Nutrition · Stress & Hormones

Foods That Raise Cortisol: What to Limit, Better Swaps & Habits

The foods and drinks that push cortisol up, from a third cup of coffee and a nightly drink to sugar and white flour, how each one works in your body, and the swaps and eating habits that keep your stress rhythm steady.

By Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS·22-min read

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Evidence-based35 sources citedUpdated November 9, 2026

Published Nov 9, 2026Last updated Nov 9, 2026Editorial policyMedical review policyFact-checking policy

Fried food, white buns and sweet drinks, several of the foods that keep cortisol running high.

Foods that raise cortisol at a glance

The foods that raise cortisol most clearly are excess caffeine, especially after lunch, and alcohol, followed by added sugar, refined white-flour carbs, ultra-processed and deep-fried foods and salty packaged foods, and you keep your cortisol rhythm steady by building each meal around protein, fiber and healthy fat and swapping the triggers for foods that calm your stress response.1 2 3

Caffeine equal to about 2 to 3 cups of coffee raised cortisol 30% within an hour in a trial of 47 young men who each tried caffeine and a placebo, so keep coffee to 1 or 2 cups (3 at most), in the morning, with or after food1 4
For alcohol, my recommendation is none, or 1 to 2 drinks a week at most, because heavier drinking goes with higher cortisol and a flatter daily rhythm5 2
Sugar and refined carbs set up a crash your brain reads as an emergency, and in a randomized trial of 37 men, a glucose drink, but not protein or fat, made the cortisol response to a stress test bigger6 3
Start the day with 30 to 40 grams of protein plus fiber such as berries, and finish dinner about three hours before bed6 7
Trade a third coffee for green tea or matcha, sweets for whole fruit with nuts and white bread for sprouted grains, and eat omega-3-rich fish: in a 4-month trial with cortisol data on 110 adults, 2.5 grams a day of omega-3 capsules lowered cortisol under stress by 19%4 8

The foods that raise cortisol most clearly are excess caffeine and alcohol, which controlled trials and large population studies tie directly to higher cortisol, followed by added sugar, refined white-flour carbs, ultra-processed and deep-fried foods and salty packaged foods, which mostly raise it by swinging your blood sugar and adding to the stress your body has to handle.1 2 3 What I see all the time is people trying to fix low energy in the morning with sugar and coffee, and that's a double hit for your cortisol.6

Cortisol is essential, and your adrenal glands release it on a daily rhythm, high in the morning to get you up and moving and low at night so you can sleep, and they release more whenever your brain senses a threat. What you eat and drink tells your brain whether you're safe, and when caffeine, a nightly drink or a blood-sugar crash keeps sounding the alarm, your adrenals keep answering and that healthy rhythm starts to lose its shape.9 1 2 Your body was designed to heal, though, and when you take those stressors off your plate, the rhythm has room to come back, which makes food one of the simplest places to start.

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Below, you'll find how each of these foods works in your body, ranked from the most direct link to the least, then the eating habits that do the same thing, the swaps that work better and the other daily steps that bring your rhythm back. For the hormone itself, including normal ranges and how to test, see our guide to cortisol levels.

Every sugar crash is a cortisol alarm. We have to balance blood sugar.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSFrom 7 Science-Backed Ways to Lower Your Cortisol Fast, The Dr. Josh Axe Show (2026), at 16:35

Which foods raise cortisol?

Quick answer

The main cortisol-triggering foods are excess caffeine, alcohol, added sugar and sweet drinks, refined white-flour carbs, ultra-processed and deep-fried foods, and salty packaged foods.1 2 3 Caffeine and alcohol have the most direct evidence, sugar and refined carbs work mainly through the blood-sugar crash and a bigger response to the next stress, and the rest are linked to higher cortisol in studies of large groups of people.10 11

Your own adrenal glands make your cortisol, so when people ask which foods produce it, the real answer is that foods change how much those glands release. The table shows how each trigger works and how strong the evidence is, from trials that measured cortisol directly to studies that found a link across large groups of people.

