Can sugar make you stressed?

How sugar can make you stressed

Clearly I am very stressed by sugar and photogenic!  But seriously, one of the biggest causes of stress is your blood sugar!

How is this possible?

When we are stressed (most of us think of mental stress, things that are beyond or out of our control) our adrenal glands make the stress hormone cortisol.  As well as managing stress, this hormone cortisol, also manages your blood sugar.  If your blood sugar levels change too fast, your adrenal glands release cortisol to pull it back up again.  Unstable blood sugar also causes you to make storage hormone like insulin, which causes weight gain and fatigue.  If you can’t control other stressful events in your life then controlling your blood sugar levels is one way to help you feel less stressed and keep you energised and slim.

How can you improve your blood sugar levels?

What you do first thing in the morning affects the rest of the day, your body will regulate it’s blood sugar based on the first few events of the day.

Events that raise cortisol first thing:

• High Sugar breakfasts – Keep the sugar that you eat first thing under 7g, this includes any drinks (fruit juice) that you may consume.  Fruit first thing can really raise your blood sugar levels, avoid fruit until later in the day.
• Skipping breakfast – Having no food lowers your metabolism, as your body thinks that you are starving yourself and starts to slow down the rate in which is burns fat for fuel.
• Too much Caffeine – Causes you to raise your blood sugar levels in the same way sugary food does.

Events that reduce cortisol:

• Walking or an easy workout.
• Switching off from electronics – we tend to bombard ourselves first thing with Email, Facebook, TV, News, Instagram, Twitter and what ever else you stimulate your mind with first thing.  Take the time in the morning to relax, breathe, or write down some positive goals for the day.  Balance yourself before getting dragged into everyone else’s world.
• A high Protein Breakfast – The Germans have got it right with their cheese and meats for breakfast.  Get about 25-40 grams of Protein into your breakfast in the morning.  Read the food labels or find a calorie App to figure out the protein you are eating each morning.  I recommend starting the day with some form of meat – you may think this is strange and weird, however that is only because of the habits that we have created.  Europeans probably think we are weird eating cereal first thing.

Change your habits to change your health

Let me know if you have some different ideas for reducing stress in your system.  I would be keen to find out what they are.  And I would also like to see someone else looking as silly as me in a sugar photo 🙂

#fitnessfaster @fitness_faster #sugarandstress #stress #reducestress #reducesugar