We have these wonderful road-side shops in Canada called ‘Tim Horton’s’ where delicious coffee, donuts and other treats are available 24 hours a day.  Their drive-thru service has been an added bonus for many years too!  I ought to know…I used them a lot back in the day.  Without a doubt – my frequency of use had to be part in my demise.  Comfort food for sure.  Smart nutrition…not so much so, at least not in the early days before salads, soups and sandwiches hit the menu.

I feel it’s important to remind you that I am not a doctor, nor am I a nutritional expert.  I am a lay-person.  I will refer you back to the ‘fight/flight’ idea.  When your body is triggered to that state of readiness, your energy demands are understandably going to be high.  The hormones and juices being squirted into your system have to come from someplace.  We are not born with a life-time supply of what we’ll need – we must manufacture all of it as we go along.  I stumbled onto some information a number of years ago that identified the two major building blocks used in the manufacture of our stress response.  They are Vitamin C and B Complex. In fact, you can find stress specific products in just about any retail nutritional supplement aisle and the ingredient list on those bottles will no doubt contain a combination of Vitamin C and B Complex.

Let’s treat this nutritional idea like a bank account.  We consume foods that contain Vitamin C and B Complex compounds.  From this income, we create an account balance.  Then the brain identifies a stressor and activates the big control panel.  We go into fight or flight readiness using the resources we have on hand.  Replacement resources are then built from our Vitamin account.

• At the same time, we use Vitamin C and B Complex to metabolize sugar products  – this is an additional withdrawal from the vitamin account.
• Processed flour products also draw down specifically on our vitamin savings.
• Our consumption of pseudo-stressors like caffeine in coffee, cola, tea and energy drinks will create a ‘false fight/flight’ response – the net result is still a further depletion of the same account.

I admittedly consumed my fair share of ‘cop food’ (donuts and coffee) without realizing the impact for my own vitamin account.  It’s not a good idea to risk over drawing this particular bank account.  It turns out, that when the balance hits zero, the clinical results can be depression, anxiety and sleep disorders.  I’ve owned them all…really!

On a happier note, I now use a vitamin supplement, drink only decaf products, and allow myself  the very occasional apple fritter.  I’m still a big fan of Tim Horton’s, have a much healthier account balance, and to this moment in time – have managed to keep surviving the whole mess.