5 Sinister Foods That Skyrocket Your Stress And Anxiety
Some foods make your stress and anxiety much, much worse. If you are already stressed and anxious, it is very important that you cut back on these foods.
Let us now look at 5 major food types that spike cortisol production and increase your mental tension.
5. Caffeine Messes Up Your Nerves
Any food or drink with caffeine in it can make you nervous and jittery. This includes beverages like:
- Coffee
- Tea
- Soda
- Diet Soda
- Energy Drinks
- And more
Your morning cup of coffee or tea can help start your day. But daily repeated consumption of drinks with caffeine makes your anxiety and stress worse.
4. Sugary Foods Make You Edgy
Foods that are loaded with sugar lead to sudden changes in blood glucose levels. These include items like:
- Fruit Juices
- Cold Drinks
- Doughnuts
- Ketchup
- Sauces
- Frosting
- and more
As soon as you eat these foods, your blood sugar spikes. And soon after your body digests the food, your glucose levels crash. These sudden rise and fall in blood glucose levels can create mood swings and anxious feelings.Most packaged fruit drinks, sauces, and dressings contain a lot of added sugar.
3. Alcoholic Drinks Can Give You Jitters
Drinking even a small amount of alcohol can interfere with your sleep patterns. Alcohol may seem to help you sleep in the short term, but in the long term, it causes sleep problems.
Because of bad sleep, you wake up unrested, and this leads to more stress and anxiety. Over the long term, alcohol is known to increase anxiety and trigger depression. Limit your drinking to no more than one a day. This also includes light alcoholic beverages like beer, wine, champagne, etc.
2. Processed Foods Don’t Just Make You Fat
Processed foods contain very few nutrients and large amounts of refined carbohydrates. These foods also usually contain chemical preservatives and additives. Such chemicals interfere with your gut health and can also lead to intestinal inflammation.
These refined carbs are found in foods like:
- ready-to-eat snacks (chips, cookies, muffins etc.)
- pastries
- pasta
- breakfast cereals
- ready-to-eat meals
- and more
Refined carbs have been known to trigger stress and anxiety and produce mood changes.
1. Fried Foods Are The Worst
When starchy foods are baked, grilled or fried at high temperatures, they create a compound known as acrylamide. Long-term exposure to acrylamide is known to induce depression and anxiety symptoms.
These include deep-fried foods like:
- French fries
- Fried chicken
- Fried cornballs
- Onion rings
- Egg rolls
- And more
Eating fried foods regularly can also lead to neuroinflammation that disrupts your brain’s normal activity.
Cut back on caffeine, sugar, alcohol, processed foods, and fried foods in your daily diet to help decrease your stress levels. Add more plant-based foods to your diet and increase your intake of foods that reduce stress and anxiety.
