Student Health and Wellness
Tips and Information:
The following is an essay written by a University Student on Midterm Stress.
“Our October special is: Tim Hortons and Fries à la Ketchup.”
The ‘midterm diet’ has been a long-standing student tradition during the midterm season – typically around the beginning of October and also at the end of November – for as far back as we have had... well, midterms. This questionable meal plan consists of: one part lack of time and two parts stress. Although the energy-demanding effects of stress are a fairly common response that anyone’s body can go through, it is usually dealt with fairly quickly in order to maintain physiological balance. During midterm season though the stress becomes chronic and the demand for energy from our body seems to be everlasting (Scott, 2010). Of course, not everybody will eat the same things during these times and a few will even put their nutrition first in terms of priorities... but if you tally the sales at the campus Tim Hortons you will probably be in for quite a surprise (Oblea, 2009). In the eyes of the local companies selling food on campus, it pays for us to be stressed! Although there is no exact science for the decision making that goes on in terms of food selection during this ‘splendid’ time in a student’s academic career, there definitely seems to be some common trends that accompany the prolonged stress. Among them, some of the food selection patterns include (nicknames I personally love to use): the ‘caffeine catastrophe’, the ‘friendly fatty’ and even the ‘shameful sugar’.
Caffeine: everyone loves it; that’s definitely no understatement. Whether you’re a fan of coffee, tea, chocolate, etc... it just wouldn’t be the same without the caffeine. So what exactly makes us dig into our pockets for that spare change and run off to the nearest coffee shop for a good old ‘cup of joe’, tea or anything with some caffeine in it? Well, caffeine is actually the world’s most popular stimulant (Graham, 1993)! What this means is that caffeine acts on your brain and gives you the feeling of being more alert while relieving your drowsiness/fatigue (Graham, 1993). If that wasn’t enough of a reason, caffeine is also known as an appetite suppressant (Savoca et al., 2004)! So let’s do the math: you get some sugar for energy, the caffeine keeps you alert as well as aware and to top it all off you are able to avoid having to break your concentration in order to grab a snack because your hunger will be taken care of. Wow, no wonder some students can survive almost entirely on tea alone throughout their endless hours of library studying! As great as this may sound in the short run, it is important to note that tea or coffee itself has a limited amount of nutrients and it would be beneficial to make sure you are eating a variety of other foods throughout that day to meet your body’s varying needs (Savoca et al., 2004).
The ‘friendly fatty’ is also a common student diet during midterm season. Oil, grease and calories become your study buddies. Your best friend Roger may not be by your side at this stressful time but that carton of fries sits patiently across your notes as you slowly enjoy one piece after another. So why exactly do we turn to these high fat meals in order to satisfy our hunger? Well, the typical stress response involves the release of a hormone named Cortisol, which alters our metabolism in order to make energy available for our muscles to use (Weissman, 1990). For our body, this is useful in a situation where for example you may need to run away from someone to avoid conflict/danger. As you would imagine, this need for energy to ‘escape’ is fairly short-lived and would not be useful after you have gotten far enough away for it to be considered safe again (Weissman, 1990). On the other hand: in chronic stress, which is commonly experienced by students during the midterm seasons, this need for energy is not turned off and so in order to satisfy the ‘endless craving’, we tend to turn to the highest source of energy per gram: fats (MacDonald, 2010). Our body breaks these fats down and digests them into smaller components in order to gain energy in an attempt to fulfill this perceived need. We should however be careful because there are many health risks linked to the consistent consumption of high-fat foods such as atherosclerosis, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc... (Savoca et al., 2004).
Finally, we have the all too common ‘shameful sugar’. This one is probably the most common one that I witness when I’m studying alongside my fellow classmates. One minute you have a full zip-lock bag of Lindor milk chocolates at the corner of your desk and the next time you look up you realize you’re down to your last two pieces! The reason we indulge in these sugary sweets is similar to the reasons we indulge in caffeine or fatty foods; stress ‘relief’. Sugar may produce less energy per gram when compared to fat but to make up for that the sugar is broken down faster so you feel satisfied more quickly after a bite of something sweet as opposed to something fatty (MacDonald, 2010). Unfortunately, the sugars that are found in these treats are usually broken down so quickly that your blood sugar levels remain consistently high and there is not enough time in between each piece that you eat for your levels to recover. If this type of a diet persists for a long period of time the chronically elevated blood sugar can potentially render the student more susceptible to dangerous health conditions such as diabetes (Martin et al., 1992).
In conclusion, there seems to be a fairly logical underlying explanation for the strange diets that a lot of students partake in during midterm seasons: to satisfy the never-ending energy demands of chronic stress! It makes sense that in these times we turn to foods and even beverages that will either take our mind off of it (e.g. caffeine) or try to satisfy it as quickly as possible (e.g. sugar or even fat). Although it may be ok to do this once every blue moon, if it becomes consistent over longer periods of time you are putting yourself at risk for a variety of health-related issues (as previously mentioned for each type of diet). It is important that as a student you keep your health high up on the list of priorities so that you can not only focus on doing well in you work but also maintaining as healthy of a lifestyle as you possibly can. This will not only benefit you physically but mentally as well, making it easier for you to concentrate on the academic responsibilities you have to fulfill.
- Eli William
Bibliography
Graham, D. (1993). Caffeine. Nutrition & Food Science, 78(6), 13-15.
MacDonald, M. (2010). Lecture 6: Lipoproteins [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved October 10, 2010, from < https://www.learnlink.mcmaster.ca/Login/FAV1-0000D27D/FOV1-000303B7/FOV1-00110B07/FOV1-0011280C/I059A9FFF.0/September%2023%20notes.ppt>
Martin, B., Warram, J., Krolewski, A., Soeldner, J., Kahn, C., & Bergman, R. (1992). Role of glucose and insulin resistance in development of type 2 diabetes mellitus: Results of a 25-year follow-up study. The Lancet, 340(8825), 925-929.
Oblea, Erika. (2009, December 8). Coffee Shops See Boost In Sales During Finals. The Daily Californian, Retrieved from http://www.dailycal.org/article/107770/coffee_shops_see_boost_in_sales_during_finals
Savoca, M. R., Evans, C. D., Wilson, M. E., Harshfield, G. A., & Ludwig, D. A. (2004). The association of caffeinated beverages with blood pressure in adolescents. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 158(5), 473.
Scott, Samantha. (2010, March 28). Stress, eating, and the college student. Psychology in the News, Retrieved from http://intro2psych.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/stress-eating-and-the-college-student/
Weissman, C. (1990). The metabolic response to stress: An overview and update. Anesthesiology, 73(2), 308.