Tagged With "Stress Eating"
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34 Affirmations for Healthy Living (dailygood.org)
Try positive self-talk to eat better, feel stronger, and rejuvenate your body. When day-to-day life seems to revolve around providing for others, we can forget to nourish our own bodies and spirits. And yet, self-care is what empowers us to give back to the world, fully and joyfully. Start your practice by taking just a few moments each day to affirm your commitment to eat well and live a healthful life. Each bite of food contains the life of the sun and the earth. The whole universe is in a...
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A Different Kind of Food Trauma - Surviving Meanness
It is traumatic when your family does not share the food they have. Not because it is in short supply rather it is done out of meanness of spirit. However, as a child, you conclude you are not good enough, you do not belong. It is painful to be excluded.
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Beyond Pantries: This Food Bank Invests In The Local Community (Rochester, NY)
Great article from NPR last year ( August 1, 2017 ) about Rochester, NY, food bank Foodlink's partnership with their local school district to provide locally grown slice apples for school lunches. by ANYA SACHAROW Wayne County, New York, is the biggest producer of apples in the Empire State. Yet, in 2013 public school children in the county were being served apples from Washington on their lunch trays. At the end of the lunch period, the lovely, whole Washington apples ended up mostly...
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Can What We Eat Affect How We Feel?
I think it is important to tread carefully around using food to address mood disorders. However, a balanced diet is important for much more than weight management. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/well/eat/food-mood-depression-anxiety-nutrition-psychiatry.html?action=click&module=Editors+Picks&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR2JhXu7b7TZ-_cM-v-Txpx5Z5bnad1p3-ZOWskI4MpCtj3a55BGu0VjMHI
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Check Your Privilege Before Talking About Obesity and Personal Responsibility
"The longer public health and public opinion focus their attentions on the personal-responsibility narrative of obesity and other chronic non-communicable diseases, the longer we'll wait to see population level changes. " https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/2016-09-27/check-your-privilege-before-talking-about-obesity-and-personal-responsibility
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Eat, Eat, Eat: Forced to overeat as a child, Sharon Suh finally learns for herself what is enough
A rich and powerful accounting of how the author's relationship to food developed through the lens of family adversity. "My struggle to feel my body and to discern whether I am hungry or full began quite young. I grew up in the 1970s, a second-generation Korean American in New York with a mentally ill mother who suffered from anorexia and bulimia. Throughout my formative years, she projected her body dysmorphia onto me, shaming me for my weight and my Asian features. I was never allowed to...
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Eating Certain Raw Fruits and Vegetables Has Been Linked to Better Mental Health [metro.co.uk/]
Raw fruits and vegetables may play a role in improving mental health, according to a new study by the University of Otago. Researchers have found that people who eat more uncooked produce tend to have fewer symptoms of depression and other mental illness, compared to those who eat cooked, canned or processed versions. More than 400 people aged between 18 and 25 were asked about their typical consumption of fruit and vegetables, including which varieties they ate and how they were prepared.
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Family Resiliency and Childhood Obesity
Abstract Background: Traditional research primarily details child obesity from a risk perspective. Risk factors are disproportionately higher in children raised in poverty, thus negatively influencing the weight status of low-income children. Borrowing from the field of family studies, the concept of family resiliency might provide a unique perspective for discussions regarding childhood obesity, by helping to identify mediating or moderating protective mechanisms that are present within the...
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Feeding San Diego Announces Free New Technology Platform to Reduce Food Waste (livewellsd.org)
On November 5, 2019, Feeding San Diego , announced the launch of MealConnect TM in San Diego County. This free and innovative technology platform connects surplus food from restaurants and other food service providers to Feeding San Diego’s volunteer drivers and agency partners. Developed by Feeding America, MealConnect is an exciting new way for the community to divert good food from going to waste and increase the availability of nutritious food for the one in eight people facing hunger in...
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Four Ways to Nourish Happiness with Mindful Eating (mindful.org)
When we tap into feelings of joy and happiness in good moments — like savoring delicious food — it helps us build resilience and emotional strength during challenging times. Everyone wants to be happy. The desire is part of our biology and hard-wired into our brain. But the reason why happiness arises is varied and complex. Many people think that you find happiness; however, happiness isn’t a thing, so it is never lost. Happiness is an experience, and the conditions for you to have the...
