{"id":3099,"date":"2010-06-28T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=3099"},"modified":"2010-06-28T01:09:23","modified_gmt":"2010-06-28T06:09:23","slug":"how-to-overcome-comforting-yourself-with-comfort-foods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2010\/06\/28\/how-to-overcome-comforting-yourself-with-comfort-foods\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Overcome Comforting Yourself with Comfort Foods"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Comfort<\/a>

Comfort Foods (Tim Hawk, NJ.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Comfort foods have become a way of life these days. It\u2019s not hard to understand why we need comfort foods. Our lives are full of stress. The crashing economy has scared most intelligent people silly. The thought that what we formerly believed was enough money to live on has now become barely adequate is enough to send anyone running to the ice cream carton or the macaroni and cheese bowl or the potato chip bag.<\/p>\n

We seek comfort when we are stressed. We learned as babies that milk was comfort. When we were sick as children, we were comforted by chicken soup or ice cream or whatever Mom\u2019s favorite cookie recipe was. We continued as teens to comfort our growing insecurity about our popularity with cheeseburgers, soft drinks and doughnuts. We entered college and survived on pizzas to overcome exam jitters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>Fare that seems to soothe — generally chock-full of the ever-dreaded carbs or loaded with sugars that translate directly to calories — actually physiologically alter eaters, according to Angela Shaw, registered dietetic technician at Cooper University Hospital.

“An increase in serotonin occurs, which results in better mood state,” Shaw said. Low levels of serotonin, a brain neurotransmitter, are associated with depression…

Females are born with 57-percent less serotonin that men, Shaw said, making them naturally more prone to cravings. Not to mention that hormone cycles influence women’s hunger swings. – Comfort Foods, NJ.com<\/a>; Feburary 2007.<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Researchers tell us that when we are stressed, we seek certain foods like chocolate to halt the hormonal changes in our bodies. When we are under constant stress, we overdo the behavior and acquire belly fat as a result.<\/p>\n

What can we do now that life is becoming a stress-a-minute survival course?<\/p>\n

First, we can stop and think before we run for comfort foods. We can make some better choices for our hearts and overall health.<\/p>\n

One simple and easy way of comforting yourself when you are totally stressed is to pet your dog or cat. This is scientific fact, is free, and is great for your animal too.<\/p>\n

Another way is to exercise. You don\u2019t have to run a mile. You can climb the stairs or walk out to the mailbox or make a circuit of your block or lawn. Just don\u2019t take a hike to the fridge or doughnut shop!<\/p>\n

A third course of action is to call a friend and talk a while. Choose, if you must, to commiserate for a couple of minutes on whatever is stressing you, but then go on to a more pleasant subject. You aren\u2019t going to solve the economic problems of the world so try to focus on how you can make someone else\u2019s day more pleasant. When you do, you\u2019ll help reduce your own stress level as well.<\/p>\n

Volunteering to help someone in need is another way to keep from focusing on your own problems. You don\u2019t have to look far to see someone else who may be in worse conditions than yours. Visit someone who\u2019s sick, or babysit for a single parent who may need some time for errands without the children, or trim a hedge for an elderly neighbor who may not be able to do it for herself any longer.<\/p>\n

With the holidays coming up and temptation on every table or snack area at work, you\u2019ll have to pledge yourself to have just one cookie instead of five or six. You\u2019ll have to make sure you eat a filling low-calorie snack before you go to that party where every food may be pound-packing.<\/p>\n

You can do it. Remind yourself that you can\u2019t afford right now to buy an entirely new wardrobe because you\u2019ve overindulged.<\/p>\n

Comfort yourself with the thought that you\u2019ve matured enough to curb your impulses\u2014and have saved yourself not only some pounds but big bucks as well. Having a heart attack or stroke from overeating is a costly experience.<\/p>\n

Just don\u2019t forget that if hunger isn\u2019t the problem, food isn\u2019t the answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comfort foods have become a way of life these days. It\u2019s not hard to understand why we need comfort foods. Our lives are full of stress. The crashing economy has scared most intelligent people silly. The thought that what we formerly believed was enough money to live on has now become barely adequate is enough […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[3527,3528,3529,3530,3531,746,3532],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-NZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3099"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3101,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3099\/revisions\/3101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}