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Stress can affect your health on many different levels. Perhaps you have heard the term "stress related illness"? I am not a doctor so I don't know how all the medical terminology for why stress affects people the way it does, but I know first hand how it affects me, and how it has affected people I love.

So I did a bit of research on why people who suffer from chronic stress crave "comfort foods".

In times of sudden and extreme stress our brain will send out a signal to our bodies to produce a hormone called cortisol which will help your body prepare itself to get you through your time of stress. This function is used for sudden bursts of stress not for chronic on going stress. If your body stays in a state of chronic stress you will suffer long term affects such as depression and anxiety.

This is where comfort foods play their role. Foods full of sugar and high in fat will help your body build up reserves to get you through times of stress. So when your body is telling you that you have to eat that cheeseburger or that slice of banana cream pie, it could be because you have been suffering from chronic stress and have depleted your body's resources of cortisol and your brain is telling you, that you need a back up plan.

Obviously this may see you through periods of stress in the short term, but is not a long term solution. It is time to find the source of your stress and work on eliminating as much of it as possible before it consumes your life.

Learn more about this author, Dominique Storm.
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