By now, most of us are aware of the link between being stressed out and stuffing your face. In tough times, many of us turn to cookies to try to chase away a bad case of Im freaking out!

Well, the Journal of Applied Psychology has just published a study that says a worse enemy to your waistline than stress could be your up-all-night TV binging habits. In two studies of more than 200 workers in China, researchers found that the real difference maker in healthier diets is getting plenty of Zs.

Related:10 Effective Ways to BeatStress

"We found that employees who have a stressful workday tend to bring their negative feelings from the workplace to the dinner table, as manifested in eating more than usual and opting formore junk food instead of healthy food," said study co-authorChu-Hsiang "Daisy" Chang, associate professor of psychology at MSU.

"However, another key finding showed how sleep helped people deal with their stressful eating after work," she continued. "When workers slept better the night before, they tended to eat better when they experienced stress the next day."

Related:12 Habits to Dramatically Improve YourSleep

In the two studiesof workers in high-stress positions, researchers found that when workers are in bad moods, they eat to compensate. Speaking with MSU Today,Yihao Liu, co-author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Illinois, explained that eating is [U]sed as an activity to relieve and regulate one's negative moodbecause individuals instinctually avoid aversive feelings and approach desire feelings, he said.

But for long-term relief, Chang and Liu found that the best way to curb negative feelings and negative eating is to put down the bag of chips and pull up the covers.

A good night's sleep can make workers replenished and feel vigorous again, which may make them better able to deal with stress at work the next day and less vulnerable to unhealthy eating, Chang explained.

Related:The Impact Of ChronicWork StressOn Your Employees

So are nap pods better than a box of donuts for office morale? Sounds like it.

Food-related perks may only serve as temporary mood-altering remedies for stressed employees, Chang said, and failure to address the sources of the work stress may have potential long-term detrimental effects on employee health.

More:
Which Bad Habit Sabotages Your Diet Most: Big Stress or No Sleep? - Entrepreneur

TOLEDO As a former Type II diabetic, Norm Baird admits that he used to abuse dairy. For years, the retired engineer enjoyed eggs and loved yogurt. He used to cut off little pieces of cheese to nibble on as he passed through his kitchen. His diet resembled a typical Americans: high in sugar, processed foods, meat and scant on vegetables.

But the silver-haired Toledo resident and cancer survivor no longer looks like a dairy abuser, having shed about 65 pounds and his diabetes diagnosis after adopting a plants-based diet in February 2016.

The 72-year-old is one of a small but growing number of people who have opted to go vegan or near-vegan as a first-line treatment for chronic weight- and diet-related illnesses such diabetes.

With more than two-thirds of American adults considered to be overweight or obese, diabetes is one of the leading causes of death in the country. The number of people with Type II diabetes is expected to double by 2030, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Washington, Cowlitz County ranks 10th among the states 39 counties in prevalence of the disease. About 13 percent of Cowlitz residents are living with the condition, according to a chronic disease report by the Washington State Department of Health. Thats more than a third higher than the statewide average of 9 percent.

Things first started to change for Baird when he was diagnosed with cancer, and they snowballed from there.

As you get older it feels like doctors have two columns of health conditions, Baird said. Every year that passes it seems they move another one over from the list of possible conditions into the column of ones you have.

During his cancer treatment Baird started injecting himself with insulin to counteract a steroid he was taking that drove up his blood sugar.

After chemotherapy, Baird stopped taking his insulin until he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes. At a follow-up visit, Dr. Robert Ellis, an oncologist at the Kaiser Permanente Clinic in Longview, proposed the idea of adopting a vegetarian diet.

Ellis is a passionate champion of plants-based eating. In an interview, he noted that the top health conditions in the United States cancer, heart disease and obesity are all preventable and treatable through diet and nutrition.

One of the first things I go over with patients is their diet, he said. If you had a high-performance car and I told you that it needs high performance gas, would you really drive to Costco and put that crappy gas in your car?

In 2013 Kaiser issued a nutritional update for physicians urging health care providers to recommend plants-based diets to patients. Its now one of the most-cited scholarly journal articles ever published on the subject.

