Demystifying Relation between Food and Stress

Courtesy: Google Images

Courtesy: Google Images

Long back,I have read the research on the connection between the food and stress levels which reports that the intake of food is positively correlated with stress levels. Recently, i begun to appreciate this research. Not only this, to accentuate further, during the high stress levels, I also observed that my affinity towards junk food increases. I prefer more of the pizza and pastas, KFCs and Mcdonalds depspite of the fact that they are nothing more than the junk causing the loss of both health as well as wealth. But when i feel calm and at peace with myself, i avoid the junk food and prefers simple and healthy food. 

Today, I was feeling very stressed in the afternoon due to improper sleep, work load and simple as usual relationship issue. As I entered in the canteen, there is a strong uncontrollable urge to eat Chicken Biryani. These days I am also trying to avoid non vegetarian food but today after a long time, urge was very strong. I realized my soul  was looking for the instant gratification and that is why I feel the urge. I knew well in advance that eating Biryani will not going to provide any gratification or reduce any problem but on the contrary, it will make me more sluggish and sleepy and effect my productivity. But the problem is that when you are feeding the negative energy in you, it gets boost. I remember a very nice story. Please read it below. I have to look it at the google to find the exact wordings and preserve the courtesy. 

Once an old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life.

A fight is going on inside me, he said to the boy. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.This same fight is going on inside you and inside every other person, too. The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, which wolf will win? The old Cherokee simply replied, the one you feed.

But inspite of all this, I thought nothing is going as expected so let me love myself more by feeding myself with Biryani and I give in. As soon as I finished it, I am finding it hard to stand and walk and my eyes find it difficult to remain open. It is 5.30 pm now and 5 minutes of joy the biryani gives me is far less than the efforts I poured in my work. But I know myself, Instead of getting any lessons from it, I will again repeat this again as this had happened before many times. Such is nature of the mind. We knowingly make mistakes. 

In the meantime, I also arranged the plan of beer today. Although,  drinking on the first working day of the week is the rarest thing in my life but still I will go out today as it is Tuesday, we had holiday on Monday this time. No need to mention any relation between alcohol intake and stress level as it is self evident.