New research out of UC San Francisco is the first to demonstrate that highly stressed people who eat a lot of high-fat, high-sugar food are more prone to health risks than low-stress people who eat the same amount of unhealthy food.
“Chronic stress can play an important role in influencing biology, and it’s critical to understand the exact pathways through which it works.” said Kirstin Aschbacher, PhD, an assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and lead author.
“Many people think a calorie is a calorie, but this study suggests that two women who eat the same thing could have different metabolic responses based on their level of stress,” Aschbacher said. “There appears to be a stress pathway that works through diet – for example, it could be similar to what we see in animals, where fat cells grow faster in response to junk food when the body is chronically stressed.”
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of abnormalities – increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels – that occur together, increasing a person’s risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
While this stress-junk food pathway has been well mapped out with rodents and primates, this study is the first to suggest the same pathways may be at work in chronically stressed humans, according to the researchers.
“We can see this relationship exists by simply measuring stress and dietary intake, and looking inside at metabolic health,” said senior author Elissa Epel, PhD. “Diet appears to be a critical variable that can either amplify or protect against the metabolic effects of stress, but we still don’t know the details of how much it takes. It will be helpful to see what happens in our next study, when we have high stress people eat a high sugar diet for a couple weeks.”
Examining a Stress-Related Biomarker in Women
The study, published online in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, looked at a group of 61 disease-free women; 33 were chronically stressed women caring for a spouse or parent with dementia, and 28 were women with low stress.
Over the course of a year, the women reported their consumption of high sugar, high fat foods.
The researchers evaluated key biological markers associated with elevated metabolic risk. They measured participants’ waistlines and their fat distribution, using ultrasound scans to assess deep abdominal fat deposits. They tested participants’ insulin resistance, one of the core drivers of obesity and diabetes.
They also used a blood test to measure stress hormones and oxidative damage to lipids and cell RNA, a marker that has predicted higher rates of death from diabetes. Oxidative damage of the genome is also an important outcome because it is one factor that can contribute to faster cellular aging.
“We found that more frequent high-fat, high-sugar consumption significantly predicted a larger waistline, more truncal fat, higher oxidative damage, and more insulin resistance, but only among the group of women exposed to chronic stress,” said Aschbacher. “The chronically stressed women didn’t report eating more high sugar, high fat foods than the low stressed women; however, they did have higher levels of a stress-related biomarker, peripheral Neuropeptide Y (NPY).”
The Role of Chronic Stress in Disease Processes
Based on what is known from animal studies, stress triggers greater peripheral NPY which, in combination with junk food, creates larger abdominal fat cells, and these cells may be more prone to metabolic dysregulation.
“The medical community is starting to appreciate how important chronic stress is in promoting and worsening early disease processes,” said Aschbacher. “But there are no guidelines for ‘treating’ chronic stress. We need treatment studies to understand whether increasing stress resilience could reduce the metabolic syndrome, obesity or diabetes.”
Who would have ever thought that stress and unhealthy eating habits could be related? Well, this article proved just that. It is very unlikely that a person does not experience some sort of stress in this day and age. Stress is a way of life for most people in the 21st century. And for some , the effects go far beyond feelings of anxiousnous and discomfort. For most people, stress can mean facing each day ravenously hungry, adding weight gain to their list of worries. When one experiences chronic stress the body tends to release the corticotrophin hormone(CRH) as well as cortisol. Cortisol helps us replenish our body after the stress has passed, and it hangs around a lot longer which can result in an increase in appetite.
I am experiencing chronic stress. I am currently living alone and have resorted to a diet consisting mainly of junk food and quick fix unhealthy meals due to my lack of skills in the kitchen. In the past I have eaten unhealthily for long periods of time but I would not pick up any weight (I assumed I have a fast metabolism). However during the past few weeks I have put about 2-3 kilograms and my waist line has expanded. I cannot fit into my jeans anymore. I has a suspicion that my drastic increase in weight was due to stress and this article has proved me correct. I find it fascinating that my body has metabolically responded differently due to increase levels of stress!
This research tackles a huge problem that is faced in many countries – obesity. This study makes people more aware about how bad stress eating is for one. Everyone is faced with stress, it is inevitable. Therefore by dealing with the core problem, such as why one is faced with stress, this can help avoid the preceding problems such as gaining weight due to eating junk food. I too have gained weight from all the stress at varsity but I have found that exercising instead of eating junk food as well as keeping to a healthy diet helps me reduce my stress levels as well as not put on weight. This study was extremely interesting and I think that it will help many stress eaters to realize why they gain more weight when they stress eat.
This is a very interesting topic to read about! I never knew that even though you might not be eating more food, the fat cells grow faster in response to junk food when a person is stressed. Although, I have always wondered about people who don’t eat when they are stressed and actually loose weight. How does our brain decide whether we eat or don’t eat when stressed? I believe that increasing stress resilience could definitely reduce the metabolic syndrome, obesity or diabetes. Therefore, I hope that treatment for chronic stress is discovered because it could save many lives.
