One of the best ways you can support your body’s stress management efforts? Grab your knife and fork.
That’s right – food plays a significant role in your body’s stress management.
Stress is stalking you.
Why wouldn’t it be?
The experience of a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment (as well as moving into survivorship) is pretty much all about stress.
And anxiety. And fear.
But I don’t need to remind you of that.
You’re living it.
Hello! I’m Stress, Happy to Meet You
Even though you work to manage your stress, it weasels its way in, wrecking your sleep patterns and productivity.
In addition to stressors like traffic, too many virtual meetings, or your never-ending task list, you’re also likely battling post-treatment stress.
Treatment and/or medication side effects. Follow-up scans and doctor appointments. Out-of-nowhere physical pain. Living with metastatic breast cancer.
All of that can keep low-grade stress constantly fired up.
It’s the unrelenting, chronic stress that gets you into trouble. It cripples your body’s immune system and ability to regenerate at the cellular and hormonal level. (1, 2)
Your Body To The Rescue
But here’s the good news.
Whether facing an existing or unexpected stress load, your body is equipped with an amazing ability to draw on its life-preserving power to keep you safe.
Behaving in a fairly coordinated manner, you body activates its “stress response.” Through a series of reactions involving hormones, behavioral changes and alterations in the functioning of your autonomic system (the mechanism that allows body processes like breathing and heart rate to happen without conscious effort from you), your body works to calm you down.
That said, your body will never turn away any extra help you’d like to give it.
Eat Your Way to Stress Management
One of the best ways you can support your body’s stress management efforts is with your knife and fork. That’s right – food plays a significant role in helping your body manage stress.
How delicious is that?
But here’s the thing. The TYPE of foods you choose really does matter.
A steady diet of junk food won’t cut the mustard (however, mustard greens ARE a terrific food to include.) (4)
A stress-fighting diet provides powerful stress reducing benefits AT THE CELLULAR LEVEL to:
- improve brain functioning
- support your immune system
- lower blood pressure
- promote optimal circulation
- reduce free radicals and other toxins
- minimize cortisol and adrenaline levels (stress chemicals that trigger your fight or flight response).
Yes, food can do all of that.
Now, more than ever, a diet rich in nutrient-dense foods is essential in potentially reducing recurrence risk, increasing energy, and gifting your body with necessary vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that support your immune and recovery systems.
Mix and Match From These 29 Foods Each Day to Ensure The Best Variety of Nutrients
- Vitamin C Fruits and Veggies
- Green and red peppers, potatoes, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, tomatoes, kiwi, cauliflower, cabbage, onions
- Vitamin E Foods
- Dry roasted sunflower seeds, almonds, spinach, safflower oil, wheat germ, green leafy vegetables
- Polyphenolic Foods
- Chocolate, tea, coffee
- Complex Carbohydrate Foods
- Barley, rye, oats, whole wheat
- Omega 3 Foods
- Walnuts, ground flax seeds, fatty fish, chia seeds, canola oil
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Thanks for reading my post!
I help survivors of hormone-positive breast cancer end food confusion, overwhelm and fear to gain peace of mind and confidence about nutrition, exercise and well-being, so they can rebuild their health after treatment.
I’m a registered dietitian, personal trainer, nutrition therapist and coach, speaker and survivor of hormone-positive breast cancer.
Ready for professional support to conquer food fears and gain peace of mind? Click this link and apply to work with me!
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SOURCES
- Enhancing versus Suppressive Effects of Stress on Immune Function: Implications for Immunoprotection and Immunopathology
- The Impact of Psychological Stress on Wound Healing: Methods and Mechanisms
- Understanding the stress response
- Design, synthesis and antitumor evaluation of phenyl N-mustard-quinazoline conjugates.