As one of the nations largest not-for-profit health plans and the largest managed care agency in the United States, with 10.2 million members, its in Kaisers interest to keep its patients healthy.

Ellis said he has serious discussions about diet with about 80 percent of his patients. Of that number, about 40 percent to 50 percent say theyre actually going to change the way they eat, he said. And the percentage that go full crazy on you and adopt a vegan diet like Bairds is around 10 percent to 20 percent, he said.

Were not hiding something, Ellis said. This isnt quantum physics.

A person can dramatically lower their blood sugar by eating plants and whole foods while avoiding meat and other animal products that are high in fat, he said.

Some of the biggest impediments to adopting this kind of diet are socioeconomic. Not having much money for food and living far away from grocery stores that sell quality produce can make it hard for people to commit, Ellis said.

But Baird is one of the few who has bought into the eating program. With a referral from his primary physician in hand, he next met with Andrea Ferreiro, a Portland-based Kaiser nutritionist who specializes in healthy eating plans.

Norm was kind of the ideal patient, Ferreiro said in an interview. Norms an engineer and hes pretty analytical, so we just kind of told him exactly what to do and how to do it and he implemented it precisely.

Baird proceeded to cut out all meat, dairy and other animal products from his meals. In a mere five weeks, his A1C score a measure of blood sugar dropped to 6.1, placing him below the 6.5 or above score used to classify a person as diabetic.

Baird was able to stop injecting himself with the insulin he had been using twice daily for two years. He also stopped taking an oral prescription medication for diabetes and went from monitoring his blood sugar four times a day to just two.

Its exceptional its a really big deal, Ferreiro said of Bairds progress.

Ellis said he had to revise Bairds medication regimen to compensate for the chemistry changes that can occur within the body after just a few days of vegetarian meals.

The rest of Bairds follow-up visits were conducted by phone by one of Ferrieros assistants, and he still receives a weekly call to review his numbers.

They call once a week to make sure nothings out of whack, he said.

Baird said he still fixes himself a plate with some meat on special occasions like Christmas and Thanksgiving but only one.

No seconds and no leftovers, he said.

More here:
Plants vs. diabetes: Toledo man reverses diagnosis by adopting vegetarian diet - Longview Daily News

Maybe you experience an afternoon slump stronger than most. Maybe you break out with unwelcome acne, experience unexplained mood swings, or just feel really tense.

With life throwing so many other stressors at you, the last thing you need is your body feeling out of whack. Yet many people deal with these symptoms daily and they dont know why. These experiences are frustrating and exhausting and can make you feel out of control.

However, those shifts in mood and energy crashes dont have to remain a mystery.

Many people are unaware of the connection, but your gut has immense power over the way that you feel. Your gut responsible for your digestion could be causing these chaotic disruptions to your daily life. For this reason, many celebrities and wellness experts have sworn by the alkaline diet: a diet in which you eat foods with a higher pH in order to offset the acidity that builds in your stomach. Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Elle Macpherson are just a few of this diets success stories and the secret is simpler than you might think.

Why does your guts pH matter? A digestive imbalance might only feel like a small stomachache in the moment it might feel like its not a big deal. But that small feeling is a telltale sign that your gut is affecting the rest of your body in more subtle, disconnected ways.

As Jay Pasricha, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Neurogastroenterology, explains, your gut and your brain talk to each other, so therapies that help one may help the other. In a way, gastroenterologists (doctors who specialize in digestive conditions) are like counselors looking for ways to soothe the second brain. So assisting your gut to maintain its balance could help your brain achieve the same.

Which foods are best for an alkaline diet? When your body performs optimally it exists in a slight alkaline state, or a state where the pH of your gut is slightly more basic. Of course, swaying too far to the basic end of the pH scale is caustic as well; its all about finding your optimal balance.

