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Stress coping Strategies
Eat properly, drink sensibly

EATING

A well-balanced diet – eating the right amount and eating a good range of foods can
boost your energy, sharpen your memory and stabilise your mood.
When you’re angry, upset or worried about a problem you may find yourself eating
for the sake of it - it's easy to reach for the high calorie, ready-prepared 'comfort
foods' like chocolate, ice-cream, crisps and snacks. Sugar can cause mood swings
and can make you hyperactive. And often you’re not really hungry, a glass of water
may be all you need.
You may find that making a few adjustments to your diet will help you gradually build
up your resistance to stress – you may need to add in a few things and take out a
few things – but this could really help you in the long-term. For example foods high in
B vitamins, especially B12 - Cobalamin, B1 - Thiamine and B3 - Niacin, are good for
your nervous system and have a calming effect. And deficiencies in B vitamins can
lead to tiredness, irritability, anxiety, poor concentration, amnesia, dementia and
depression. The B vitamins are not stored in the body, so foods containing them
need to be eaten regularly.
Foods which are good sources of B12 are liver, beef, lamb, cheese (especially Swiss
cheese) and eggs (the yellow), fish (especially mackerel), shellfish (clams, oysters
and mussels), crab and lobster and caviar.
Good sources of Thiamin are marmite, sunflower seeds, fish and nuts (pecan,
macadamia and pistachios for example).
And foods which are rich in Niacin are marmite, bran, fish, liver, chicken breast,
bacon and peanuts.
Vitamin C is also very important. You need vitamin C to keep your immune system
healthy. Stress levels tend to increase when you're ill, so keeping yourself healthy will
help reduce your susceptibility to stress.
Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits, strawberries, kiwi fruit, broccoli, sprouts,
cauliflower, peppers, herbs (thyme and parsley) and dark, leafy greens such as kale
and cress.
Stress coping Strategies
Eat properly, drink sensibly- continued.
DRINKING

And drink sensibly – try gradually replacing tea, coffee, fizzy drinks and alcohol with
water.
Water is essential – your body is made up of about 70% water - it distributes
essential nutrients around our bodies, and a lack of water, or dehydration, means
that these essential nutrients may not be delivered to vital organs in a balanced way.
Keeping your body balanced and hydrated is key to helping you feel good.
Tea, coffee, alcohol and fizzy drinks don't hydrate you and the caffeine and sugar
make them an even worse option - caffeine is a stimulant, it increases your anxiety –
it won't calm you down; and alcohol raises hyperactivity and stress levels.
If your brain detects that your body is dehydrated it interprets this as a threat to
survival – the fight or flight response again – creating pressure and eventually, of
course, stress!
Drinking water is simple and cheap and will reap untold benefits in the long term.
Further information :

Source: http://www.ihasco.co.uk/uploads/resources/Eat_properly.pdf