Dear Daniela,

It is interesting question, we are in the same boat, as a food scientist and ex dietitian,  from the best of my knowledge I believe in water as treatment for stress. if we believe that  drinking water wash stress and taking the stress outside the body may help to remove stress. The  most nutrition books ignore the functional role of water in nutrition and as nutrient with magical dissolving properties help digestive system transport nutrients and other  important functions. In a study done I think in Iran that they give water to prisons and have good impact to get out the stress  from them. 

Good luck

Aly R Abdel-Moemin

Please have a look at these links and a PDF attachment.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268786961_Vegans_report_less_stress_and_anxiety_than_omnivores

http://www.fasebj.org/content/28/1_Supplement/823.3.short

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283495301_Vegetarian_and_Omnivorous_Nutrition_-_Comparing_Physical_Performance

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8495000_Nutritional_considerations_for_vegetarian_athletes

https://faunalytics.org/reference-item/veganism-help-reduce-stress-anxiety/

Article Vegans report less stress and anxiety than omnivores

Article Vegetarian and Omnivorous Nutrition - Comparing Physical Performance

Article Nutritional considerations for vegetarian athletes

Hello Aly , 

Thanks  so  much  for  the  interesting  point about  water ...  It  makes  me  think  to  reformulate  a  little  bit : then ,  it  means  that  the  lowest  stress  levels  should  be  encountered  in  those  juicing ,  isn't  it  !?  

( ha ..  I  thought  about  asking  this  question  mainly  because  in  the  study I finished  recently ,   a  very  funny  thing  surfaced  : my  non-vegetarians group  are  less  stressed  than  the  vegans  ! ha ha ... )       

Dear Daniela,

Funny isn't, what about their consumption of water? did you do a questionnaire or quantified their water intake?

Yes , Aly ,  that  was  also  in  the  questionnaire and  they  answered - but  it  wasn't  my  main  topic  at  the  time .  Maybe  later on  I  will  go  back  to  the  data  and  set  another  study  ! 

Hello ,  Ghose  Bishwajit !  and  thank  you for very  nice  input answering  on  this  topic !   Nice  to hear  that you're  doing  also  a  similar  study . 

Mine  was  indeed  multifactorial ( in  the  genetic  area  ,  the  blood  type -nutrition  relationship bringing  the  most  of  the  excitement )  It's  really  a  nice  very  interesting  area  to  study  about !  

Thanks  once  again  and   looking  forward  to  hearing  of  more  interesting  results  coming  from this 

Vegans have an additional social stress since they eat differently than the society they live in. They need to avoid foods available to them and in some social situations request special treatment or after go without the main protein in their meal. In several different special celebrations in our city, vegans have been given only vegetables or only risotto (made from rice), in place of the protein foods given to others.  In my experience, this causes some stress. 

Research shows that vegetarians and vegans are more likely to stay on those diets if they are motivated by ethics, and less likely if their reason is health-belief or weight loss.  I imagine that socially they would experience stress from being in social situations where others do not share or support their beliefs. Some will get some satisfaction from believing that they are eating the “one true way” but they are likely to be frustrated by others who do not.  If a study notes less stress by vegans, these other factors would need to be measured to ensure that there is not confounding going on. 

I doubt water would relieve stress unless the prisoners had restricted limited water prior (then the less stress was not due to the water but to the removal of water deprivation, which could be considered torture) , or the water was given to them in an understanding manner that relieved stress. Please beware of assuming causal relationships. 

Tanis Fenton ,  

Thank you  very  much  for  interesting  data  and  input .

( This  shows  me  once  again  that ,  what  I  was thinking  to  be something  very  strange ,  looks  that  is  perfectly  normal  and  usual -  many  here  getting  across to the  same  conclusion  in  their  previous  studies  that  non-vegetarians  are  showing lower  stress                                                                                                                (  I  would  have however  to  somehow  interfere  and  argue  about  the  "low protein in  the  diet" matter .... I have  here   and  watching a  new list  of   the  sources and  I'm  pretty  sure  that  most  of  the  vegans  are  eating  plenty  of  them on  a  daily  basis !!!    ) .                                                                                                            But ,  I  perfectly  agree  on  the  social  stress ,  and  I  have  to  agree  now  that  , from  my  observations ,  non-vegetarians  are  really  and  completely careless  about  what  are  they  eating  - either  healthy  , or  junk  ! 