This blog is highly relevant as it tackles two of the problems that are very common in modern society: stress and unhealthy eating habits. It is amazing to see how these two factors are linked and how stress in itself can effect the working of your metabolism. It also brings an understanding of how rodents and primates metabolism can be related to humans. This opens the eyes to the medical community that stress is an ever growing problem unfortunately there is no proven diagnosis process and cure. With regards to the coming study, could the increase of sugars in a diet plan actually result in higher productivity of the stress victim?
What an interesting topic! I would never have guessed that stress can play such a great role on one’s weight. Obviously there are stress eaters(like myself) but I didn’t realise that a higher stress level can make fatty foods fattier. I found this very informative and I believe anyone can use this information to lose extra weight by doing other things to lower stress levels instead of stress eating. I know I’m definitely going to try it for a stress free healthier me!
In today’s society it is impossible to not be faced with any stress. Not only do people have busy lives that include excelling at their jobs or studies, but they also have personal issues such as ill family members and financial problems that could possibly increase stress levels.
As the above article said, studies have shown that prolonged stress could affect one’s health; it increases the risk of heart disease. Stress however also causes one too crave more sugary foods with more calories and thus making a stressed person gain more weight than a person with little or no stress. This fact is interestingly important, especially to first year university students.
The “first year spread” is the cause of stress. With the pressure to do well and other stress factors causes an increase in appetite for certain foods; these foods, of course, along with stress causes weight gain. Not only students, but all people should be aware of stressful factors in their life as to reduce the negative impact stress might have on their health in the future.
Stress is really a big issue under students. University is a very big step from school and therefore students have a lot more stress when they reach university. First year students are scared to go to university as there is a “first-year syndrome” that a lot of people are aware of and that is when first year students gain weight. This is due to the stress levels of student that increase tremendously.
I totally agree with Nonhle Xulu that if there are no solutions found, there will be a domino effect because people result to diet pills, crazy diets -such as the tapeworm diet- or -even worse- eating disorders just to lose the fat. This is a big problem under students as they tend to use additional weight-loss methods to lose weight. In some conditions, students even go as far as to use drugs in order to relax and lower their stress levels.
Especially during exam times, students consume a lot more food than normally and this usually leads to an increase in weight. Very few students are aware of the fact that highly stressed people, who eat a lot of high-fat, high-sugar food are more prone to health risks than low-stress people who eat the same amount of unhealthy food.
People, especially students, must start to be more aware of their stress levels and to eat healthy food instead of consuming a load of high-fat, high-sugar food. Eating healthy food will not just help you balance your weight, but is a lot better food for one’s brain in order to think straight. Chronic stress is a very big problem and everyone should be more informed about this as it can have an impact on anyone.
Chronic stress does not only make food, make you fatter, but it is also associated with many other health risks. Chronic stress has become very common in modern life. I have done a bit of research and it makes sense now, because I know every time I am stressed during exams I tend to eat more than usual and put on a bit of weight. Chris Kresser states that chronic stress provoke defeat response which leads to increase fat storage, abdominal obesity and tissue break down. When stress becomes chronic the hypothalamus is activated and triggers the adrenal glands to release a hormone called cortisol, it disrupts the natural cortisol rhythm which wreaks disorder on your body, and causes your blood sugar to raise, makes you hungry and grave sugar, reduce your ability to burn fat, and increase the rate at which you store fat. This can all lead to diabetes and can make you fat.
I found this article to be incredibly interesting. Everyone obviously copes with stress differently, this research is just proving how differently everyone’s bodies really do work! The fact that your body can respond to your stress in such an impressive way is actually mind-blowing. The biomarker, peripheral Neuropeptide Y (NPY), indicates that an individual has high levels of stress. This biomarker along with the consumption of high sugar, high fatty foods, can cause people to gain weight. This in turn can put an individual at an increased risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. This newly found information can be used in our society in which obesity and diabetes are an all too often occurrence. With this knowledge in hand, we as individuals should do more to prevent stress in our lives if we want to decrease our chances of weight gain, and risk of obesity and heart disease. But at least we have an excuse for the dreaded “first year spread”, just blame it on the stress…
I can relate to the results found in the experiment done in this article – it happens to me on a regular basis. I am a university student so I am constantly put under stress and I have noticed how when I am stressed I eat so much more food – and not just healthy food either. I crave fatty food, like chocolates and sweets, and it definitely adds on a few extra kilograms. However, when I am not stressed I do not feel that craving as bad, so naturally I would not pick up weight. Furthermore, even if I do eat fatty foods when I am not stressed, I do not feel as though it takes the same toll on my body as it does when I am really stressed.
