STRESS is ruining your diet and is the reason you’re more likely to give into a craving for a chocolate bar or a junk-food lunch, Swiss research has found.
A high-stress meeting in the morning or an upset client could undermine your self-control and make it more likely you’ll ditch the diet, says the research published in the Cell Press journal.
A study subjected 22 young men who were trying to lead a healthy lifestyle to a stressful three-minute ice bath on their hands and then asked them to choose from different food options.
It found they were more likely to choose an unhealthy food than the 29 men in the control group who weren’t stressed.
Mars & Snickers bars were back on the shelves today , New packaging ? . 18/8/05 . pic John Grainger
The effects of stress were also visible on their brain, and only some of this were due to the hormone cortisol, which is commonly linked to stress.
The authors say it shows even moderate stress can impair self-control.
This is important because surveys have found people feel moderately stressed by family and relationship issues, money or work problems about 20 per cent of the time.
“Our results indicate that stress may compromise self-control decisions by both enhancing the impact of immediately rewarding attributes and reducing the efficacy of (brain) regions promoting behaviours that are consistent with long term goals,” the paper reports.
The study found stressed participants put a higher weight on the tastiness of food choices. In one part of the study, they failed to exercise self-control in food choices 24 per cent more often than
people in the control group.
The people who reported the strongest feelings of stress were the most sensitive to tasty food, and they chose the unhealthy food faster than those who chose the healthy option.
The researchers say previous studies have shown that the consumption of food rewards may help reduce physiological stress reactions in both rats and humans.
Stress has also been found to alter risk preferences during gambling, and has also been found to aggravate addiction processes.
“A common theme across many studies is that it makes the individual more focused on the present situation,” the authors said.
This stress effect could all be down to evolution, said the authors.
Historically, stress occurred when an acute physical or social threat had to be managed to ensure survival and coping with the stressor and stress reaction had to be prioritised, less pressing long term goals had to wait..
The research has important implications for treating obesity. The effects of stress can be made worse by smoking, drinking and over eating but reduced by exercise.
The researchers say further research should test what happens if people can be helped to choose exercise as a stress relief rather than junk food.
