Influcence Oj Stress on Body Composition During Exam Preparation

INTRODUCTION:

Thanks to good eating habits, people can lead a healthy life. All these habits are related to the way in which people select a food, process it and consume it, since it must provide our body with the necessary nutrients so that it is later able to perform vital functions. To have a healthy diet it depends on a series of factors such as food processing, eating time and stress and anxiety. Eating a healthy diet helps to prevent diseases such as hypertension, cancer, anemia, obesity and osteoporosis.

Young people from their childhood acquire a series of habits that they build throughout their lives according to the style they have, being influenced by their culture, customs and beliefs, among others. All this can generate food tastes and certain behaviors that can favor or harm true healthy practices. Nowadays, the population is consuming more and more fast food (ultra-processed foods, high in fat and sugar) and is increasingly sedentary, since it occupies most of its free time in activities that include the use of screens, video consoles and mobile phones. This sedentary lifestyle causes negative consequences, both physical and social. A healthy diet always has to be linked to exercise. It should be done daily, avoiding physical inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle.

Physical exercise plays a very important role in the body. As the amount of physical exercise we do increases, our respiratory system improves lung capacity and we are less likely to contract respiratory diseases. Physical exercise also improves mental hygiene, (it helps us to reduce that stress or anxiety we suffer), so it is essential to do sports when students have exams as this will help them to increase our level of concentration.

Stress is a short-term response of the human body to a threatening situation. When it appears, it causes alterations in diet and physical exercise. We can find two manifestations of stress: organic and psychological. In the latter, there is academic stress, which is the focus of this research. It is defined as a physiological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral activation reaction to stimuli and academic events. Students are the population most at risk of leading an unhealthy life because they undergo numerous exams every year that in one way or another cause them stress. Most of the time this stress is a consequence of competitiveness (competing to be better) of the objectives set by the student (getting a job as soon as possible, being able to opt for the desired university career, managing time well to be able to prepare many subjects at the same time, etc.).or because of the unachieved objectives that frustration entails. This stress can also be increased by an overload of work, since they not only have to study for exams, but also have to go to practices, talks or do work in each subject. All this increased stress can be detrimental in the future.