Meal prep can mean healthier meal plans in face of stress
February 23, 2021
Study explores how daily hassles can affect food consumption behaviors
Daily stress can chip away at healthy eating habits. For families, that could mean a stressed-out caregiver gives in to a quick, easy, but probably unhealthy meal.
But parents can fight back against that urge with a little extra preparation.
Meal prepping the night before can help parents stick to healthy meal plans, even when they’re stressed. That’s according to new research from the University of Georgia.
The study examined how day-to-day stressors from work, school or other demands affect the decisions parents or caregivers make around food served at family meals and snacks.
Researchers looked at over 23,000 adults in Germany, collecting data on their weekly frequency of resistance exercise and sleep quality. They found that any muscle-strengthening done during a typical week was associated with a reduced prevalence of sleep rated as “poor” or “very poor.” These associations remained after adjusting for other factors like high body mass index, chronic disease, age, and smoking.
Also, there was no evidence of a dose-dependent relationship, which means more was not necessarily better. Those who did resistance training just once a week had a similar, favorable association in sleep quality to those who did this type of training more often, even those who strength-trained five times a week.
Preventive
This is because strength training creates a molecule called adenosine, which tends to cause drowsiness.
Additionally, exercise in general tends to help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, which can make it easier to fall and stay asleep.
It’s all too easy easy to get stuck in a cycle of not being able to fall asleep at night or struggling to stay asleep and then feeling groggy the next morning. In fact, 1 in 4 Americans experience insomnia each year and 70 million Americans suffer from some sort of sleep disorder. So, if you’re struggling with sleep issues, you’re definitely not alone.