Tag: balanced eating

The Health Impacts of Stress Eating

Posted on by Sarah Kesseli

During this “new normal” many of us may have let our health and wellness goals fall to the wayside. One major change in your health goals may have something to do with stress eating. Shifts in our typical dietary habits are one of the most common changes.

Specifically, stress-eating has become a popular coping mechanism as news related to the coronavirus continues to unfold. In turn, this has caused a number of people to experience significant health ramifications. These changes can impacted our mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

Whether you have acknowledged your stress-eating or not, it’s important to be aware of the negative effects. Read on to learn about how stress eating may be impacting your overall well-being!

Weight gain

One of the more obvious health impacts of stress-eating is weight gain. Emotional eating tends to push people towards high-fat, surgery foods. They are often referred to as “comfort foods.” This is due to the release of certain stress hormones such as cortisol, which works to increase appetite and motivation. Consequently, this results in you eating more food than normal.

High levels of cortisol and insulin are the hormone responsible for absorbing the extra sugar in your blood. When combined with the hunger hormone ghrelin, we tend to turn to high-calorie junk foods as a way to ease our nerves.

While stress-eating has proven to be effective in counteracting anxiety, it is not beneficial for preventing weight gain, which is why it’s important to monitor your food intake and calorie consumption.

What You Can Do: To avoid sabotaging any weight loss goals you may have and stop those additional pounds from accumulating, practice intuitive eating. By doing this, you’ll be able to further monitor your food intake and your body’s needs.

Beyond that, be sure to keep up with physical activity. Hiking, swimming, running, or a simple at-home workout are all great ways to combat those extra calories caused by stress-eating!

Acne & Stress Eating

A clean, clear, healthy-looking complexion isn’t only dependent on the skincare routine you follow and the products you use. Rather, it pertains to the ways in which you care for other parts of your body like your immune and digestive system.

When you eat foods that have a high glycemic index, you’re causing your blood sugar to spike rapidly. When this happens, your body produces more insulin, which can trigger inflammation in the skin and sometimes can cause blemishes to occur, according to studies.

Additionally, high-cortisol levels can often send your body’s sebum (oil) production into overdrive. Therefore, it’s easy to understand why stress-eating can wreak havoc on our skin.

What You Can Do: It’s a good idea to introduce low glycemic index foods into your diet. Foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and unrefined carbohydrates better support your immune system and keep insulin levels low.

Aside from that, you’ll also want to focus on skincare. To maximize results, consider using specialized acne treatment products in your skincare regimen a few times a week. This will help to target blemishes and breakouts more effectively and prevent future acne from occurring.

Mood

The integral relationship between the foods we eat and our mental health is an ongoing topic of research. The connection between blood sugar fluctuations and nutritional imbalances can have an impact on our mind and general well-being.

An improper diet that comes as a result of stress-eating can be detrimental to your mood. The minimal nutrition that often stems from stress eating can cause you to miss out on vitamins, minerals, and other necessary nutrients.

Your gut holds 90% of your serotonin receptors, which are the neurotransmitters responsible for regulating your mood. That being said, poor gut health caused by stress-eating may be reducing your energy levels and worsening your mood.

What You Can Do: Although it may be easier said than done, try limiting your intake of processed foods. This can do wonders for your mind and body. Remember to pay attention to the way certain foods make you feel by jotting down your thoughts in a food and mood journal.

Additionally, try to make a point to practice other mindfulness activities. Even if it’s only for ten minutes a day, taking some time out of your schedule to practice yoga or meditation will be a sure-fire way to improve your mood!

It’s important to find healthy coping mechanisms that support both your wellness goals and overall well-being. Instead of relieving stress through emotional eating, try following more mindful practices like the ones listed above. After all, your health does deserve your utmost attention! It’s never too late to start implementing routines that make you feel good!

