When you feel stress or anxiety, your body goes into fight-or-flight mode.   To help prepare your body for fight-or-flight, your adrenal glands, which are the small triangular glands on top of your kidneys, release a hormone called Epinephrine.


This may cause your heart to beat faster and you won't want to eat or use the bathroom, as your body prepares to fight or flee.


However, if you remain feeling stressed for long, your body will release another hormone called Cortisol.


Cortisol tells your liver to produce glucose because you need energy, and you get energy from glucose.


If your Cortisol remains high for a long period of time, you crave more sugar to replace the used glucose reserves.


The reason you crave the sugary foods when you feel stressed is because the glucose relieves this Stress Response, which is why they have become known as "Comfort Foods."


Two things you can do to improve your health are to reach out for healthy foods when you stress-eat, such as watermelon and peanut butter, rather than cake and ice cream, and manage your stress so you feel less of a need to use food to reduce the stress.


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