Experiment with foods slightly basic in pH, called alkaline foods. Many vegetables, such as mushrooms, broccoli, and spinach are ideal for an alkaline diet. According to popular health personality Dr. Josh Axe, however, cooking these foods could result in a reduction of the alkalizing effect. While cooked broccoli is certainly tastier, munching on raw broccoli with some hummus, for example, might be a better idea if youre looking to aid your digestion. Steaming vegetables has a slightly less harsh effect on them and could serve as another ideal alternative.

The good news is that vegetables arent the only foods that optimize your gut with an alkalizing effect. Sweet treats such as dates, bananas, and figs could boost your gut health. Additionally, avocados, olive oil, and coconut provide delicious healthy fats alongside their alkalizing benefits.

Foods to avoid: Caffeine, alcohol, and many processed foods are highly acidic. These foods have the potential to upset your digestion and cause your gut pH to sway to the extreme. There is a reason you dont feel well after eating something highly processed: Listen to your body and eat these foods in moderation.

The takeaway? Overall, the foods which alkalize your stomach to encourage an ideal pH balance are typically the foods we know to be healthiest. Grains, healthy fats, and fibrous fruits and vegetables all fall beneath this umbrella category of alkalizing foods. Fill your plate and your refrigerator with quality foods thats all you need to do to optimize your gut health.

Of course, no food is good for your diet in the extreme eating only these healthy foods could be harmful, as well, and could sway your pH in the opposite direction. Acidic foods such as coffee and processed sugars wont make or break your gut health in small quantities.

Just remember to allow yourself these foods when you crave them and refrain from them when you dont. Your gut and your cravings are likely telling you something, and its a good idea to listen to them. Sometimes, eating a cookie is the right choice!

More here:
The 'Basic' Diet Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston Swear By - The Daily Meal

FINDINGS

A new study by scientists at UCLA found that when mice eat a high-fat diet, the cells in their small intestines respond the same way they do to a viral infection, turning up production of certain immune molecules and causing inflammation throughout the body. The scientists also found that feeding the mice tomatoes containing a protein similar to that in HDL, or good cholesterol, along with the generic cholesterol drug Ezetimibe, reversed the inflammation.

The results could lead to new types of drugs, targeting the intestinal cells, to reduce peoples risk of heart attacks and strokes, or to treat other conditions linked to inflammation, including cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

Researchers already knew that prolonged obesity can cause inflammation of the liver and fat tissues, and that this inflammation contributes to the development of diabetes and heart disease. Studies have also shown that higher levels of high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, cholesterol, reduces a persons risk of heart disease.

The UCLA research team, led by Alan Fogelman, chair of the department of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA,previously developed genetically engineered tomatoes that contained 6F, a protein resembling the main protein in high-density lipoprotein. In early experiments on 6F, they found that the compound was active in the small intestines of mice, and that it reduced inflammation. But exactly how it did this was unclear.

The scientists fed either a standard chow or a high-fat, high-cholesterol Western diet to mice that were especially prone to developing clogged arteries. They also treated some of the mice with either 6F, in the form of a tomato concentrate containing the protein, Ezetimibe, or both. After two weeks, cells from the small intestines of the mice were collected and blood samples were taken. The researchers measured cholesterol levels as well as the levels of inflammatory and immune molecules in both the intestines and throughout the body.

The findings shed light on the molecular details of how high-fat diets cause inflammation in the body, by making the intestines activate the pathway normally triggered by a virus. This suggests that blocking this immune reaction as 6F and Ezetimibe do may treat inflammatory diseases and decrease peoples risk of heart attack and stroke.

The authors of the study are all faculty and researchers at UCLA, affiliated with the Department of Medicine; Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology; Department of Human Genetics; Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior; and Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology. The first author is Pallavi Mukherjee; Fogelman is the senior author.

The studywas published June 7, 2017, in the Journal of Lipid Research.

The study was funded by the United States Public Health Service (2P01 HL-30568) and the Castera, Laubisch, and Milt Grey funds at UCLA.

Alan Fogelman, Mohamad Navab and Srinivasa Reddy are principals in Bruin Pharma, which is working to commercialize apoA-I mimetics, including the 6F peptide studied in this paper; Fogelman is additionally an officer of the company.

