5 foods that can derail your stress management

Stress management is a usual part of daily office life.
There are deadlines to meet, overbearing managers to deal with and annoying colleagues to face.
While we think massage is still the number one way to relieve office stress,
you can also do it through what you eat.
Did you know that some foods are known to cause stress?
​If you avoid them, it can help with your personal stress management. Want to know what they are? 

1: Refined Sugar
Oh, that 3pm choccie bar that you snuck out of your desk drawer tastes so good, but it can stress you. Majorly.
Sugar has a nasty habit of messing with your mood. Eating it will cause your blood sugar to spike and you will experience a high. But not long after, your blood sugar plummets and you will suffer a drastic low which can make you irritable. You crave more sugar and the whole cycle starts again. The more times you repeat the cycle, the more stressed your body becomes.

2: Caffeine
Say it isn’t so! The morning cup of java is actually contributing to your stress levels. Caffeine gives your body a hit of energy and gets you started for the day. But in doing that, it stimulates your nervous system, putting you on constant high alert. Drinking too much can also cause your heartbeat to quicken and your blood pressure to rise.
It makes sense that stimulating the central nervous system also raises your stress levels. The more caffeine you drink in a day, the more stressed you can become.

 
3: Processed Foods
It can be so easy to reach for a snack from the vending machine when you are starving and trying to meet a deadline. But packaged and processed foods contain a high amount of preservatives. These preservatives raise your blood pressure and your stress levels at the same time. Maybe try a piece of fruit instead.
 
4: Salty Foods
Put down the chips, I repeat, put down the chips!
Food that is high in sodium causes your body to retain fluids. This leads to a whole bunch of problems like a strain on your heart, increased blood pressure, bloating, water retention, and puffiness. By their powers combined, these side effects zap your energy and increase your stress levels.
 
5: Alcohol
Technically not a food, and technically not something you would regularly consume at the office. But definitely worth a mention on this list!
But wait, isn’t alcohol a depressant and a relaxant? How can it increase your stress levels?
Alcohol has a nasty little habit of disrupting your sleep. It can even completely eliminate the deep sleep phases in your sleep cycle. Consistently getting poor quality sleep is just as bad as no sleep at all. You become rundown, tired and irritable. All triggers to make your stress levels shoot up.
 
So there you have it. This list isn’t exclusive in anyway, but they are the main bad guys that interfere with your stress management techniques. Even though these foods (and one drink) can taste good, it is best to have them in moderation. Also different foods affects us differently so this is a generalization of course. Not to mention that we can stress ourselves out by simply stressing over the foods to eat (because we're funny like that).
As always, we believe the best way to relieve office stress is to book an on-site chair massage at your workplace. Coupled with a delicious fruit basket, you will have the most zen workers in town!
​Get in touch if you want to chat about that office massage, we would love to hear from you.