Thanks  once  again  for  input ,  and  in  return , success as  well in your research  !

Best  regards ,

Daniela  

There are vegetarians and vegans who are educated about food, and motivated to eat healthily. If they eat plenty of pulses, green vegetables and nuts and seeds, they will have a good intake of magnesium, which helps people cope with stress. Nuts, pulses and seeds will also provide zinc. There are also vegetarians who don't eat vegetables. I don't think they should be allowed to call themselves vegetarians. If you don't eat fish and meat, and don't make the effort to replace them with pulses, nuts and seeds, then you are likely to become zinc deficient, which can lead to acne, eating disorders and infertility. That is a route to stress.

There are good vegetarian diets and bad ones, and they really have to be analysed separately. Being a vegan is more difficult, and vegans need to be careful to have adequate omega three fats, calcium and vitamin B12.

Thank  you  so  much  , Margaret  Moss -  for  the  precious  input  and  details . 

(  I'd  like  to  take  the  opportunity - knowing  that you're  working  in  Allergy  related  area -  to  ask  more  details  ,  based  from  your  experience ,  about  the  relationship proteins-allergy .  It  is well  agreed  that  animal  proteins  are   found  to  be  responsible  in  many  of  the  cases . What  is  it  known  concerning  the plant  proteins ?  Are  they  totally  safe ?  

I feel  very  concerned  and wish  I  could  help  with  more  informed  counseling  when  seeing  the  results  in kids  being  fed abundantly with  whole cow's  milk , who in  their  pre-school  years  are  already  suffering .  At  least  in this  part  of  the  world I  see  daily , this  type  of  milk and  products  is  the  main  snack at  school and  home ) 

Thank  you  very  much  once  again ,

Regards , 

Daniela 

The well designed LEAP and EAT trials help us to begin to understand allergy and its development in children.  Before you do counseling, please understand this literature better.  

I suggest that sugars are the main issue, as well as partially broken down proteins.  Yes, beta casomorphine from milk and glutamorphine from the Northern grains do appear to be implicated in hyperactivity, autism and schizophrenia. Yes, milk is involved in respiratory symptoms and glue ear, and more seriously, milk is statistically more related to coronary heart disease death than any other food we have looked at. This is probably because galactose in milk is a more active glycator of protein than either fructose or glucose. Also there us a clotting factor in the membrane around the fat globules in milk. Fructose is a more potent glycator than glucose. 

I find most people with allergies and sensitivities to foods do best eating fish, meat, eggs and vegetables. They need to avoid milk. If they can tolerate it, sourdough white bread is probably the least allergenic. Refining it removes some of the lectins, and souring starts breaking down the protein. Sugar needs to be avoided, and fruit limited. If the issue is milk sugar, I allow mild hard cheese, as there is minimal sugar in it, and it contains calcium and vitamin K2.

The gut may need to be repaired, with butter, coconut oil, Epsom salts baths, and either n-acetyl glucosamine or mushrooms. Good quality probiotics, with no rhamnosus in, are often helpful.

Please cite references for your statements and consider the levels of evidence. 

You may be interested in this study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24524383

The design of this study, in which one group was given counseling and the other group no intervention, it is as likely possible that the counseling interaction itself was what led to the differences between the groups. From this study it is not possible to conclude that a plant based diet is at all the reason for the differences in "improves depression, anxiety, and productivity". 

Since the vegans primarly depend in their diet on vegetables, fruits, legumes and vegetable oils this means that the high stress levels caused by meats as several studies show that above 120g of meat per day aids in causing colon cancer, so replacing meat by legumes and seeds will strengthen automatically their colon due that they are good source of fibers, and since vegans have limited choices so they focus on eating vegetables and plants where they are the source of chlorophyll where the center of it is magnisium, good amounts of magnisium consumed with natural chilaters such as lemon cause more muscle relaxation and vasodilation which will relieve a lot of the stress, but an important note must be taken in to consideration is that a vegan must not consume a lot of salt and sugars since we all know that they increase level stress. 

Oh yeah , very  good  point , Fatima !

 Thanks 

Youre most welcomed :D

Food colourants, nitrate and nitrite were the main drive for hyperactivity and non-communicable disease for children. Please find that in my article here

Presentation Analysis of the content, colourants, fats, nitrate and nitri...