You Are What You Eat

“You are what you eat”. In our busy lives, most of us don’t spend much time considering that fact. Nutrition provides our bodies with essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals and other substances in food that are necessary to support the maintenance, growth, repair, and overall health of our bodies. It includes not only our food intake, but our absorption, assimilation, and excretion of these nutrients, so any undesirable problems amongst any of these will negatively impact our overall system and well-being.

When most people hear the word malnutrition, they think of children starving in under-developed countries. “Mal” is a combining word meaning “bad” or “ill”. Malnutrition can mean under-nourishment (not getting enough nutrients) as well as over-nourishment (getting too many nutrients).^[1] Poor nutrition is a problem that is often linked to poverty or a poor understanding of nutrition and how to eat well. Malnutrition and its consequences such as chronic inflammation and immunodeficiency are clear contributors to diseases and death worldwide.^[2]

You don’t have to have a degree in nutrition to know that a diet laden in fast food and excess sugar is bad for you. While trying to prevent illness is certainly an important reason to eat well, we often forget about the more immediate benefits of a healthy diet, like increased energy, better digestion, and improved mood and sleep. However, while eating nourishing foods like fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats should be a priority, food should also be enjoyed and it’s important to be easy on ourselves and enjoy that cookie once and a while – moderation in anything is key.

Just as stress can affect nutrition, nutrition can affect stress. Have you ever experienced a stressful event and just couldn’t eat? During acute stress, adrenaline suppresses the appetite.^[3] With chronic stress, however, our increased cortisol levels can cause cravings for foods high in sugar, fat, and calories.^{[4] [5]} Chronic stress increases the use and excretion of many nutrients, and if one doesn’t eat nutritious food, deficiencies may occur.^[6]

The correlation between chronic stress and emotional eating has been observed in various research, and points to higher intake of foods such as soda, fatty foods and energy-dense snack-foods. The irony is that when we’re stressed, we typically reach for comfort foods that are usually full of simple carbohydrates (cookies, chocolate and ice cream) and unhealthy fats (deep-fried foods and potato chips). Let’s face it, people feeling stress may lack the time or inspiration to make nutritious, balanced meals, or may even forget to eat. When we’re stressed, our sleep is often impacted, and we’re fatigued during the day. In order to cope with feeling tired in the day, we often reach for items to increase our energy such stimulating caffeine or high-calorie snack foods. Over time if this type of eating pattern continues, it leads to metabolic havoc – with a higher risk of insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, excess visceral fat – mainly abdominal – and Type 2 diabetes.^{[7] [8]}

One study found that highly stressed moms showed greater compulsive eating resulting in worsening metabolic health and increased Body Mass Index (BMI – more on this in the next chapter) and adipose tissue over several years.^[9] Another study following working women found that women who had burnout from chronic on-the-job stress, “may be more vulnerable to emotional eating and uncontrolled eating and have a hindered ability to make changes in their eating behavior.”^[10]  Research has found that dietary patterns emphasizing fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, nuts and fish helps to decrease depression, anxiety and stress, whereas a typical Western highly processed diet increases the risk of poor mental health.^[11]