Is Your Diet Giving Your Body Grief?

Do you often experience stomach pains or nausea or feel lethargic after eating? Do you eat when you’re not hungry? Perhaps you crave certain foods like sweets, salty foods, or meats. These are all warning signs that your diet may be causing your body distress.

Without even realizing that your diet or lifestyle may be the culprit, you may take over-the-counter medications to relieve your indigestion or eat more sweets to satisfy your cravings. Paying attention to your body’s warning signs can reduce your stress and prevent more serious illnesses in the long run. Go through the following checklist to assess your dietary habits and to become aware of your body’s warning signs.

For each of the warning signs in the checklist, note how often you experience them with the following ratings:

· Very Frequently (daily or every other day)

· Often (1-3 times a week)

· Occasionally (2-3 times a month)

· Seldom (about 6 times a year)

· Never

STRESSFUL DIETARY HABITS

1. Feeling fatigued or "wiped out."

2. Have uncontrollable hunger urges.

3. Have cravings for sweets.

4. Eat when not hungry.

5. Eat excessively when "bored."

6. Have insomnia.

7. Have indigestion.

8. Get diarrhea.

9. Get constipation.

10. Urinate often.

11. Have thoughts of "to hell with it all" before indulging.

12. Feel in conflict about eating; a struggle

13. Feel self-conscious about how your body looks.

14. Eat to abuse yourself.

15. Have waves of anger or hostility.

16. Energy comes in waves at different times of the day.

17. Feel sluggish after eating.

18. Feel compelled to eat meats.

19. Feel compelled to use salt.

20. Crave coffee or tea.

21. Use antacids.

22. Use laxatives.

How did you do? Items you rated "frequently" and "often" should signal an alert to you. These warning signs can indicate that either stress or your diet is causing your body distress. It’s important that you listen to these signals—they are your body’s wisdom. Rather than simply relieving your distress, observe it and learn from it.

If you are craving for certain foods, such as salty foods, you should actually eat less. An imbalance in the ratio of sodium to potassium in your blood may be causing the salt craving. The craving is an indication that your body may be used to a high level of salt. People with hypertension usually experience this imbalance.

Your body needs very little sodium to maintain health. The recommended daily allowance for sodium is 2400 milligrams or about 1 ¼ teaspoon of salt. Adjust your taste buds by slowly decreasing your sodium intake. Enjoying the salty taste of food is an acquired taste you can unlearn. Start enjoying the other flavors in food. Learn to use spices and herbs, lemon, vinegar, or low sodium broth to flavor foods. Use condiments with high sodium such as soy sauce, ketchup, mustard, and tartar sauce in moderation.

The same is true of sweets. High levels of sugar intake may indicate hypoglycemia. In hypoglycemia, your body has difficulty maintaining a constant level of sugar in your blood. When your blood sugar drops, you may feel sluggish, faint, dizzy, fatigued, and irritable or foggy in your thinking. As a result, you crave for sweets to keep your blood sugar up and break the sluggish, fatigued mood.

The solution is to eat less sugar, even though this may seem illogical. To stabilize the large shifts in your energy level and blood sugar, try eating smaller meals more frequently. Instead of having the usual three meals, you may want to have five or six smaller meals. Large swings in energy may signal that your diet is too high in carbohydrates, that you are taking in too many calories, that your metabolism is faulty, or that your organ system (i.e., pancreas which secretes insulin to help digest carbohydrates) is not functioning properly. If you reduce your sugar intake and still experience energy swings, you should consult your physician.

If you experience fatigue, hives, rashes, nasal congestion, asthma, nausea or diarrhea, you may be experiencing an allergic reaction. Symptoms can develop immediately, within two hours, or may appear one to two days after eating a food. Fish, shellfish, nuts and eggs commonly cause allergic reactions. In an allergic reaction, your body’s immune system is fighting the food as if it were a poison.

Milk and natural substances in foods such as wine, fish and cheese cause food intolerances for some people. Food intolerances don’t involve your immune system, but can cause gas, cramps and bloating, symptoms people often mistaken for food allergies.

If you believe you have experienced an adverse reaction, consult your physician or personal health care provider for a medical diagnosis (many of the symptoms of food allergies may be caused by other illnesses, such as the flu or food poisoning). Once a true food allergy has been diagnosed, avoidance of the offending food is the obvious treatment. Sometimes de-sensitizing treatments may offer some help in varying degrees of effectiveness. It is best to discuss this with your doctor or healthcare provider. Read labels carefully and when eating out, ask about the ingredients and how the dish was prepared. A registered dietitian can help you plan helpful strategies to manage lactose intolerance.

If your diet isn’t at fault, perhaps you may be suffering from too much stress. Stress and anxiety can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation and abdominal pains. In high stress, some body reactions speed up while others slow down. For example, diarrhea, a common symptom of anxiety, is your body’s way of clearing the digestive system and minimizing internal activity to allow other organs to work more effectively. When you’re under stress, your body redirects the blood supply from your digestive system to your muscles. When you are under high stress, you want to avoid overeating and greasy foods, which create more tension on your body. By listening to your body’s signals of distress and making simple changes in your diet, you can reduce stress significantly and improve your health.