Researchers have revealed that too much stress can affect the benefits of a healthy diet by destroying good fats.

Fats are important for the body's energy reserves, and they also promote cell growth. Dietary fats are crucial to protecting the organs, and they keep the body warm, according to the American Heart Association.

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There are "bad fats" that can raise bad cholesterol levels in the body known as saturated and trans fats. On the other hand, "good fats" that lower these bad cholesterol levels are known as monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. Food like fish, nuts, and vegetables can provide "good" fats.

The lead author of the study Janice Kiecolt-Glaser of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and her team set out to investigate how stress and diet can be measured in the bloodstream and how it causes inflammation in the body.

Symptoms of inflammation in the body include heart disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.

During tests, researchers measured inflammation levels of 58 women who consumed two different meals. One meal consisted of high levels of saturated fats, and the other was a healthier version with high oleic sunflower oil.

The participants ate these meals on separate days with an interval of one week to four weeks apart. They also had 20 minutes to consume each meal and blood samples were taken from them before and after these meals.

The results revealed that the inflammation levels did increase when they ate saturated fats meal and decreased when they ate "good fats."

However, women who experienced a stressful event the day before the tests showed high inflammatory levels no matter what meal they consumed.

Kiecolt-Glaser noted that if women experience a stressful situation the day before, it does not matter what kind of meal they have since their inflammation markers will be high.

She added that stress directly interacts with the meal that the women eat and can lead to changes in their blood.

This study has been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.