There was another study done by Mary F. Dallman et al. (called “Chronic stress and obesity: A new view of ‘comfort food’”) that found a link between chronic stress and obesity. A conclusion was also that stress can cause people to eat fatty foods as a means of comfort and that this can be associated with weight gain and is bad for long-term health. This just shows how serious chronic stress can be, so hopefully they will come up with adequate treatments soon!
Stress being one of the most common problems in our societies today, this article could be the explanation as to why a lot of people suffer from diabetes, obesity and other chronic illnesses. However, different people respond to stress differently depending on how each individuals body reacts to it. In some people stress causes the NPY markers to operate similar to junk food which accumulates abdominal fat causing weight gain. Whilst stress causes many others to become anxious, lose appetite, miss meals, hence resulting in losing weight.
When I think of stress, I think of rest. The Bible talks about setting aside a day for rest. I remember hearing somewhere about people who do not take a day off for rest, tend to perform at a lower in what they do verses someone who does have a day of rest. Often times, the American culture encourages more is better, when in reality, less may be the better route. Of course, there are some people whop have to work several jobs. This can be tough, and I understand that. If you do have a lot of things going on in your life, try to take them lightly. Stress takes away joy. Enjoy life to the fullest. You cannot take your earthly life with you when you die.
This is totally true and is a clear explanation to why the whole weight gain issue occurs. Stress is related to a channel of thinking and how the mind is able to deal with different experiences and situations. Unhealthy food is initially not good for the human body and having chronic stress heightens the damage it does cause to the body. The research conducted makes perfect sense as whole system of the body interlinks. This should be a good indicator be people struggling with weight to deal with their stress condition first to be able to address the second problem of weight gain.
Wow! It now makes perfect sense to me why stress eating makes a person put on large amounts of weight rapidly. If chronic stress has such a huge effect on weight gain, it could mean that other symptoms or feelings such a s depression, happiness and sadness can also be the cause of weight gain or even weight loss experienced by a person. It could also mean that chronic stress can affect health conditions other than obesity that can also endanger a person’s life. is there currently research being conducted to determine how chronic stress can be reduced and what other illnesses and health conditions chronic stress can affect?
I found it real interesting that stress triggers the NPY bio-markers that work the same as junk food which create large abdominal fat cells, that decrease or influence your metabolic system. This explains why people gain weight when they are under stress. I was just wondering why some people lose weight while they under stress? Is it because they are just eating less food or is it due to different chemical reactions in their body?
When under stress, your body increases the amount of cortisol, a hormone secreted from the adrenal glands, in order to supply an immediate energy source to the body. This hormone can become harmful to the body if there is an excess amount in the body caused by chronic stress. The excess amount of cortisol released by those suffering from stress could explain why stress causes weight gain as cortisol affects the release of insulin into the body as well as the bodies ability to convert sugars into energy, thus being stored as fat. Those with chronic stress were said to have higher levels of peripheral Neuropeptide Y. The reason for abdominal fat increasing as a result of chronic stress could be caused by NPY as it has a direct affect in the increase of abdominal fat.
Chronic stress is life threatening and needs to be controlled. Maintain a healthy diet by staying away from processed goods that are produced for quantity rather then quality as these goods are full of chemicals that put a certain amount of stress on your body as they cannot be broken down and are harmful to your well being. Exercise is good as it uses up the stored energy caused by stress and in the process reduces stress with the secretion of certain hormones like endorphins.
This is an astonishing discovering as i have always wondered why I kept on gaining weight even though I ate a moderate amount of food and exercised. Now i am aware of one of the contributing factors of me gaining weight. I truly hope that more and more researches would be conducted to find a way to reduce chronic stress.
When I was younger I was a really fat kid and constantly teased about it and when I hit puberty and left the province and school I was in I lost the fat drastically. Last year i started picking up on the weight again I tried exercise and decreasing the junk food and nothing happened and last year I had quite the traumatic year. This year I’m gaining again and I assumed that it was due to being pressured to change from a high school mentality to a varsity one and maintain my grades, therefore i thought I could be one of those people who gain when stressed and this article has proved my theory correct. But it saddens me that there aren’t any guidelines to treating chronic stress as it is the root cause for this issue. And textbook answers as to how to deal with stress as learnt in Life Orientation don’t always help. If no solutions are found there’s a domino effect because people result to diet pills, crazy diets -such as the tapeworm diet- or -even worse- eating disorders just to lose the fat. The effects of these various measures can even often result in death. It sounds a bit drastic for just stress, but these are issues we’re faced with daily so what can we do about them?
Wow! this is amazing! i had recently asked myself how come i eat the same amount of food everyday but when schools are open i don’t gain weight and when on holiday i put on a lot of weight. for a while i thought the calories were used up by brain activity then i remembered that such didn’t happen during my high school days. that’s when i jokingly came to the conclusion that the stress eats my food seeing that there is no other possible reason. I am amazed that this has been scientifically proven