The Impact of Mindset on Physical Health
How changing your mindset can transform your body’s physiological processes, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown.
By: Juliet Stevenson | May 5, 2020
Weight loss and mindset are both hugely relevant topics in today’s society. Especially since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, trainers and nutritionists all over the world have been super active on social media platforms with various diets, workouts and weight loss routines to keep people healthy despite being stuck at home. However, for most people, such diets and workout routines are difficult to maintain, and any weight that is lost while participating in such programs is gained back to an even greater extent after returning to everyday life.
Dr. Alia Crum, the principal investigator at the Stanford Mind and Body Lab, is fascinated by the impact that mindsets can have on the body’s physiological mechanisms, including diet and exercise. Crum and her colleagues conducted an experiment out of the Yale Clinical Research Center Hospital Research Unit in which participants were told they would be taste-testing two kinds of vanilla milkshakes. One of the milkshakes was labeled as low calorie and low fat (Sensi-Shake) while the other was labeled as high calorie and high fat (Indulgence). The participants were told that the goal of the experiment was to test whether the milkshakes tasted similar and what the body’s reaction would be to the different nutrients in the milkshakes. In the first session, about half of the participants received the Sensi-Shake and half received the Indulgence shake and then in the second session one week later, they were given the other.
In reality, the participants were served the same milkshake in both sessions and their ghrelin levels were monitored. Ghrelin is a hormone found in the gut that appears in higher levels when energy intake is low, and is suppressed when nutrients are detected in the body. When the signal is sent to the gut to cease the release of ghrelin, a signal is also sent to the brain to reduce appetite and increase feelings of satisfaction and fullness.
What Crum and her colleagues found from these studies was fascinating and groundbreaking in the world of diet and exercise. When the participants drank the Indulgence shake, their bodies responded to the perceived caloric contents of the beverage, and there was a steep decline in ghrelin measured. In fact, the decline in ghrelin was statistically significantly more drastic than it was when the participants drank the Sensi-Shakes. Despite the fact that the participants were given the same milkshake in both sessions, and the amount of ghrelin released should have had no statistical difference, their mindset and perception altered their body’s physiological processes.
These results show that overthinking the fat and calorie content of the food that someone puts into their body, will make a physical difference. Instead of embarking on long and impossible-to-maintain diets, a simple shift in one’s mindset to focus on clean and confident eating could be a revolutionary and maintainable diet method. Educating people on the nutritional value of healthy, yet tasty foods, could mean a change in the amount of ghrelin produced with each meal, decreasing their appetites and leaving them feeling more satisfied for longer, helping people to not only lose weight but to keep it off.
With the current Coronavirus pandemic has come an onslaught of pictures and videos on social media, encouraging people to work out and diet to avoid what is being called the “Quarantine-15.” People everywhere are feeling the pressure to work on their bodies during quarantine, and emerge having lost weight and transformed their body. Yet, these expectations are unrealistic and contribute to rising feelings of self consciousness and hopelessness in already desperate times. Wellness writer, Rosie Gizauskas addresses the negative sides of the social media pressures to eat well, exercise and lose weight during quarantine, including the specific detrimental effect on those recovering from exercise addictions or eating disorders. She shares that influencers constantly pushing workout routines, and targeted ads on social media, can trigger those in recovery, and can even lead to relapses in progress.
Gizauskas also warns about the dangers of pushing one’s body too hard, in an effort to keep up with the intense, high impact workouts being released by fitness gurus. Most of the population is nowhere near as physically fit as the fitness influencers and following their complex workouts, without the person-to-person guidance, can quickly lead to injuries.
To preserve individual physical and mental health, is essential to remember that everyone in the world right now is experiencing unprecedented times. Attention must also be drawn to the work of Dr. Crum and her colleagues which revealed the huge impact of mindset on the body’s physiological functions. The way one person copes with societal stresses and pressures will be completely different to the coping mechanisms of those around them, and each and every person needs to listen to their own bodies and minds, creating exercise, eating and relaxation plans that work for them. Gizauskas reminds her readers that, “having an appreciation for our bodies and the fact that we are healthy and alive is the ultimate goal for when we finally get out of this,” and keeping this positive end goal in mind is essential when planning a physically and mentally healthy lockdown routine.
Resources:
Biological Mechanisms that Promote Weight Regain Following Weight Loss in Obese Humans By: Christopher N. Ochner, Dulce M. Barrios, Clement D. Lee, and F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, Physiology and Behavior, Vol. 120, 15 August 2013, pp.106–113, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
Mind Over Milkshakes: Mindsets, Not Just Nutrients, Determine Ghrelin Response By: Alia J. Crum, William R. Corbin, Kelly D. Brownell and Peter Salovey, Health Psychology, Vol. 30, 2011, №4, 16 May 2011, pp.424–429, American Psychological Association
The Dangerous Pressure to have a Lockdown Glow-Up By: Rosie Gizauskas, Refinery29, Wellness, 21 April, 2020
PEOPLE Stanford Mind and Body Lab Stanford University
