A healthy diet can help reduce stress, expert suggests
A person's diet and their activity levels can have a positive effect on their ability to deal with stress, according to the Ann McCracken, chair of the International Stress Management Association UK.Ms McCracken said that having a regular exercise routine, and eating a healthy, balanced diet may help to lower stress levels.
She said: "Keeping active and regularly exercising helps to keep the body’s emotional chemicals in balance ... [and] eating starchy foods such as rice and pasta, with plenty of fruit and vegetables nourishes the cells in the body."
In addition, she suggested that people should aim to eat foods which are rich in protein, dairy and drink water.
Fat, salt and sugar should all be limited, she advised, so that the body can work at its optimum level.
Her comments come in light of a study by researchers at Oregon State University which revealed that being under stress over a prolonged period of time can increase mortality rate by up to 50 per cent.
