“The best way to relieve the effects of stress is to relieve the stress itself.

To the extent possible, we should try to reorient our lives to avoid major stressors and use exercise to work off what’s unavoidable.

This can include yoga, walking, or resistance band stretches. Mindfulness techniques can be used to reduce stress and deal with cravings.

To buffer the release of the stress hormone cortisol, we can reduce our intake of saturated fats and animal protein, and pile on the plants.”

DID YOU KNOW…???

“A single meal high in animal protein can nearly double the level of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood within a half hour of consumption, more than twice that of a meal closer to the recommended level of protein. Give someone a meal of crabmeat, tuna, and cottage cheese, and the level of cortisol in their saliva shoots up within the hour.
Instead, give someone some barley soup and a vegetable stir-fry, and cortisol levels drop down after the meal.
Imagine eating meat or dairy meal after meal, day after day. The concern is you might “chronically stimulate” your adrenal glands.
We don’t always have control over the stress in our lives, but at least we can make some dietary tweaks to help keep cortisol under control.”

And…

“When you randomize people to remove all meat and eggs from their diets, you can get a significant drop in stress levels within just two weeks, compared to those who kept eating fish or a third group who continued to include all animal foods.
So even before significant weight loss could occur, the researchers suggest “individuals who eliminate meat, fish, and poultry may cope better with mental stress.””

All excerpts have been taken from “How Not To Diet: The Ground-breaking Science of Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss” by Michael Greger