Why can eating stress make you gain weight?

Sometimes, the only thing that allows us to go through a stressful day is a belly filled with comforting food.

But it may be time to move away from Krispy Kremes, as it turns out that eating stress, especially calorific foods, leads to more weight gain than eating when you're not stressed.

<p clbad = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "A new Australian study, published in the journal Cell metabolism, found that when we are stressed, food comfort can cause us to gain more weight. "data-reactid =" 33 "> A new Australian study, published in the newspaper Cell metabolismWe have found that when we are stressed, eating comfortingly can make us gain more weight.

A team, led by Professor Herbert Herzog, head of the laboratory for eating disorders at the Garvan Medical Research Institute in Sydney, badyzed the behavior and weight gain of a group of mouse.

They found that when mice were stressed for a prolonged period and that high-calorie foods were available, they became obese faster than when they consumed the same food in a stress-free environment.

The researchers think that was partly because stressed mice ate a lot more than their casual counterparts.

But scientists have hypothesized that weight gain between stressed and unstressed mice was linked to a molecule called neuropeptide Y (NPY), produced by the brain in response to stress. stimulate the diet.

"We discovered that when we stopped producing NPY, the tonsil weight gain was reduced," explained lead author Dr. Kenny Chi Kin Ip.

"Without NPY, the weight gain of a high-fat diet with stress was the same as that taken in a stress-free environment.This shows a clear link between stress, obesity and NPY."

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According to nutritionist Fleur Borelli, our body normally produces insulin just after a meal to help the cells absorb glucose and send a "stop eating" signal to the brain to indicate that we are full.

On its own, stress slightly increases insulin levels, but when we are stressed and we turn to comfort foods, these insulin levels skyrocket.

Over a long period, our nerve cells become insensitive to insulin, which ultimately prevents them from detecting everything.

"If we produce too much insulin and too often, for example by eating too often and eating high-calorie meals, the body stops responding to insulin and the sugar does not enter the cells" Borelli explains.

"This is known as insulin resistance and is the pathway leading to metabolic disorders such as type II diabetes."

This then causes the nerve cells to increase their NYP levels, which encourages us to eat more and prevents us from burning energy through heat.

"The brain misconstrues this situation as there was no energy in the body and increased a molecule called neuropeptide Y, which increased our appetite and our ability to store fat." she explains.

"That's why stressed mice fed the same diet as unstressed mice can gain weight more easily.This is a survival strategy based on the fact that the brain thinks it's not safe." There is no food around because the body has stopped reacting to high insulin levels., "She adds.

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In other words, it becomes a vicious circle.

"Our results revealed a vicious circle, characterized by high and chronic insulin levels caused by stress and a high-calorie diet that is increasingly favoring food," said Professor Herzog.