eating

How what you eat affects how you feel over the holidays

Ifland is the chief executive officer of Food Addiction Training, LLC, and is a leading innovator in the field of recovery from food addiction. She says, “During the holidays, people experience more stress because they’re [often] eating more processed foods.”

Blame the sugar, fat, and salt that manufacturers add to amp up the flavour of highly refined foods. Although consuming them might feel pleasurable in the moment, Ifland says those three ingredients can create chemical imbalances in the brain that can lead to depression, anxiety, and irritability.

The more we experience those feelings—and the stress that accompanies each—the more likely we are to reach for more processed foods to soothe them. It’s a vicious cycle that Ifland has been studying and documenting for 25 years.

“Through a series of mechanisms, [processed foods] raise adrenalin levels that then reactivate the addictive brain cells—and you start eating again,” she says.

It’s true the “eat bad food—feel stressed” cycle Ifland has written about extensively can happen at any time of year. However, the Fellow of the American College of Nutrition noted it’s exacerbated during the holidays because processed food abounds, whether offered by the gracious host at a social gathering or consumed amid the mad rush of holiday preparations.

The good news is there are ways to end the year on a healthy and more relaxed note.