Food or drink	How it raises cortisol	Strength of the evidence
Excess caffeine, especially after lunch	Sets off the brain-to-adrenal stress chain directly, and an afternoon dose still raises cortisol in daily coffee drinkers	Strong: placebo-controlled trials that measured cortisol1 12
Alcohol	Heavy drinking sessions raise cortisol, and regular heavier drinking goes with a flatter daily rhythm	Moderate: a large population study and studies of drinking sessions2 13
Added sugar and sweet drinks	Sugar makes your cortisol response to stress bigger, and a crash that takes blood sugar too low reads as an emergency	Emerging: small trials that measured cortisol3 14
Refined white-flour carbs	The same fast rise and fall in blood sugar	Emerging: the same glucose trials3
Ultra-processed and deep-fried foods	Sugar, refined flour and refined oils in one package	Emerging: one large population study of hair cortisol10
Salty packaged and fast foods	Higher sodium intake goes with higher cortisol output	Emerging: one population study of 370 adults11

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How do foods affect cortisol levels?

Quick answer

Foods change how much cortisol your adrenal glands release, mostly through your blood sugar: sugar in your system makes the cortisol response to stress bigger, and when blood sugar falls too low, your brain calls for more cortisol.3 6 9 Caffeine and heavy drinking act on the same brain-to-adrenal chain more directly.1 13

Cortisol comes from your adrenal glands, two small glands that sit on top of your kidneys, and your brain controls it through a chain of command called the HPA axis. Your hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland, the pituitary releases a messenger hormone called ACTH, and ACTH tells the adrenals to make cortisol.1 On a healthy day, that chain follows the light. As I've said on my show, God created the sun to rise and set, and cortisol should rise as the sun rises and settle as it sets.7

Cortisol works a lot like a smoke alarm. It's meant to sound when there's a real fire, help you deal with it and then go quiet, and a day of sugar crashes, extra coffee and an evening drink keeps setting it off over burnt toast.

Food reaches this system mostly through your blood sugar. When blood sugar falls too low, your brain reads that as an emergency and your adrenals produce more cortisol, because cortisol is one of the hormones your body releases to bring low blood sugar back up.6 9 A breakfast of sugar or white flour sends blood sugar up fast and then down hard, and sugar also makes you react harder to whatever stress comes next, which the trials in the sugar section below measured directly.3

Caffeine and alcohol act on the same chain more directly. Caffeine raises ACTH first and cortisol right behind it, the same order your body follows under stress, which is why the researchers who tested it in 47 young men called the response stress-like.1 Heavy drinking activates that chain too, and regular heavier drinking goes with a cortisol curve that falls less across the day than it should.13 2

This matters well beyond stress, because cortisol and insulin travel together. When cortisol goes up, insulin rises with it, so if you want to fix your blood sugar, along with diet, the other thing you have to fix is cortisol.7

When the stress never lets up, the rhythm itself changes shape: a morning that never really gets going, a wall in the afternoon and a second wind at 11 at night.6 Many people, me included, call that pattern adrenal fatigue.4 Many endocrinologists don't use the term, because the adrenal glands haven't failed the way they do in a true hormone deficiency, but the rhythm can be measured with saliva samples taken across the day,2 and it can be improved.7

Here's how a sugar crash plays out in your body:

1A fast sugar hit

A sugary drink or a white-flour breakfast sends blood sugar up fast, and in one trial, 100 grams of glucose took fasting men from 64.9 to 162.5 mg/dL.14

2The drop reads as an emergency

When blood sugar falls too low, your brain treats it as a threat, and cortisol is one of the hormones your body releases to bring it back up.6 9

3The brain-to-adrenal chain fires

The pituitary releases ACTH and the adrenals answer with cortisol.1

4The next stress hits harder

With sugar in your system, a stressful moment brings a bigger cortisol response, which protein and fat didn't do.3

