I gave it a quick read at the time and decided to address the ideas presented here on the blog. Despite our best and most thorough efforts to prepare for the coming events, I’m quite sure many of us will be stressed at times. I know I will be. Knowing the biological reason behind the why may help us understand whether and how to satisfy the craving.
The two opening paragraphs lay the foundation for the article:
Although our brain accounts for just 2 percent of our body weight, the organ consumes half of our daily carbohydrate requirements—and glucose is its most important fuel. Under acute stress the brain requires some 12 percent more energy, leading many to reach for sugary snacks.
Carbohydrates provide the body with the quickest source of energy. In fact, in cognitive tests subjects who were stressed performed poorly prior to eating. Their performance, however, went back to normal after consuming food.
We already know in stressful situations, such as TEOTWAWKI events will present, the body requires far more calories. Not only will people be performing more physical labor, they’re also going to be thinking more (we hope). And thus the brain needs more fuel to run well, and its preferred fuel is glucose, which we get from carbohydrates.
One of the studies referenced in the article involved people asked to speak for 10 minutes in front of strangers. Public speaking is the number one fear for most people, in other words, a highly stressful situation. Researchers measured the levels of cortisol and adrenaline in the participants’ blood. And they also offered a buffet after the speech. The speech induced stress, which led to stressful eating, as shown by the fact that the participants consumed an average of 34 more grams of carbohydrates than when they did not give a speech.
The study participants did what most people do and ate more of everything, rather than making it easy for the body and just consuming carb-heavy foods. Why does it matter?
When people are stressed, the brain needs more energy. If a person doesn’t eat anything, the brain will take glucose from the body, which the body intends for fat and muscle cell use. This stresses the body and it then secretes stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. This may eventually increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, or depression. Then there is the issue of consuming excess calories that we don’t need. We may not have a surplus of protein and fat in our food storage, and we definitely don’t need to store fat on our bodies.
If we’re stressed, the focus should be on alleviating that stress in the best way possible. Avoiding stressful situations, like relocating to a tropical island far from the mess we’re going to be in, isn’t an option for most of us. Remedying the situations—getting Hamas, Hezbollah, Israel and all the others to play nicely, sending the millions of military age men who have invaded our country home, or replacing our traitorous government with patriots—seems unlikely to happen. Preparing as best we can for the coming festivities is the best solution for most of us. We are going to need all the brain power we can muster, and there will be times when we need it as quickly as possible.
We might want to
have a little sugar on hand. Dum-Dums
suckers may do the job, but I prefer peanut M&Ms. As the day after Halloween, today is Cheap
Candy Day at grocery stores everywhere.
Take advantage of it if you need to. Follow the link below if you need to learn how to preserve it for as long as possible.
Links to related posts:
The
Importance of Sugar in Food Preservation (and Nausea Treatment)
The Medicinal Uses of Chocolate
References:
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