Americans have accepted that the kind of fat you eat matters because fats are not the same. Those deemed “bad” fats—particularly trans fats found in margarines and many snacks—can increase the risk for many diseases, while the “good” fats—unsaturated fats found in nuts, seeds, and fatty fish—are vital to optimum physical and emotional health.
We are obsessed with fat, but a new study suggests that we need to be more concerned about managing our stress because the benefits of eating good fats vanish in the face of stress.
Researchers from The Ohio State University, led by Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychiatry and psychology, conducted the groundbreaking research showing that stress eliminates the benefits of certain healthy food choices.
Study participants were randomly assigned to one of two indistinguishable breakfasts. The meals consisted of biscuits and gravy with eggs and turkey sausage. One meal was high in less-healthy saturated fat from palm oil, while the other was higher in healthier unsaturated fat from sunflower oil high in oleic acid.
As expected, women who did not report prior stressful events and who ate the breakfast with saturated fat, fared worse in the post-meal blood tests that looked for precursors to disease than women in the same group who ate an identical breakfast made primarily with sunflower oil.
The surprise was that when women in the study reported stress, the hardships of the previous day appeared to erase any benefits expected from eating the more healthy meal.
“It’s more evidence that stress matters,” said Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, who directs the Institute for Behavioral Medicine at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center. She is the lead author of the research that appears in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Researchers knew that both diet and stress alter inflammation, which creeps up in the body over time to cause disease. Chronic inflammation is linked to a myriad of health problems including heart disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.
This study was designed to provide insight into the relationship between stress, diet, and the markers of inflammation that can be measured in the blood. Reduced inflammation may be the cornerstone of healthy food plans, such as in the Mediterranean diet that is high in oleic acid, usually from olive oil,
Blood was drawn multiple times during study visits, with the researchers looking at two markers of inflammation – C-reactive protein and serum amyloid A. They also evaluated two other markers called cell adhesion molecules that can predict a likelihood of plaque forming in the arteries.
Controlling for age, abdominal fat, and physical activity, researchers observed that all four unhealthy markers were higher after the saturated fat meal than after the sunflower oil meal.
However, in women who had reported stressful days, that difference disappeared such that eating a breakfast with “good fat” produced the same blood results as eating one with “bad fat.”
Interestingly, stress raised blood levels of all four harmful markers in the women who ate the “good fat,” but stress did not seem to affect the levels for women who ate the saturated fat breakfast.
That does not give license to grab bad fats for comfort when you’re stressed. Because of the insidious nature of inflammation, the best bet is to make daily healthy food choices so when stress hits, you are operating from a sound nutritional base.