A Quick Guide on Flexitarian Eating

Posted on by Sarah Kesseli

So you’ve heard about veganism, the paleo diet and good old fashioned vegetarianism. As of late you may have seen the term “flexitarian” pop up more and more.

Other than being a new buzz word, what does flexitarian eating really mean?

What is it?

The flexitarian diet was coined by Registered Dietitian Dawn “DJ” Blatner. As listed on DJ’s website, the word flexitarian is made up of the words “flexible” and “vegetarian.”

Essentially, the idea of this diet is to allow people to minimize meat consumption as opposed to restricting it entirely.

A traditional vegetarian diet restricts the consumption of meat. For some vegetarians, cutting out animal-by products such as dairy or eggs is a part of the diet as well.

This can be somewhat confusing to those who are unfamiliar with the various differences between diets. As such, flexitarian is increasingly becoming a more popular way of eating.

Unlike some other diets, eating flexitarian doesn’t have a strict set of rules or guidelines. Being a flexitarian is more of a lifestyle than it is a diet. Those who choose to adopt this lifestyle are also choosing to not restrict certain foods.  This gives people more freedom with what they can eat.

In simple terms, flexitarians focus on eating a plant-forward or vegetarian diet most of the time. However, when a craving strikes or when someone simply feels like eating meat, they do just that.

The choice to be flexitarian is to not punish yourself when you want to eat meat. Instead, it promotes listening to your body and openly choosing to eat more vegetarian-focused meals on a daily basis.

DJ sums the above perfectly on her website: “the most important part of flexitarianism is not how many meatless days you have, but how many more vegetarian meals you prepare.”

Therefore, a flexitarian chooses to eat most of their meals like a vegetarian or plant-based eater but give themselves grace to consume meat when they want it.

Reasons for Eating Flexitarian

The reasons for living a flexitarian lifestyle differ from person to person. However, there are a few trends across the board.

For some, eating flexitarian is more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Meat consumption leads to greenhouse gas emissions which ultimately impacts climate change.

However, eating meat in moderation is absolutely safe to have as a part of your diet. As such, flexitarians give themselves room to consume meat here-and-there.

Other reasons to eat flexitarian include introducing more fiber or vitamins and minerals into your meals. Essentially, this diet focuses on consuming more plant-based, whole food ingredients such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

According to Registered Dietitian Alyssa Pike, “plant-based foods can help you get your daily dose of dietary fiber,” which is important as most people don’t meet the required amount of daily fiber.

Another potential reason or benefit is that it may decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease. Studies have cited this to be due to the increase in nutrients, antioxidant vitamins and better-for-you ingredients.

In addition to the reasons above, many of those that follow a flexitarian way of eating choose to do so to make a lifestyle change. Depending on your lifestyle goals, choosing to eat this way may come with its own personal list of reasons!

Things to Eat While Flexitarian

So, what does eating flexitarian actually look like?

There are in fact some major differences between what it means to eat vegetarian and flexitarian. For some, eating vegetarian involves eating everything but meat (and sometimes dairy/eggs).

While vegetarians might feel free to eat more pre-packaged or processed foods, the flexitarian diet actually cautions against it.

Specifically, flexitarians are encouraged to consume whole plant foods. This includes fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes and whole grains. As such, this promotes eating a more whole foods diet as opposed to processed foods.

However, that doesn’t mean you are prohibited from eating pre-packaged meals when flexitarian! Our Cauliflower Kung Pao bowl is a great meal option when you are trying to focus on a more plant-focused diet.

To elevate and meal prep the noodle bowl, we focus on pairing it with plant-based ingredients such as edamame and tofu. Learn how to make our Cauliflower Kung Pao Meal Prep Bowls! They are a perfect fast and affordable meal prep idea for plant-based eaters.

While some diets and fads can be confusing, being flexitarian is not. If you are looking to ease your way into plant-based eating or simply want to become a semi-vegetarian, flexitarian eating may just be the lifestyle for you.