There are a variety of smart lifestyle strategies you can use to lower your stress levels, including practicing meditation and deep breathing, getting adequate sleep, and exercise. But did you know that the food you eat has the potential to both reduce stress and cause stress? Food is a critical, yet often overlooked, piece of stress management.
If you’re looking for strategies to reduce your overall stress load, it’s important to understand how nutrition impacts stress, and vice versa. On this episode of The Model Health Show, you’re going to hear the science of how food can reduce stress and cause stress. You’re also going to learn actionable steps you can take to ensure a healthier overall stress load with specific foods and behaviors.
Learning strategies to modulate our stress responses is something we can all benefit from, so I hope this episode provides a ton of value to you. The bidirectional relationship between food and stress is a fascinating one, so click play, listen in, and enjoy the show!
In this episode you’ll discover:
- What percentage of physician visits are caused by stress related illnesses.
- The connection between stress and cardiovascular events.
- What stress is, and how your overall stress load is compiled.
- The definition of gastrophysics.
- What role perception plays in your food preferences.
- The surprising findings of the sonic chip experiment.
- How texture can influence our food experiences and enjoyment level.
- Specific examples of snacks that incorporate various food textures.
- The connection between carbohydrates and serotonin production.
- How consuming fermented foods can improve your mental health.
- The health benefits of consuming chocolate.
- How eating with others can act as a defensive mechanism against stress.
- Why eating increases immune activity.
- The connection between ultra-processed foods and psychological stress.
- Why chewing thoroughly is critical for your health.
- The two main things you should include while eating to reduce your stress load.
Items mentioned in this episode include:
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This episode is brought to you by Foursigmatic. What's another science backed food that can help to support the reduction of stress? Well, this one is actually traditionally used as a beverage, but it also is used culinary ways today in different food preparations. And I'm talking about Lion's Mane medicinal mushroom. I just went to a farmer's market the other day and there was a table there that had this wide variety of different medicinal mushrooms and Lion's Mane was there as well, and some folks who were getting the Lion's Mane to use it in different dishes. But traditionally it's gonna be a decoction or hot water extraction to kind of break down and extract these compounds that I'm about to share with you because within Lion's Mane, a study published in biomedical research found that test subjects with a variety of health complaints, including anxiety and poor sleep quality, were given Lion's Mane or a placebo for four weeks. The participants who use the Lion's Mane significantly reduce levels of irritation and anxiety than those in the placebo group. Alright, so we're talking about a reduction of agitation, a reduction of stress. The researchers stated "Our results show that Lion's Mane intake has the possibility to reduce depression and anxiety." That's special, man, that is really special. And as mentioned, you wanna make sure that this is a dual extraction to really get all the compounds from the mushrooms. This is why I'm such a huge fan of Four Sigmatic. I have Lion's Mane almost every day. So whether it's in the Lion's Mane Organic Coffee along with Chaga medicinal mushroom, or it's the Lion's Mane Elixir itself, this is one of those staples in my household for sure. Huge fan of Lion's Mane, and you could check them out. Go to foursigmatic.com/model, that's foursigmatic.com/model. You get 10% off storewide. Four Sigmatic really is the best. They've been such a huge supporter. We're a big supporter also of the movement with Eat Smarter and Eat Smarter Family Cookbook as well and just providing great gifts and things for giveaways and support just to really help with this movement with family wellness. So definitely appreciate Four Sigmatic. Go to foursigmatic.com/model for 10% off.
This episode is brought to you by Organifi. For this one, we're gonna look at a spice. This one is turmeric. Turmeric has been found to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce blood fats, and directly act upon fat cells. Plus research published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology points to turmeric's potential in reducing the severity of both anxiety and depression. Yes, we can add some turmeric to different recipes. However, to get a truly therapeutic amount of it, I'm a huge fan of making a turmeric latte. And for that, my favorite turmeric latte is from Organifi Gold. Organifi Gold not only has an incredible source of organic turmeric, but also combines magnesium, Rishi, and other incredible ingredients that really help to reduce stress in the human body. They made that product so intentionally utilizing the highest quality ingredients and just making it easy to enjoy the process of getting well and getting these powerful nutrients into our bodies. For the Organifi Gold, go to organifi.com/model. That's organifi.com/model. You get 20% off storewide, so they're gold formula, they're Organifi green juice, which I mentioned spirulina a little bit earlier. It's one of the highlighted ingredients in the Organifi green juice. But in this particular instance, if we're talking about reducing stress, Organifi Gold is my favorite.
This episode is brought to you by LMNT. Part of the response of the human body where we're not satiated and we're wanting to eat more and more and more is that we're not getting in the nutrients that our bodies are screaming for. Now with that lack of nutrients, by the way, this is where it's about being intentional when we're making our food choices to make sure that we're eating nutrient rich foods as much as possible. And to compliment with that in particular, there's a certain category of nutrients that are really important in helping to modulate stress. And this is where electrolytes can be valuable for everybody, especially those who are not getting copious amounts of these stress modulating electrolytes in their diet. A plethora of studies have proven the benefits of electrolytes on mental health and stress management. For example, a study cited in the journal of physiological reports titled Sodium and Potassium Excretion Predict Increased Depression in Urban Adolescents uncovered the overlooked role of electrolytes and mental health, in particular low potassium. And the sodium intake that's largely coming from ultra-processed foods is creating more mental health issues in our citizens. And of course, by the way, don't forget about magnesium when we're talking about this interplay with electrolytes. Magnesium has too many studies on reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression and releasing abnormal amounts of stress, helping us to metabolize stress. Then we can even mention, there are mountains of studies on the benefits of magnesium and so keep that in mind. This is why I'm a huge fan of course, of getting in our electrolytes in our food, but also supplementing with high quality electrolytes. I'm not talking about Gatorade, I'm not talking about Powerade, I'm not talking about any of that garbage. I'm talking about high quality electrolytes with science-backed data points that is not containing unnecessary sugars and food dyes for me and my family. This is something that I travel with this as well. It was really helpful. These are those small things you pick up traveling coast to coast to New York City, really helping me to adjust. I'm always traveling with my element electrolytes. Go to drinklmnt.com/model. That's drinklmnt.com/model and they're going to send you a free electrolyte sample pack with every purchase. So whatever electrolytes that you get, they're gonna send you a sample pack to try out their other varieties of electrolytes as well. So such a cool gift that they're giving for folks. Go to drinklmnt.com/model. Truly element is in a league of their own when it comes to electrolytes.
