It turns out that there’s no need to put up with extra stress in the morning. Here’s how to take the edge off when things seem too much. 

Call me crazy but I can literally feel the self-diagnosed high cortisol in my chest. It’s right there in the middle, and sits like a weight on top of my ribs that resettles itself each time I take a deep laboured breath. 

It’s like all the stress of a hectic life (that sent me grey at 24!) has gathered in my thorax and I can almost stroke the anxiety that lives under my skin. That's exactly what I told a nutritionist over a Christmas dinner party before she gave me some life-changing advice. 

Because according to her, I was partly to blame for this suffocation. 

But first, what’s cortisol? 

Cortisol is a hormone that’s produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress or anxiety (bingo), but it’s also an important part of our day and it’s got a pretty tight morning ritual. 

“In the early hours of the morning, your adrenals will start releasing cortisol to start waking you up,” Michaela Sparrow, a naturopath and clinical nutritionist, tells Body+Soul. “When you have a healthy cortisol response, you'll get a nice surge that's going to make you really alert and you'll jump out of bed ready to take on the day. 

“The cortisol will then keep spiking and peaking until around 10am and that’s when most people feel the most alert and the most energy. Then naturally through the day the cortisol will slow very gently and drop down in the evening and you'll get a big surge of melatonin, the sleep hormone, and that will drop the cortisol even more.”

But of course, cortisol is also a “survival hormone”, which was super useful when our ancestors were regularly up against life-or-death situations.

“When your brain identifies a danger – primarily that would be a sabre-toothed tiger but a danger today might be like running late for work and you’re stressed and rushing around – that activates your sympathetic nervous system response – your fight or flight – which then triggers a cortisol surge,” Sparrow explains. 

That boost then gives you lots of energy “so you can run for your life”.  But in a modern context, most of the time that’s not necessary. “Stress today is where we're unhappy in our job or we don't like our boss, so our bodies are identifying a danger before we even get to work and triggering that cortisol release,” says the nutritionist. 

The danger of skipping breakfast

So there I was, chatting over cocktails to Sparrow (who's all about the 80/20 approach to healthy eating, because you have to leave room for fun) about fasting and how I try not to eat before midday. She looked horrified, and then went on to explain how that would be causing my cortisol to spike even further. 

“Our brain knows that we've got about 12 hours from [the] exposure [to] light before we have to go to bed, and where would we get this energy from (if we didn't eat)?” the expert asks. “Well, cortisol gives you that big dump of blood sugar, right? So that's our energy.”

Except for the fact that it’s more of a false level of energy, and that we’ll continue to have these surges of cortisol (that we shouldn't be having) throughout the day, which basically puts us into a constant fight-or-flight mode and our bodies get stuck there. 

“So we’ll always be looking for danger and we'll always be worried about something, and then we’ll stay in that chronic state of cortisol exposure and our body will become resistant to it,” Sparrow explains.

How eggs turned my day around

The idea that I was living in a permanent state of fight-or-flight hit hard, and it was enough to get me into the kitchen and eating breakfast. Soon I was cooking up eggs and avo every morning, and things changed immediately. 

It was like the food loosened the stress and anxiety that clung to my chest and I could breathe easier once again. I felt clearer in my head too, and not as overwhelmed by work.

“The number one way to lower cortisol is eating within one hour of waking, and also eating before exercise,” says Sparrow. “Because what happens is, especially with high-intensity exercise, your body's got to release that cortisol to give you that energy. So what I say to my clients is either you eat breakfast within one hour of waking, or you have a pre-breakfast snack. So just a small amount of something to protect your adrenal response and protect your blood sugar, and then you can have a bigger meal later.”

What's an ideal pre-breakfast snack?

While I’ve now got the breakfast bit down pat, I’m still not across the snack before a morning run part, which isn’t good news when I’m training for a marathon. So what do I need to eat before heading out to exercise in the AM?

“You want a minimum of 10 grams of protein and you want some fat and fibre in there,” the nutritionist explains, such as "a little tub of yoghurt with a handful of nuts – that would be perfect.”

How about a protein shake? 

“You can definitely do something like a protein shake, but I would still want it to have a bit of yoghurt, a little bit of water, and some nuts in there,” recommends Sparrow. “And you wouldn't want to drink it too quickly. You want to drink it over a 10- or 15-minute period, because [drinking protein] can still spike your blood sugar.

“So the goal here is, when we're looking at stabilising your cortisol and keeping your body out of that stress state, you also want to stabilise that blood sugar because they are tightly interlinked. And when we look at longevity and healthspan, the number one key is blood sugar regulation because there's a correlation between eight of the top 10 leading causes of death and poor blood sugar regulation.”

What about a piece of fruit before a run? 

“That’s not enough because it doesn't have any protein or fat in it, and a straight-up banana by itself is only going to spike your blood sugar,” Sparrow says. “So you could definitely have a banana, but I would be having at least a tablespoon of nut butter or a handful of nuts as well. That would be the bare minimum.”

Or try a couple of boiled eggs or a cheese stick before exercising. 

A healthy breakfast 

When the exercise is done, you really want to get breakfast into you within 45 minutes and definitely no more than an hour. 

Sparrow also suggests avoiding too many carbohydrates and too much sugar in the morning, because that’s just going to spike your blood sugar and cause an insulin surge, which will then lead to a big blood sugar drop.

"Then you end up in this vicious cycle that will also dysregulate your cortisol,” Sparrow says. “So the best type of breakie is low carb and high protein with healthy fats and fibre.

"But when I say lower carb, it depends on the person. So for a weight loss client or someone with insulin resistance, that would be three or four eggs with any type of veggies you like and you can have a little bit of feta in there. That's my ideal – some type of egg dish, which is super easy to make, with a couple of eggs on some sourdough with some tomato and avocado.”

If you don't have insulin resistance, if you're not worried about weight, or if you're very physically fit or heavy-weight training, you could do a low GI breakfast option.

“That could be something like oats,” says Sparrow. “And I would cook them in water and then add yoghurt or cottage cheese to it with nuts and seeds, so there's some healthy fat in there, and a bit of whatever kind of sweetener you like. That would be a beautiful breakfast as well.”