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This Common Ingredient Is Making Your Anxiety Worse

By Stepy Kamei

Anxiety is a common issue. In fact, it's one of the top mental health disorders facing Americans every year. To add insult to injury, it doesn't help that it's got a wide range of causes. This can make it very difficult to know how to treat anxiety. Still, there are some well-known causes of anxiety that healthcare professionals strongly urge their patients to be aware of and avoid as much as possible. If you're vulnerable to experiencing anxiety, or if you worry about developing it, it's a good idea for you to be knowledgeable about ways to prevent anxiety from harming your well-being. It's important to keep in mind, however, that there are some causes of anxiety that may surprise you.

Anxiety Related to Some of Your Favorite Foods

It may not be news to you that the food you eat can have a strong impact on your health and wellness. However, did you know that your diet can hurt your mental health as well? In fact, one of the most common ingredients and additives in the American diet can be directly responsible for a flare-up of issues such as anxiety and panic attacks: sugar.

Sugar is often artificially added to a wide variety of foods, drinks, snacks, and desserts. Already, it offers no nutritional value, making it unnecessary in terms of nutritional benefit. However, sugar can have a pretty harmful effect on the body. It causes levels of blood sugar to spike and drop at fast and dramatic levels. These sudden spikes and drops can at best leave the body feeling off-balance. At worst, it can mimic the feelings that precede a panic attack, and may actually end up inducing one. Furthermore, low blood sugar levels are one trigger of increased levels of stress in the body.

A Negative Cycle

It doesn't help to know that there can be a negative cycle associated with this dietary habit. Often, we have an instinct to cope with feelings of stress by reaching for sugary foods, in order to get that addictive sugar rush and the flooding of good chemicals that it brings to the body. In this way, the negative cycle continues.

Obviously, the best thing you can do to combat this is by doing what you can to limit your intake of sugar. Many foods have sugar even if you don't realize it, so be sure to take the time to read the ingredients lists on everything you eat. Try substituting honey or agave in place of refined sugar, if you absolutely crave a taste of something sweet.

To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Shreveport, La. 

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