Hard-working and stressed-out, Americans add pounds By: Silvia Casabianca
If you wonder why you have gained weight since you started your last job, also ponder how much stress it has brought to your life.
No need to prove that in the United States both stress and obesity are mounting. This nation's workers put in more hours on the job than the labor force of any other industrial nation, where the trend has been just the opposite. As workers have no time for recreation, family or friends, why feel surprised that stress-related conditions are increasing?
My friend, María Victoria, who is visiting Spain for the first time, writes from Alcalá de Henares. Besides describing the beautiful, multicultural city, she points to the fact that people slowly munch their lunch and they meet with friends to stroll (yes, walk) down the streets after work and enjoy the cultural life the historical city has to offer. She details unbelievably crowded sidewalks in the evenings. No wonder their obesity and stress rates are lower.
Americans put in the equivalent of an extra 40-hour workweek in 2000, compared to 10 years earlier. This nation take pride in its hard-working people, but what is the real cost of overworking? This is not what the Fair Labor Standards Act intended when it set the 40-hour workweek in 1938. It seems that a (relative) decline in wages and health, while pension and vacation benefits fade away, keep workers laboring more and more. Tired bodies, worrying about deadlines and production quotas, make for a short-tempered bunch. In a 2001 survey, nearly 40 percent of workers described their office environment as "a real life survivor program." (visit
www.stress.org/job.htm).
Maybe some are making more money than ever, but they are not a bit happier. In 2004, eight in ten workers surveyed nationwide said they would be more satisfied with life if they just had less stress. (visit
www.newdream.org/newsletter/survey.php).
Japan had the record workweek until 1995, but Americans presently work almost a month more than the Japanese, and three months more than Germans. The resulting stress has proven quite detrimental for Americans' physical and mental health. Obesity is one result of stress. In the past five years, researchers have contributed a wealth of studies explaining weight gain in overly occupied and stressed people.
We already know that when we become too busy it becomes difficult to keep up with any physical activity schedule, and that a sedentary life leads to rounder hips and a wider waist. Busier people not only rarely have time to prepare a home meal, once they discover affordable precooked meals, cooking dinner at home becomes an antediluvian custom. Processed foods usually contribute more calories than are desirable and are a source of chemical stress. Some hard workers don't even bother to find time for ten-minute microwave cooking and opt for faster food. And, where do you find such a thing as healthy fast food? Well, maybe the rare assorted salad bars found in restaurants.
I guess most of us have experienced stress cravings, and unfortunately, it's not salads that we crave. Anxiety makes us desire sweets and fats. My own sins? Chocolate, nuts and dulce de leche.
Add the fact that a sense of satiety comes only after about 20 minutes of eating. Because time pressure makes us eat faster, we continue to feel hungry and end up packing in more than enough calories.
There is even more about stress and food that should motivate us to rethink our lifestyle. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are among the hormones released by the adrenals in times of stress. In acute stress, GCs have beneficial effects and help prepare the body to respond to a perceived threat. Chronically high concentrations help create what is called a stress-response network in the body, with increased blood pressure and heart beat, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. The body feels a call to go for comfort food and to binge in times of stress because, as recent research has shown, sweets temporarily relieve stress. Not only do these extra calories become fat, but also GCs (especially cortisol) are accountable for an increased accumulation of abdominal fat among the stressed, and the slowing of the body's metabolism, which makes losing weight more difficult.
One of the most interesting ideas gaining momentum among the scientific community now is the connection between rest and obesity. Research on the production of the hormones leptin and ghrelin, which affect our appetite, may be modulated by how much or how little we rest. Makes us rethink working overtime and sacrificing sleep hours, doesn't it?
Although vacations could compensate for some stress, statistics show that almost a third of American women and a quarter of men don't get any vacation leave anymore because, unlike 96 other countries, the United States has no paid-leave law.
Finally, chronic stress can lower or increase blood sugar levels, causing mood swings, fatigue and eventually, metabolic syndrome, a precursor of diabetes.
With all the technological advances that are supposed to make our lives easier, we wonder why we are thrown back to 1886, when workers were demanding eight hours of work, eight hours of leisure, and eight hours of sleep.
(Silvia Casabianca graduated and practiced as a medical doctor and psychotherapist in Colombia, and holds a master's degree in Art Therapy from Concordia University in Montreal. She's a Reiki Master/teacher, and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. She can be contacted at
scasa@earthlink.net.)
Obesity and stress