The effects of stress on eating

From 7½ Lessons
Jump to navigation Jump to search

A note for Lesson no. 5, "Your Brain Secretly Works With Other Brains," in Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett.
Some context from page 92 is:

Two other studies, which I find remarkable as a scientist but unnerving as a person, measured the effects of stress on eating.

The appendix adds:

Both studies are by psychologist Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser and her colleagues.

Stress within two hours of eating effectively adds 104 calories to your meal:[1]

"The cumulative difference between one recent stressor and no stressors over 6 hours translates into 104 kcal, averaged across meal type and group and all controlling variables. This difference would add up to almost 11 pounds across a year." (p. 8)

Healthful fats are metabolized like unhealthful fats when you are stressed.[2]


References

  1. Kiecolt-Glaser, Janice K., Diane L. Habash, Christopher P. Fagundes, Rebecca Andridge, Juan Peng, William B. Malarkey, and Martha A. Belury. 2015. “Daily Stressors, Past Depression, and Metabolic Responses to High-Fat Meals: A Novel Path to Obesity.” Biological Psychiatry 77 (7): 653–660.
  2. Kiecolt-Glaser, Janice K., Christopher P. Fagundes, Rebecca Andridge, Juan Peng, William B. Malarkey, Diane L. Habash, and Martha A. Belury. 2017. “Depression, Daily Stressors and Inflammatory Responses to High-Fat Meals: When Stress Overrides Healthier Food Choices.” Molecular Psychiatry 22 (3): 476–482.