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High-fat diet leads to same intestinal inflammation as a virus - UCLA Newsroom

Professional athletes dont get to the top by accident. It takes superhuman levels of time, dedication, and focusand that includes paying attention to what they put in their bellies. In this series, GQ takes a look at what pro athletes in different sports eat on a daily basis to perform at their best. Heres a look at the daily diet of a 6-foot-7 Olympian.

Going into the Rio Olympics, Ryan Crouser was a virtual unknown. Although he had won a handful of NCAA championships, his collegiate shot put career was also marred by just as many injuries. Besides, he was working towards a masters degree in the build up to the 2016 games. Then he crushed it during the Olympic trials and brought home a gold medal from Brazil in his very first attempt, setting an Olympic shot put record in the process. Now, as a full-time professional athlete, hes setting his sights towards the upcoming USATF Outdoor Championships.

GQ: One of the things I was most interested to ask you now that youre an Olympic gold medalistwhich, congratulations, by the way.

But did you have a celebratory meal after winning the gold? Did you go out in Brazil and celebrate or have any kind of big blowout celebration meal?

What they dont tell you is after you win an Olympic gold medal, your next 24 hours are almost booked solid with media. So the meal I had afterwards was a fast-food hamburger from a downtown sidewalk kiosk thing. That was the only thing we could find because I didnt leave the stadium and finish with media and get back to see my family until 3 A.M. But I had a hamburger and a beer, which at the time was as good as anything because that was the first time in the whole time I was in Rio that I got to see my family. Everything was locked down so tight with training and everything all the security stuff there was crazy. So it wasnt anything special, but being in the company of my family and friends there at 3 A.M. with an Olympic gold medal made it a pretty memorable meal.

Its funny that you bring up fast-food burgers, because I spoke with Christian Taylor recently and he mentioned how popular McDonalds always is for a lot of the Olympic athletes.

It was absolutely crazy. There was a line anywhere from an hour to two hours the entire time that McDonalds was open. Everything is free and I think they had a limit that was 24 burgers per person. They went through a lot of McDonalds in those two weeks.

That still blows my mind. The last thing you would think that all these Olympic athletes would be putting in their bodies the week of the actual Olympics is Mickey Ds.

Yeah, I stayed away from it. I was so focused in on training so I didnt get any McDonalds. But I was amazed at how many athletes were there.

Youre six foot seven, right? Youre a huge dude. So even if you werent this Olympic gold medal winning shot put superstar, Id imagine that youd have to consume a lot of food anyways. So how much food are you actually consuming in a day?

Im definitely eating a lot. And for me, the biggest thing is eating often. I try to eat five meals a day and include a couple of snacks here and there. The biggest thing for me is trying to never go more than three hours without eating, that way my body always has the nutrients to keep growing and recovering muscle. I dont necessarily eat huge meals at a time, I just try to have about a thousand calories. Still, about half of what a normal person should eat in a day, five times a day.

What type of foods are you typically looking to consume?

Ive found for me that a really balanced diet definitely works best. I mean, Ive done all kinds of different food plansone that kind of tilts towards more protein, one more carbs. But for me, I have a pretty fundamental diet. Im definitely trying to get a lot of proteinclose to about 300 grams of protein a day, so thats definitely a lot. I try to get a gram for every pound of body weight. A lot of that is coming from chicken. I eat some read meat, but I try to mostly go with chicken and fish. Then the biggest thing that Ive learned as Ive gotten older is carbs right after I work out. Everyone just really pushes protein, and I used to only do protein right after I finish, but then I kind of feel rough. So for helping me recover Ill eat some carbs right after I finish as well as a lot of protein. And then in the morning I try to do more fats. Thats also help me. I really feel good when I get some healthy fats earlier in the day. I can feel different joints and everything feeling better.

Ive actually been trying to put an emphasis on eating more healthy fats in the morning, because Im terrible about breakfast. And Ive found that it has helped me a lot with staying satiated for a better part of the day. Im not starving come 11 oclock anymore.

