Wed 25 Jun 2008 – 10.13
What’s a coping combo, you might ask? It’s the unique combination of food, sleep, drink, and other habits that we tend towards during times of stress, such as pulling an all-nighter or during a rush period of work. Everyone’s combo is slightly different, as is illustrated in a recent article on MSNBC Health:
For Tiffanie … it’s chips and salsa and sappy movie marathons. For Paul … it’s Chinese food and long weekends in bed. And for Susan … it’s skipped meals and late nights glued to the computer.
We pick our combos to cope with our natural afflictions from stress. Some of us can’t sleep, others eat too much, others get all jittery. So the cure often fits the symptom. Depending on our diet and exercise habits, our bodies are hard-wired to react differently during those late nights and stressful times.
“Everybody’s biology is a bit different,” [an expert] says. “I might respond to stress by getting more acid production in my stomach which will make me want to not eat at all or make me want to eat comfort foods that will absorb the acid.”
But it’s also emotional. The reason we have comfort foods is because they bring us back to a time and place when we were less stressed and generally felt better about ourselves and the world.
It’s interesting; read the article here »
And if you’re a gamer, I already touched on the subject of what to eat when you’re up all night saving the world from aliens, Nazis, The Empire, Orcs, and angry teenager boys from China.
posted by Scott in coffee, education, health & fitness, life.