OBESITY AND STRESS
DID YOU KNOW?

• 2 OUT OF 3 Americans are overweight
• The Surgeon General was asked what the most pressing issue facing America today is. He immediately answered, “OBESITY.”
• The leading cause of preventable death is OBESITY
• OBESITY costs us $120 billion a year
• Diet plans of diet gurus have a 93-97% failure rate.

1. MENTAL DISORDERS. Obese individuals are more prone to anxiety, depression, fatigue and irritability.
2. PHYSICAL DISEASES AND CONDITIONS. Being overweight increases the likelihood of suffering from major diseases such as heart disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis and many other bone and joint ailments.
3. Two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight, and about half of those are obese.
4. MEDICAL COSTS. The long-term medical costs of being overweight and obesity are greater than our country can bear. Americans spend $117 billion a year on obesity linked illnesses.
5. LEADING CAUSE OF PREVENTIBLE DEATH. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that poor diet and physical inactivity will soon pass tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.
6. STRESS CAUSES OBESITY AND WEIGHT GAIN. Contrary to a popular notion that a stressful life results in a loss of appetite and weight loss, stress causes the body to conserve fat and expend fewer calories. The best approach is to look for ways you can first find to reduce stress. When there is unavoidable stress, find ways to deal with the stress that will not lead to food. The more you eat, the more stressed you feel and it becomes a frustrating spiral downward. Harvard estimates that 90 % of our doctor visits are stress related.
7. THE RISE OF MIDLIFE EATING PROBLEMS. Coping with menopause, empty nest, your aging marriage, caring for aging parents, career pressures, society’s emphasis on beauty and youth are causes for midlife eating problems. Women find they are eating to calm them, manage anxiety and to ease depression.
8. INSOMNIA. Studies show that a lack of sleep leads to lower levels of the hormone LEPTIN, which causes an increase in appetite. Tired people turn to food to replenish their energy.

Interesting facts about obesity.
• There are three types of eating; night eating, binge eating and eating without satiation.
• We eat to diminish anxiety, relieve stress, sedate oneself and to cope with emotions such as anger, depression and anxiety.
• Enumerable studies interviewed obese individuals asked if they ate more when stressed: Seventy five percent of individuals interviewed reported increased eating when stressed.
• Obese individuals regain a sense of control when they eat. They feel out of control when they are stressed and feel in control when they are eating.
• Several studies believe stress rather than diet may cause lean women to gain weight.
• A Yale study shows cortisol makes slender women collect fat around abdomen
• Obesity: weakens your immune system.
• Comfort foods are salty and sugary foods.
• Serotonin: is the brain’s mood calming neurotransmitter. It is a feel good hormone. When you are stressed you don’t get enough serotonin. Obese individuals self soothe, self calm and self medicate. Carbohydrates and fatty rich significantly increase “feel good hormones.” Once the serotonin level drops again; we want to self soothe again. Our nervous system gets hyperstimulated resulting in anxiety, depression and insomnia.
• There is a cortisol release cycle. Cortisol stimulates fat and carbohydrate metabolism for fast energy and stimulates insulin release. The end result is an increase in appetite. High levels of cortisol stimulate appetite. You eat and get calm, which produces serotonin. This calms you until it wears off and then the cortisol is produced again and appetite increases again. You eat to calm and feed the insulin release. It is a vicious cycle.

The solution is S.E.L.F. care.

1. S=Serenity (breathe, affirmations, practice gratitude, laughter, sing, drink water)
2. E=Exercise. Exercise produces endorphins, healing calming chemicals. Exercise relieves major depression as effectively as major antidepressants in a recent Duke study. Exercise boosts your immune system. Women who moderately exercise 50% reduction of cancers. Exercise helps us sleep.
3. L=Love. Being in a group creates healing chemicals that calm and heal. Sharing your stories with others creates health.
4. F=Food. B vitamins are brain food and help our nervous system function. B6 produce serotonin; bananas, rice, sweet potatoes, tuna, turkey, chicken, salmon.