For me thats not too much of a problem, just because... Its funny, because everybody always thinks that athletes are kind of training themselves not to eat as much, but in my case I actually have to train myself to eat more. If Im just trying to maintain weight, I have to be at 4,000 to 5,000 calories. When Im trying to gain, Im between 5,500 and 6,000 calories for the day. So its almost like training to try and get that much food in me and always trying to make it pretty good food. I mean, its easy to get some fast food and hit 6,000 calories, but thats not always whats best for the body.

With how much food you have to consume throughout the day and how frequently youre eating, have you gone and worked with any of these meal-prep services or anything like that?

So I really like cooking myself, especially because I can kind of make it to my own proportions and do my own meal prep. But Ive actually moved out to the Olympic Training Center in San Diego, so theyve got a dining hall program set up thats open from seven in the morning until eight at night. That makes meals really easy. Its kind of like buffet style. So the meals here arent a problem with meal prep or anything. Pretty much everything is taken care of.

You know, we hear all the time nowadays about sports teams building these incredible performance centers with state of the art fitness and recovery elements, but they dont always put so much attention towards things that can aid in nutrition. So its awesome to hear that the Olympic Training Center offers that to you guys.

Yeah, a lot of people definitely underestimate the power of nutrition and diet in general. As an elite athleteor just anybody starting outthe progress that you make is really two-thirds in the weight room and on the field, and the other third is just food and nutrition, really. Its a huge aspect that definitely gets underdeveloped.

Definitely. This question sort of harkens back to my very first question, but before a big competition of before the Olympics, the day of your event, do you have a ritual meal of some sort?

I tend to cut back a little bit calorie-wise the day before and especially the day of. Ill eat on big meal usually the night before and kind of do the metaphorical carb loadingeat something with a lot of carbs and usually I feel pretty good the next day. But the closer it gets to the competition for me, the harder I find it for myself to eat. The body kind of gets nervous and a little jittery. I definitely tend to perform a little bit better the day of on lighter meals and a more empty stomach.

Youve mentioned the importance of getting carbs inwhat is your go-to carb that helps you perform the best?

I like pastas a lot, especially a nice whole-grain pasta. It gives a nice combination of complex carbs and its pretty straightforward. I eat a fair amount of bread, as well. Probably more than I should. Im a big fan of some well-made bread. I definitely love that.

Who doesnt! Rio was your first time at the Olympics. Youve got the USATF Outdoor Championships this weekend in Sacramento. Was there any big takeaway from your success at the Olympics that goes into preparing for an event like the Outdoor Championships? Anything new that you learned?

For me, I came out of college, finished my masters degree in finance at the University of Texas last May, and then kind of just went straight into Olympic trials and then to Rio. So its been a big change this year adjusting throughout the fall and this winter to being a full-time professional athlete. Before I was really a student athlete with a definite emphasis on student. Athletics kind of took a backseat and I was trying to work my meals and nutrition in around classes. I finished my masters degree in one year, so that was tough on training and eating because you have eight hours of class a day. Trying to eat around that was tough. Now I have realized that as a professional athlete, youre not just training two or three hours a day. Its a 24-hour job. Now my meals are extremely structured. I wake up and eat breakfast at the same time every day. I have a lighter first lunch at noon. Then a second lunch. Then I come back after the weight room and eat dinner at 5. Then we call it dinner number two at 7:30. Everything is really structured now and I really feel like Ive made a full-time commitment to eating now.

Do you ever get sick of having to eat so much food throughout the day?

There are a lot of meals where I just sit down and I stare at my food for a little bit. I almost have to find some motivation to put that meal away and kind of push through it. Its not always the most enjoyable thing having such a structured meal plan. There are times that I really feel like I am training when Im trying to eat dinner. People always tend to think that athletes can eat whatever and whenever they want, because theyre burning so many calories. Bit if youre trying to really make progress and perfect and push your bodys limits, you have to be eating pretty much exactly on the time schedule and its not whatever foods you want. You have to eat what your body needs at that point of the day. So its a challenge, but its just another thing that you perfect as you go.

Last question: How often do you allow yourself a cheat meal?

