Stress Is Edible. Here’s How We Can Avoid It In Our Food System

UNITED STATES, January 21, 2021 (Worth): Does eating food that contains too many stress hormones—cortisol in meats, ethylene in plant-based foods, and other related hormones—trigger stress and inflammation in our bodies? To date, scientists have overlooked the possibility that consuming stress hormones through food may be affecting our health. However, we make the case that food-borne stress hormones may be a missing link in the connection between food and health. If substantiated, this hypothesis could lead to a fundamental shift in how we eat. Even putting aside personal health concerns, reducing stress hormones in our diet can help us imagine a better world, in a larger sense. We would care more not only about how food affects us, but also about how our consumption habits of animals and plants affect them. There are implications for the economy, too: Localism and sustainable agriculture could flourish as farm-to-fork quality control and alignment of interests become priorities.

Stress hormones are biochemicals produced by the body in response to any form of stress. In animals, the predominant stress hormone is cortisol. In plants, the predominant stress hormone is ethylene. These stress hormones produce a wide variety of well-characterized effects within the body of animals and plants that help them survive. What is far less known are the effects of these stress hormones when they are consumed by a different species. How much cortisol or norepinephrine is lurking in our meat? Are these levels rising due to the stress put on animals by the food system? When we eat foods high in cortisol or norepinephrine, do our cortisol and norepinephrine levels spike? Since we know that long-term use of prednisone, a medicinal form of cortisol, is associated with higher rates of high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and obesity, could stress hormones in our foods be a mechanistic link between modern diets and the growing epidemic of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity?

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https://www.worth.com/stress-is-edible-heres-how-we-can-avoid-it-in-our-food-system/