Mireille said:
If I rely on my body to convert dietary fat into energy, will this satisfy my body's requirement in a fight/flight situation? In other words, will sufficient energy be available in time in such a situation?
Hi,
I don't think it matters what you eat, if you sense danger then your body will react. This explains the body's response. If someone was dehydrated or starving then their body would still react but they would not be able to perform very well.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/fear2.htm
The fight or flight may have been of use when confronted by a sabre tooth tiger but I am sure that many did not make it and were killed. Today the fight or flight is used in a different way by most of us unless a dangerous situation happens.
Think how road rage works. We would like to punch the offending driver on the nose and we get all worked up. We rant and moan and do nothing, well the majority of us do nothing. The fight response has come into play but we cannot release the chemicals. It is the same if your boss is driving you mad with petty comments and criticisms. You cannot tell him what to do with his job as you need your wages to look after the family. Once again the chemicals are building up in our body and we have to grin and bear it or walk out and wish we hadn't at a later date. Another example could be that your surly neighbour repeatedly blocks the entrance to your house with his car. You get all the chemicals pumping around and you can either confront him probably resulting in fisticuffs or you can calm down and explain to him that you will take the matter further if he does not stop doing it.
This is how evolution has changed us and those chemicals are still released causing us stress, rapid heart beat, high blood pressure etc... but we have not got the dangers that our ancestors had.
Stress is a killer because we do not have a use for these chemicals, we are not going to confront or run from a sabre tooth tiger and so these chemicals have nowhere to be released but the modern equivalent is STRESS. IMHO.