Usually on Thursdays we have a group of guys and our cheat meal is we go to Chick-fil-A. I get two classic chicken sandwiches with a large fry and then a large lemonade. Its definitely something I look forward to. I love Chick-fil-A lemonade. Its not the best for me, but its good for the soul.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS ONE

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The Real-Life Diet of Olympic Shot Putter Ryan Crouser, Who Is Massive - GQ Magazine

When, what and how you eat can have some eye-opening effects on your ability to get things done and get ahead at work.Jun.22.2017 / 1:17 PM ET What you eat can have surprising effects on your ability to work. What you eat can have surprising effects on your ability to work.

You know that your diet has a profound effect on your weight, your sense of wellbeing and even your risk factors for certain illnesses, but did you know that it also has an effect on your productivity?

You might feel a surge of productivity after lunch, or feel especially useless on mornings when you skip breakfast, but when, what and how you eat can all have some surprising effects on your ability to work.

Theres a reason nearly two-thirds of Americans drink coffee every day, with an average of 2.7 cups per day, per drinker. Coffee is one of Americas favorite caffeinated beverages, meant to serve as a pick-me-up before or during work.

Instinctively, you might guess that caffeine has a positive effect on your productivity, since its associated with higher energy levels, reduced fatigue and better alertness and focus. And for the most part, youre right. A cup of coffee has about 200 milligrams of caffeine, which is enough to suppress the adenosine in your brain that would ordinarily make you feel sleepy, and provide you with cognitive boosters like better memory and cognitive function. If timed right, coffee (and other forms of caffeine) can improve your performance in the short term.

Create a budget for your caffeine consumption, so you dont overindulge and interfere with your sleep cycle. Consider gradually shifting to decaf coffee as the day moves toward a close.

However, much depends on how you consume caffeine, and in what quantities you consume it. Consuming too much caffeine can lead to jitteriness and anxiety, distracting you from work and interfering with your sleep schedule; and if you lose too much sleep, no amount of caffeine will be able to make up for your cognitive impairment. At the same time, caffeine dependency can actually cause withdrawal symptoms if youre ever left without coffee for a day.

Experts suggest keeping fruit or nuts around as a snack to boost your energy midday, and thats generally good advice, but it pays to know why. Blood glucose is a complicated topic, and its effects on productivity arent cut-and-dry.

Researchers have found that the ideal amount of blood glucose to have circulating in your body is 25 grams; less than that, and your productivity will take a hit. Any more than that, and you wont be able to do much with the extra energy.

So how does this matter to your diet? Almost anything you eat will raise your blood sugar in some way; therefore, if your blood sugar gets too low, youll need to eat something if you want to achieve your optimal performance.

However, not all things raise blood glucose in the same way or in the same amounts; foods higher in the glycemic index, like candy bars and white rice, will cause your blood glucose to spike, preceding a crash shortly thereafter. Low glycemic index foods, like oatmeal and most fruits and vegetables, will provide a steady release over the course of hours.

Have you ever felt less productive and more irritable because you were hungry? You arent alone. It turns out, judges give harsher sentences when theyre hungry, and people are generally less productive when they have food on the mind. This is linked to blood glucose, but serves independently because of the subjective feeling of hunger. Eating filling foods, like proteins and foods high in fiber, early in the day will help you stave off hungerand feel a lot less grumpy. Having a healthy snack nearby can also help.

The foods you eat have an impact on your health, but your health has an impact on your productivity. When it comes to absenteeism (days missed due to health complications) and presenteeism (productivity lost during the day due to health complications), the annual cost for a normal-weight employee is $10,000.

'

The annual cost for an obese employee is $16,000. Put simply, engaging in unhealthy eating habits could cause health-related productivity losses 60 percent more than those of average employees.

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So what can we learn from these four insights? Follow these fast tips to get the most out of your workday:

You dont have to become a health nut to reap major benefits. A handful of simple changes to what, when and how you eat and drink each day will do the trick!

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4 Surprising Ways Your Diet Is Affecting Your Productivity - NBCNews.com