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Fruit And Vegetable Prescriptions Encourage Children To Eat Healthy (scienceblog.com)
A new study shows that a fruit and vegetable prescription program can improve access to healthy foods for underserved children. The program, which was implemented in Flint, Michigan, could be replicated in other areas to address food insecurity in children. In August 2015, the Hurley Children’s Center – Sumathi Mukkamala Children’s Center, a residency training pediatric clinic associated with the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, relocated to the second floor of the...
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How Students Would Improve Their School Lunch Experience
This story shares how integral improving the school lunchroom experience is to children's nutritional and social-emotional health. ".... Studies have shown that when kids have 20 minutes or less to eat, they will eat less food and skip the fruit. Even if fiber and vitamin-rich foods end up on a kid’s tray, that doesn’t mean the kids have time to eat them, and this food often ends up in the trash. Changing food without addressing the time and conditions needed to eat those foods can get in...
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How to Make the Benefits of a School Garden Meaningful in a Child's Life (kqed.org)
Amid the litany of education reforms that emphasize innovation and new methods, school gardens stand out as a low-tech change. In an era where kids' lives are more sedentary, and where childhood obesity has risen dramatically, gardens support and encourage healthful eating as a key component of children's physical wellbeing, which can aid their academic and social success, too. And as the consequences of food deserts and poor nutrition on life outcomes become starker, advocates say that...
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How to Nourish Your Brain to Improve and Protect It (thebestbrainpossible.com)
Research shows that memory problems can begin as early as the forties and continue to increase with age. However, declining cognition is not just an inevitable part of aging. Keeping your mind sharp is entirely possible, and it’s never too late to improve your brain function. Your lifestyle habits play a large role in determining whether your mind stays robust or degrades. The foods you eat are also integral in determining whether your brain continues to function at its best . Giving your...
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How to Use Mindfulness Meditation to Overcome Emotional Eating [betterhumans.coach.me]
As a teenager, I struggled with bulimia. Not only did I eat to manage my emotional states, but I also binged and then tried to compensate for my dietary transgressions. This never-ending cycle was so draining that I could not think of anything else but food. Stopping binge eating required a shift in my beliefs about my worthiness and my ability to cope with stressful situations. I used food to suppress three negative emotions in particular: powerlessness, anxiety, and emptiness. Fortunately,...
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How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope
Often, when I serve watermelon in a program or workshop, there is at least one African American person who looks askance at this fruit. On many occasions, people have declared definitively, "I don't eat watermelon." I have always known that this food has a racially-charged meaning for the African American community so I never try to convince them to try it. This essay, gets to the difficult and painful history of watermelon and its use, like so many things, in the oppression of African...
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Meet the 18-Year-Old Entrepreneur Fixing Food for Gen Z (civileats.com)
Haile Thomas—activist, health coach, vegan chef, public speaker, and CEO of HAPPY—is on a mission to help young people eat healthier. Haile Thomas is not your typical Gen Z teenager. The 18-year-old activist, health coach, vegan chef, and public speaker became the CEO of her nonprofit organization, Healthy Active Positive Purposeful Youth (HAPPY), when she was just 12 years old, inspired by witnessing her father fight off Type 2 diabetes with healthy eating and exercise. Since then, HAPPY...
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Our Bodies are Basically Good (lionsroar.com)
Non-diet dietician Jenna Hollenstein’s new book Eat to Love paves a Buddhist path toward transforming our often troubled relationship with food and body. Lilly Greenblatt spoke with Hollenstein about how her revolutionary approach can guide us away from chronic dieting, food anxiety, and disordered eating with mindfulness and compassion. In her practice, Hollenstein uses meditation and mindfulness techniques to help people overcome disordered eating, eating disorders, and chronic dieting.
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Our Idea of Healthy Eating Excludes Other Cultures, and That's a Problem
A nutritionist of Trinidadian heritage writes of the harm done to people by failing to include a deep understanding of cultural diversity in nutrition and dietetics training: "We were often being taught to perpetuate idea that Eurocentric eating patterns were the only paths to healthy eating, that healthy eating means one thing and one thing only. But teaching someone healthier eating isn’t about making swaps here and there to fit a patient’s culture into a Eurocentric diet. It should be...
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Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness [California Community Colleges]
Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness March 7, 2019 Sacramento — More than half the students attending a California community college have trouble affording balanced meals or worry about running out of food, and nearly 1 in 5 are either homeless or do not have a stable place to live, according to a survey released today. Click HERE to read the press release and click HERE...
