The close relationship between stress and our eating habits finally began to receive some press in recent years.

With the publication of a book “The Cortisol Connection” and the explosion of cortisol-controlling supplements like “Cortislim” and “Relacore”, the public eye turned towards the connection between our diets and the cortisol creator - stress.

But what exactly is cortisol? And how is it related to stress management and the food we eat?

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress – stress is the cortisol creator.

The adrenal glands which sit on top of your kidneys are the same glands that produce adrenaline in response to stress.

Most of you remember learning about adrenaline in middle school biology class – it’s the chemical released by the body in stress-induced “fight or flight” situations which provides a short-term boost of energy to the body.

Cortisol is released by the same glands for the same general purpose.

Essentially cortisol’s job is to provide an abundance of glucose, or sugar, in the body to fuel the boost of energy sparked by the adrenaline produced during stressful situations.

The problem occurs when you are continually subjected to chronic stress and the adrenal glands continue to produce cortisol, which increases the amount of glucose in the body.

You’re not a caveman living in the jungle, where you would burn all that extra glucose running from predators or chasing down your dinner. So guess where all that extra glucose goes?

Straight to your love-handles.

So the full story is not just that stress is the cortisol creator, but that in many ways cortisol is the “fat creator”!

Besides increased cortisol production, which leads to increased fat production, what else happens when you’re stressed out?

You EAT.

One of the most common responses to stress is to eat. Think of how many times you were depressed or had anxiety about something, and went to the fridge for a pint of ice cream of half a pizza.

Part of the compulsion to binge eat in response to stress comes from a deep instinctual desire to load up on nutrients in what your body perceives to be a stressful environment.

Your body interprets an environment of chronic stress as an environment where food is likely to be scarce (your body doesn’t know about the bag of potato chips in your kitchen or the burger joint on the corner) – so you feel hungry even though you have an abundance of glucose in your body (remember the cortisol creator?).

Overeating in this fashion often causes a corresponding decrease in the number of meals eaten in a given day. You may be eating roughly the same amount of food over the course of the day, but only eating it in one or two sittings compared to the more conventional (and healthier) three to five.

A decrease in the amount of meals, with a corresponding increase in the amount of food per meal, signals your body to slow down your metabolism.

What do you think happens when you increase the amount of glucose (thanks to the cortisol creator – stress) and lower your metabolism?

You guessed it – more fat.

Do you begin to see how stress, your diet, and the effects of your diet on your body are inextricably entertwined?

Stress induced cortisol production and binge eating, cortisol production stimulates glucose production and increased fat, binge eating lowers your metabolism, which increases fat even more.

Now think about the fact that putting on fat, gaining weight, is a pretty stressful event to most people in and of itself.

Many people who don’t feel good about themselves or their weight eat in order to replace the “good” feeling with a “full” feeling.

Do you see how a vicious cycle can get started?

“The Cortisol Connection” was a revolutionary book in that it introduced the world to the idea of stress as the cortisol creator, and thus the fat creator.

But the supplements that have been marketed to deal with the problem of cortisol, “Cortislim”, “Relacore” and the rest do not deal with the root cause – they do not deal with the stress.

I stated very clearly in my book THE STRESS VACCINE™ that the most effective way to deal with the results of stress is to manage their cause – the stress itself.

How much more efficient is that than treating the symptoms with a supplement whose effectiveness is arguable, and far from proven?

If you are ready to start attacking stress directly, pick up a copy right now!