Food & Fitness

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• Stress affects blood glucose levels.

• It's important to eat well during the holidays.

For many people, the holidays are the busiest time of the year. All the stressors can add up and affect blood glucose levels. Stress stimulates the release of “fight or flight” hormones that can increase blood glucose levels. Trying to simplify this holiday season can help manage your stress.

Another important factor is eating well. Sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in choosing foods for the purpose of managing blood glucose levels and we forget about the effect a nutritious eating plan has on our general health and well-being.

The physiologic need for food is to provide our bodies with energy (i.e. calories from carbohydrate, fat and protein) and the building blocks we need to stay healthy:

• protein for maintaining muscles and organs
• fats for transporting vitamins and as part of hormones and cell membranes
• vitamins and minerals help with cell function such as energy metabolism.

By sacrificing good nutrition during busy times in our lives, we lower our ability to fend off disease and stress since we don’t have the nutrients at the ready for a quick immune response. The concept of you are what you eat really is true when you think about it!

So during this busy time, try to fend off stress with healthy food choices, adequate rest and exercise to keep blood glucose levels on track.