Nutrition to support the Stress Response

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food

-Hippocrates, the Greek physician and father of medicine.

What should I eat? More greens, more Vitamin D, more fish, no meats, no grains, or should I become a vegetarian, go on a ketogenic diet, or evolutionary diet? There are so many options. What are the best choices?

The foods we eat provide the building blocks and energy source for our body. If you eat high quality foods, the body has the opportunity to create and maintain a healthy strong structure; on the other hand, if you eat low quality foods, it is more challenging to create and maintain a healthy body. The analogy is building a house.  If the materials are high quality, the structure well engineered and well built, the house has the opportunity to age well.  On the other hand, if the house is built out of inferior materials and poorly engineered, it is easily damaged by wind, rain or even earthquakes.

Although we are bombarded with recommendations for healthy eating, many of the recommendations are not based upon science but shaped by the lobbying and advertisement efforts of agribusiness. For example, the scientific recommendations to reduce sugar in our diet were not implements in the government guidelines. This demonstrates the power of lobbying which places profits over health.

Officials at the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services rejected explicit caps on sugar and alcohol consumption. Although “the preponderance of evidence supports limiting intakes of added sugars and alcoholic beverages to promote health and prevent disease.” (Rabin, 2020). 

To make sense out of the multitude of nutritional recommendations, watch the superb presentation by Dr. Marisa Soski, ND, Nutrition to Support Stress Response.* She discusses how and what we eat has direct impact on how our bodies manage our reactions to stress.

*Presented April 16, 2021 at the Holistic Health Series on Fridays: Optimize Health and Well-Being Lecture Series. The series is sponsored by the Institute for Holistic Health Studies and Department of Recreation, Parks, Tourism, San Francisco State University.    

Reference

Rabin, R.C. (2020). U.S. Diet Guidelines Sidestep Scientific Advice to Cut Sugar and Alcohol. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/health/dietary-guidelines-alcohol-sugar.html


5 Comments on “Nutrition to support the Stress Response”

  1. Robert Gorter says:

    I am extremely happy with this contribution on “Nutrition” as its value is often underestimated or ignored. Then, of curse, he qulty of he produce is as imortant: Organic? Bio-Dynamic?

    Is here a rhyhm in your life style with regular food intake and in peace? Not always food intake “on the go”?

    Dr. Erik Peper always gives great information and easy-to-do recommendations.

  2. Robert Gorter says:

    *can we do a lecturer together online again soon?*

    On Sun, Apr 18, 2021 at 2:36 AM the peper perspective wrote:

    > erikpeper posted: ” Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food > -Hippocrates, the Greek physician and father of medicine. What should I > eat? More greens, more Vitamin D, more fish, no meats, no grains, or shoul” >

  3. E Wolf says:

    Thank you Erik for your always poignant and pertinent information and newsletters!

    *”LIVE BETTER…NOT JUST LONGER”*

    *Ellie M.B. Wolf, MS, BCB, **Fellow/**BCIA* *Internship Supervisor, Certification Instructor* *Biofeedback and Stress Recovery of New Jersey* *Teaneck, NJ 07666* *847-308-1424* fearbuster.ellie@gmail.com

    On Sat, Apr 17, 2021 at 8:35 PM the peper perspective wrote:

    > erikpeper posted: ” Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food > -Hippocrates, the Greek physician and father of medicine. What should I > eat? More greens, more Vitamin D, more fish, no meats, no grains, or shoul” >

  4. Pragmatical post, as usual.
    great!


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