV-2 treatment. Given these multiple streams of evidence, metformin’s low cost, wide availability, tolerability, and safety with no need for monitoring during short-term use, it was important to test metformin versus placebo for outpatient treatment of SARS-CoV-2.❞
~ Dr. Carolyn Bramante
The strongest evidence (albeit for the weakest claims) came from the COVID-OUT randomized trial, where people who took metformin during acute infection had a 41% lower risk of being diagnosed with long COVID over 10 months compared with placebo.
You can read that one here: Outpatient treatment of COVID-19 and incidence of post-COVID-19 condition over 10 months (COVID-OUT): a multicentre, randomised, quadruple-blind, parallel-group, phase 3 trial
So, Dr. Bramante and her team did a second major randomized trial, ACTIV-6, which confirmed similarly, finding a 50% reduction in long COVID risk, including among people with normal body weight, prior infections, vaccination, and Omicron-era infections (i.e., those who often benefit the least from novel interventions).
You can find that paper here: Metformin on the Presence of COVID-19 Symptoms Over 6 Months: The ACTIV-6 Randomized Clinical Trial
However! The effect was much more striking when treatment began within 3 days of symptom onset, cutting risk by 63%.
You can read about that, here: Preventing Long COVID With Metformin
It gets better; a small mechanistic randomized trial testing metformin versus placebo on viral load found metformin reduced the viral load by 93.2%
That’s the viral load, not long COVID risk, but still, it’s worth mentioning since long COVID risk is of course in large part mediated by viral load (can’t have a persistent infection if the viral load is “two” or something).
You can read that paper, here: Treatment with metformin glycinate reduces SARS-CoV-2 viral load: An in vitro model and randomized, double-blind, Phase IIb clinical trial
Dr, Bramante and her team argue that adding metformin to treatment guidelines for non-hospitalized adults* could help translate this evidence into real-world prevention.
*Like you, dear reader, unless you are reading this from hospital, in which case, our condolences, and we hope things get better for you soon!
Want to learn more?
Check out:
What Can Be Done About Long COVID? ← scientists have found a possible cure, a procedure known as epipharyngeal abrasive therapy, which as enjoyable as it sounds, and is not yet proven to cure it completely (although to give it its due, the science so far really is promising)
Take care!
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The Dental Diet – by Dr. Steven Lin
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As it turns out, there’s a lot more to healthy teeth than skipping the sugar and getting some calcium.
The author’s journey started with the realization that most of his work as a dentist should be unnecessary, and not just in the “you should have been flossing” sense. Rather, he came to the same conclusions as his fellow dentist Weston Price before him, and this time (unlike Price) he stuck to his own field, dentistry—meaning that the conclusions he kept were the more valid ones.
Another thing he does better than Price is that he contextualizes the information—we don’t need, for example, to be eating seal fat as a main component of our diet, but we do need to be getting sufficient amounts of certain fat-soluble vitamins. And most people aren’t. Same with what’s good or bad for our oral microbiome, and by extension, our saliva, and by extension, our teeth and gums.
There’s a lot of nutritional information in here; macros and micronutrients alike, but the book goes further than that, to also recommend minimally-processed food that requires more chewing, for example. Not just for its nutritional content, but because that helps our teeth move to (and then stay) where they are ideally supposed to be. No amount of perfectly-blended nutritional supplement drink will align your maxilla for you, say. But chomping on raw carrots? Different story.
Dr. Lin offers a 40-day meal plan, but aware that if you’re vegetarian or vegan you’re probably going to have to rethink it yourself using the information he gives, because his meal plan includes animal products.
Bottom line: if you’d like to eat for better oral health (nutritionally, physically, and for your oral microbiome), this book has all the information you’ll need.
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A Therapeutic Journey – by Alain de Botton
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We’ve often featured The School of Life’s videos here on 10almonds, and most of those are written by (and often voiced by) Alain de Botton.
This book lays out the case for mental health being also just health, that no person is perfectly healthy all the time, and sometimes we all need a little help. While he does suggest seeking help from reliable outside sources, he also tells a lot about how we can improve things for ourselves along the way, whether by what we can control in our environment, or just what’s between our ears.
In the category of limitations, the book is written with the assumption that you are in a position to have access to a therapist of your choice, and in a sufficiently safe and stable life situation that there is a limit to how bad things can get.
The style is… Alain de Botton’s usual style. Well-written, clear, decisive, instructive, compassionate, insightful, thought-provoking.
Bottom line: this isn’t a book for absolutely everyone, but if your problems are moderate and your resources are comfortable, then this book has a lot of insights that can make your life more easy-going and joyful, without dropping the seriousness when appropriate.
Click here to check out A Therapeutic Journey, and perhaps begin one of your own!
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Edamame vs Mung Beans – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing edamame to mung beans, we picked the edamame.
Why?
In terms of macros, edamame has a little more protein while mung beans have a little more fiber for notably more carbs, so all things considered, we’ll call this category either a tie, or a subjective win for edamame.
In the category of vitamins, edamame has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while mung beans have more of vitamins B3 and B5; a clear win for edamame.
When it comes to minerals, edamame has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, while mung beans have more selenium. Another easy for edamame.
Looking at phytochemicals, edamame has more polyphenols of various kinds (mostly isoflavonoids), so wins this round too.
Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for edamame, but do enjoy either or both; mung beans are great too; they just don’t look it when standing next to edamame!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Plant vs Animal Protein: Head to Head
Enjoy!
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White Noise vs Pink Noise
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It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!
In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!
As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!
So, no question/request too big or small
❝I live in a large city and even late at night there is always a bit of background noise. While I am pretty used to it by now, I find I don’t sleep nearly as well in the city as I do in the country. I have seen some stuff about “white noise” generators. I was wondering whether you have any thoughts about the science behind these, and whether it is something I should try out – or maybe I should be trying something completly different.❞
The science says…
❝Our data show that white noise significantly improved sleep based on subjective and objective measurements in subjects complaining of difficulty sleeping due to high levels of environmental noise. This suggests that the application of white noise may be an effective tool in helping to improve sleep in those settings.❞
That said, you might also consider “pink noise”, which is very similar to white noise (having all frequencies normally audible to the human ear), but has greater intensity of lower frequencies, creating a more deep and even sound. While white noise and pink noise are both great at “muting” external sounds like those that have been disturbing your sleep, pink noise may have an advantage in helping to stimulate deep and restful sleep:
❝This study demonstrates that steady pink noise has significant effect on reducing brain wave complexity and inducing more stable sleep time to improve sleep quality of individuals.❞
Source: Pink noise: effect on complexity synchronization of brain activity and sleep consolidation
There may be extra benefits to pink noise, too:
Acoustic Enhancement of Sleep Slow Oscillations and Concomitant Memory Improvement in Older Adults
Rest well!
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