Do you look like this when YOU"RE #stressed? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/06/hunger-games-how-stress-affects-your-food-choices-352/

Have you ever wondered why stress changes your food preferences with ambitious diet plans exiting the window as fast as a man being chased by a shark? A new study from the College of Zürich in Switzerland is providing answers by demonstrating how stress can alter your self-control.

Stress sabotages self-control

There is much truth behind the phrase “stress eating,” researchers have found.

“Our findings provide an important step towards understanding the interactions between stress and self-control in the human brain, with the effects of stress operating through multiple neural pathways,” said lead author Silvia Maier from University of Zurich, Switzerland.

“Self-control abilities are sensitive to perturbations at several points within this network, and optimal self-control requires a precise balance of input from multiple brain regions rather than a simple on/off switch,” Maier added.

This complex mechanism shapes not only on our capability of staying zen, but also our food preferences.

Food, stress and relief

For the study, 29 participants underwent a treatment inducing moderate stress in the laboratory. They were then asked to choose between 2 food options. An additional 22 participants did not undergo the treatment; a torture-like technique which involved being observed and evaluated by researchers while immersing a hand in an ice water bath for 3 minutes, before choosing between the food options.

Researchers found that the slightly traumatising experience of the ice bath treatment had a repercussion on participants who were more likely to choose unhealthy food compared with people who were not stressed.

Basically, even moderate levels of stress can impair self-control. The effects of stress were also visible in the brain’s patterns of connectivity which resulted in the participants’ reduced ability to exercise self-control over food choices.

Stress is in the air

“This is important because moderate stressors are more common than extreme events and will thus influence self-control choices more frequently and for a larger portion of the population,” said senior author Todd Hare.

Researchers hope to identify whether some factors — ranging from exercise to social support — can “buffer” the effects of stress on decision making.

We all came across the power of stress at some point in our lives but did you ever feel it was impairing your self-control? Share your experience in the comments section below.

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This looks like a job for Pavlok! Susan stresses over giving up sweets with Pavlok on her side:

 

Hunger Games: How Stress Affects Your Food Choices