Research
Hormonal
Psychosocial stress and depression enhance postprandial inflammation and metabolic dysregulation (postprandial lipemia) by altering vagal tone, slowing triglyceride clearance, and increasing proinflammatory cytokine production.
Manage stress levels to mitigate their negative impact on post-meal metabolism. Stress can increase inflammation and slow the clearance of fats from your blood after eating. Techniques to reduce stress may help improve metabolic health after meals.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Stress both enhances post-meal peaks and delays clearance... acute stress also slowed triglyceride clearance after an intravenously administered fat emulsion... stress alters gastroduodenal motility... vagal activation directly and profoundly influences metabolic responses to food
Why this rating
Supported by controlled laboratory studies showing acute stress effects on triglyceride clearance and inflammatory markers.
Source
Stress, Food, and Inflammation: Psychoneuroimmunology and Nutrition at the Cutting Edge
Janice K. Kiecolt‐Glaser · Psychosomatic Medicine · 2010
DOI 10.1097/psy.0b013e3181dbf489
narrative_reviewCited 308×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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