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Racism at Food Pantries
http://kvpr.org/post/spanish-speakers-experience-discrimination-valley-food-pantries
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School district looks to head in healthier direction (smdp.com)
The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District agreed to move forward on a revision to its food and nutrition program at a June 14 board meeting, allocating money to improve Malibu HS and Samohi kitchens as well as offering more food and food purchasing options for students. To increase participation and revenue, the program proposed many options: freshly preparing meals at revamped Samohi and Malibu High School kitchens (an estimated $700k cost to replace kitchen equipment) to be...
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School district turns unused cafeteria food into frozen, take-home meals for kids [KCTV 5]
(Meredith) – A school district in Indiana is working to provide take-home meals for students in need to ensure they have enough food to eat over the weekends. Elkhart Community Schools teamed up with a non-profit group called Cultivate to create a pilot program that will provide weekend meals for a small group of children at Woodland Elementary, WSBT reported. The district's goal is to expand the program to feed more students in neighboring schools. As part of the pilot program, 20 kids will...
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Stress Eating is Life-Affirming and Can Help Us Cope in Troubled Times
https://medium.com/@lucy.aphramor/stress-eating-is-life-affirming-and-can-help-us-cope-in-troubled-times-4a798adf1b73
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Students More Likely To Eat School Breakfast When Given Extra Time (scienceblog.com)
Primary school students are more likely to eat a nutritional breakfast when given 10 extra minutes to do so, according to a new study by researchers at Virginia Tech and Georgia Southern University. The study, which is the first of its kind to analyze school breakfast programs, evaluated how students change their breakfast consumption when given extra time to eat in a school cafeteria. The study also compared results of these cafeteria breakfasts to results of serving in-classroom breakfasts...
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Study Analyzes Adolescents' Reactions to Weight-related Terms Used by their Parents
Conversations about weight can be particularly challenging for parents with adolescent kids, and insight into the characteristics of parent-adolescent communication about body weight is limited. Published in Childhood Obesity, this study from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity interviewed 148 adolescents enrolled in a weight loss camp, asking them what words their parents typically use to talk about their weight, how those words make them feel, and what words they would most want...
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Study: Stress Disorders Linked to Greater Infection Risk [mercurynews.com]
By Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, October 31, 2019 People who have stress disorders like PTSD may be more vulnerable to potentially life-threatening infections, especially if they are diagnosed at younger ages or dealing with other psychiatric issues, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 144,919 people diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), adjustment disorders common after a major life change like a death or move, and other stress-related conditions. They also...
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Take Two Carrots and Call Me in the Morning (pewtrusts.org)
In the 21st century, food is seen as medicine — and a tool to cut health care costs. The California Legislature last year became the first in the nation to fund a large-scale pilot project to test food is medicine. The three-year, $6 million project launched in April will serve about a thousand patients with congestive heart failure in seven counties. Food is medicine goes beyond traditional advice to eat more fruits and vegetables. Projects pay for people to purchase produce and offer...
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This is How Dutch Kids Enjoy and Learn from Keeping Vegetable Gardens (brightvibes.com)
Fruits and vegetables and everything you need can be bought at the supermarket nowadays. Due to this convenience, kids hardly know where their food comes from, much less how to grow it. By teaching them how to grow their own vegetables, their interest in healthy food is sparked. It’s fun, they learn a lot and spend time in nature. Every week the kids from this middle school in the Netherlands go to the vegetable garden with their teacher and a volunteer parent. At the vegetable garden they...
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To Head Off Trauma's Legacy, Start Young
Dr. Roy Wade, from the Cobbs Creek Clinic in West Philadelphia, works on his own screening tool to measure young patients "adversity score" -- indicators of abuse, neglect, signs of poverty, racial discrimination, or bullying. "Wade wants to take action because research suggests that the stress of a tough childhood can raise the risk for later disease, mental illness and addiction." https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/09/377569414/to-head-off-traumas-legacy-start-young
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Understanding How Trauma Impacts Eating Can Help Us Cope With The Covid-19 Crisis
https://medium.com/@lucy.aphramor/understanding-how-trauma-impacts-eating-can-help-us-cope-with-the-covid-19-crisis-a2f73c60c723
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What Cookies and Meth Have in Common
"Neuroscientists have found that food and recreational drugs have a common target in the 'reward circuit' of the brain, and that the brains of humans and other animals who are stressed undergo biological changes that can make them more susceptible to addiction. -- [People] will literally have a different brain depending on [their] zip code, social circumstance, and stress level." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/opinion/sunday/what-cookies-and-meth-have-in-common.html
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What's Making Our Children Obese? [themerrowreport.com]
Summer is upon us, which means an increase in street crime and ice cream consumption. However, neither one causes the other; they are both highly correlatedwith summer’s heat, which brings more people out of their homes and onto the streets, where some eat ice cream and some get mugged. Correlation is not causality. Here are two more facts to ponder: American children take lots of standardized, machine-scored, multiple-choice tests, and they are getting fatter. Is this just another...
