In recent years, there’s been quite a bit of talk about “healthy” fats, nutritionists and dieticians have prompted us to take a closer look at real butter, olive oil and coconut oil. These natural and wholesome products contain fats that are actually healthy and we could not be happier to leave the days of fat-free foods behind. However, in this brave new world there is one thing that can get in the way of enjoying healthy fats, and that’s stress. A new study suggests that stress can affect your ability to metabolize fats and reduce the number of calories that your body can burn.
According to the study at Ohio State University, stress changes the way our body processes food. Researchers studied subjects who ate a high calorie, healthy fat breakfast after a stressful event. They found that fewer calories were burned and the healthy fats were even treated the same as “bad” fats. There are a number of factors that can affect weight-loss, and it is clear that stress is one of them. In addition to changing our bodies’ natural response to food, stress causes increased eating (think comfort food) and can reduce the likelihood of exercise. There are so many reasons to manage stress well, and this is certainly a compelling one.