Stress and Eating Behaviors Essay
Stress and Eating Behaviors Essay

Stress and Eating Behaviors Essay

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  • Pages: 3 (639 words)
  • Published: December 29, 2021
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“Stress and Eating Behaviors” examines the farce of stress related eating by expounding on stress that may cause hypophagia and hyperphagia. The article reveals that it is often very difficult to treat obesity due to the fact that the condition has various constructs and the fact that food is often addictive. The article further reveals that stress is directly associated with various metabolic diseases including obesity in that it has the ability to change the eating patterns and behaviors of individuals that could eventually lead to neurobiological variations ultimately endorsing instinctive behaviors. Additionally, stress impacts various regions of the brain concerned with the motivation and stress circuits most notably the mesolimbic dopaminergic system, a phenomenon that may trigger the desire to consume a lot of hyper-palatable foodstuffs, lead to more food preference as well as the stim

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ulation of metabolic changes that not only promote body fat mass but also weight (Yau & Potenza, 2013). According to the authors, familiarizing with the interaction as well as the association between obesity, stress and neurobiological adaptations plays a critical role in developing efficient treatment and prevention strategies of obesity.

The authors provides statistics that explains the dominance of obesity not only in the United States but across the world to demonstrate the extent by which the condition is threatening the lives of people by causing various diseases such as type II diabetes, certain cancers, cardiovascular diseases and osteoarthritis. According to the article, regardless of the fact that there are various mechanisms implemented to sustain weight, they have failed to yield long term effects with the authors arguing that food has over the recent years been deemed as a dru

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following its addictive nature. Things however get worse for individuals under stress as the article reveals that it is very difficult for individuals to select or avoid the right foods under the influence of stress where they affirm that both animals and humans are more likely to choose food high in sugar and fat under such circumstances. In particular, hysterical and repeated stress dysregulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrena axis, a neuroendocrine system responsible for the release of the corticotropin-releasing factor from the hypothalamus PVN that arouses the ACTH from anterior pituitary ultimately influencing the eating behaviors and energy homoeostasis (Yau & Potenza, 2013). Not only does a stressed brain articulate the need to eat but also an weakened aptitude to inhibit eating thereby paving way for potential obesity formula. This further suggests that stress increases the chances of irregular and undesirable eating behaviors while at the same time increasing the possibility of consuming more thereby causing obesity.

The authors further highlighted a number of factors that influences the relationship between eating and stress including weight and diet related metabolism, emotional eating, restrained eating and sleep deprivation. In reference to weight and diet related metabolism, the authors reveals that metabolic changes in relation to weight changes the allostatic load by disclosing that people with high BMI are more likely to suffer from chronic stress and obesity. Emotional eating on the other influences the relationship between eating and stress in that hyerpalatable food provides comfort to unwanted distress. Conversely, restrained eating suggests that lacking control over one’s life happenings often triggers distracted and ineffective endeavors to control the patterns of eating by for instance withdrawal from the consuming particular foodstuffs

ultimately leading to binging. Lastly, sleep deprivation is directly linked with an increased risk of metabolic diseases including obesity with various studies revealing that there is a strong relationship between increased occurrences of obese and sleeping on short duration (Yau & Potenza, 2013). The authors concludes their work by affirming that food is very important and thus the need for individuals to struggle to balance the storage of energy as well as its expenditure.

References

  1. Yau, Y. H. C., & Potenza, M. N. (2013). Stress and Eating Behaviors. Minerva Endocrinologica, 38(3), 255–267.
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