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Why Emotional Eating Can Be a Consequence of Trauma
Research suggests that trauma can be a cause of emotional eating, or the drive to consume “comfort foods,” to manage the negative emotions directly related to past negative events.
Calendar Event
Stress and Eating Webinar (SNEB)
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Re: Why We Need to Talk About Trauma in Public Health Nutrition [lucyaphramor.com]
For me it conjures up free government cheese, drinking those cups of fluoride liquid and the fraudulent dental work we poor kids had done to us plus it conjures up popcorn and cool aid as the only things to eat because we were dirt poor. I think everyone needs to know how to garden and can/preserve food.
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Re: Understanding How Trauma Impacts Eating Can Help Us Cope With The Covid-19 Crisis
Brilliant Lucy. I love the phrase, "don’t teach me to think of my body, my glorious messy desiring self, or yours, as a machine."
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Re: Eating Kale May Help Older Adults Slow The Decline In Cognitive Skills (scienceblog.com)
Concurring with you Monica on one single food, although the article has kale in the title, please know the research was on green leafy vegetables. A plant-based diet is so tremendously beneficial, especially when we can eat vegetables (and fruit) grown organically. Impressed with Tufts Human Research Center on Aging, please find more information on a well-balanced diet for older adults. http://hnrca.tufts.edu/myplate...ults/fruits-veggies/ Here's a graphic from Tufts for consideration also.
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Re: Trauma and Nutrition: The FST Nutrition Strategy
Monica- Mostly I work with adults with high ACES scores and PTDS. I ask them what their symptoms are (anxiety, panic attacks, irritation, fatigue, depression, early morning waking, nightmares, not hungry in the morning, ...) Then, I have the eat protein every 3-4 hours along with what ever other food they want to eat. People in early recovery are often eatting lots of sugar foods. That is just fine. It is helping them not use AND protein will help more. I have a lot of free information on my...
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Re: Eating Certain Raw Fruits and Vegetables Has Been Linked to Better Mental Health [metro.co.uk/]
This is an important disclaimer from the article: "Obviously, this study isn’t claiming a cause-and-effect link between what you eat and your mental health status. Depression can’t be caused by a lack of vitamins or cured by a surplus. It simply says that there’s an association between what we eat and how we feel." However, I would love to see more research in this area. Original research paper found here .
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Re: Eating Certain Raw Fruits and Vegetables Has Been Linked to Better Mental Health [metro.co.uk/]
Of course. I don't believe there are panaceas or "miracle cures" for anything that ails us. I do believe that every little bit that we can do to improve our health matters, though, including eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. That alone won't cure depression, but it can play a big part along with other lifestyle changes and treatments.
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Re: Stress Eating is Life-Affirming and Can Help Us Cope in Troubled Times
I always love reading your perspective Lucy, thank you for this thought provoking article!
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Re: Stress Eating is Life-Affirming and Can Help Us Cope in Troubled Times
I am so excited to find your prospective and website.
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Doctor's Orders: Program Prescribes Fresh Fruits, Vegetables to Idahoans [publicnewsservice.org]
Eric Tegethoff, Public News Service (12/10/2020) BOISE, Idaho -- A pilot program that prescribes a trip to the produce aisle has been a success in Idaho. The Nebraska-based Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition evaluated the Idaho Hunger Relief Task Force's (IHRTF) Prescription for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables program, which offers vouchers to food-insecure patients with diabetes and prediabetes. It found significant improvements in participants' health; Julie Walker, manager of diabetes...
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I Grew Up With the Shame of Food Insecurity. Decades Later, I Still Obsess Over What I Eat
"I remember watching my mother stand at the supermarket register, anxiously tugging at her shaggy dark blonde hair, repeatedly tucking it behind an ear. Her green eyes, amplified by thick glasses with rose-tinted plastic frames, scanned the running total. She’d hold an envelope open with one hand and whip out coupons like a blackjack dealer, placing them on each corresponding item to make sure the cashier scanned them together...." https://www.bonappetit.com/story/childhood-food-insecurity