5Insulin rises with cortisol

Cortisol raises blood sugar by design and insulin follows it, so a steady cortisol rhythm and steady blood sugar go together.7

6The steady path

Protein, fat and fiber at breakfast keep the curve level, so the alarm stays quiet through the morning.6

Foods that raise cortisol

These are the six groups of foods that raise cortisol, ranked by how directly the research ties each one to the hormone. They line up closely with the list in my Stress, Anxiety & Mood Protocol, where energy drinks and coffee after noon, alcohol, sugar and sweetened drinks, ultra-processed snacks, skipped meals and late-night eating are the things I have people cut for the first 30 days, because they drive the blood-sugar and sleep swings that feel like anxiety.15

Excess caffeine, especially after lunch

Strong evidenceHuman studyPlacebo-controlled trials of 47 young men and of 96 adults, each person tried caffeine and a placebo · sleep study of 12 adults · morning coffee study of 29 adults

Caffeine is the most direct way to raise cortisol from your cup. In a placebo-controlled trial of 47 healthy young men, each of whom tried both caffeine and a placebo, a dose of 3.3 mg per kilogram of body weight, about the caffeine in 2 to 3 cups of coffee, raised ACTH and then cortisol, and 60 minutes later cortisol was 30% higher than on placebo.1

Your body gets used to daily caffeine, but only partway, which is one more reason coffee belongs in the morning. In a placebo-controlled trial of 96 healthy young adults who each spent five days at a time on no caffeine, 300 mg a day or 600 mg a day, daily caffeine stopped a 250 mg dose at 9 a.m. from raising cortisol, but another 250 mg at 1 p.m. still raised it.12 In the same trial, whose volunteers normally drank 1 to 5 cups of coffee a day, caffeine also made the cortisol rise during a mental stress test bigger.16 Late caffeine costs you sleep as well: when 12 healthy sleepers each tried 400 mg of caffeine at bedtime, 3 hours before bed and 6 hours before bed, as well as a placebo, every timing disrupted their sleep compared with the placebo, even 6 hours out.17

How you drink it matters too, and I teach that coffee on an empty stomach spikes cortisol and blood sugar even more.4 A randomized study of 29 young adults who each tried three different mornings measured what black coffee before a sugary drink does to blood sugar: after a night of broken sleep, about 300 mg of caffeine as black coffee pushed their peak blood sugar to 8.96 mmol/L (about 161 mg/dL), against 8.23 mmol/L (about 148 mg/dL) after the same broken sleep without coffee.18

If you tolerate it, coffee can be a healing food. The safe range for most people is about 1 to 2, maybe up to 3, cups a day, and 4 or more I don't recommend for anybody.4 For most of my patients with a health issue, I recommend coffee in the morning only, and it needs to be the right type of coffee, organic, with a little food or a little coconut milk or MCT oil.4 For the afternoon, decaf gives you the flavor and the ritual without the late caffeine.4

Alcohol and excess caffeine, especially later in the afternoon, will absolutely throw off your cortisol curve.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSFrom The Truth About Cortisol Face and The Exact Steps To Fix It, The Dr. Josh Axe Show (2026), at 22:01

About 2 to 3 cups' worth of caffeine raised cortisol 30% within an hour

Source: Lovallo et al. · Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 1996 [1]ACTH, the pituitary's signal to the adrenals, rose first and cortisol followed, the same order your body uses under stress.

Alcohol, especially heavier drinking

Moderate evidenceHuman studyPopulation study of 3,670 adults (2,693 men, 977 women), one day of saliva samples · review of drinking-session studies

Alcohol raises cortisol most clearly as people drink more. A review of the research found that in social drinkers, a drinking session usually raises cortisol, particularly once blood alcohol passes 0.10%, a level above the U.S. driving limit.13 Over time the daily pattern changes as well. In a study of 2,693 men and 977 women from a long-running British study of civil servants, the more the men drank each week, the higher their cortisol ran and the less it fell across the day; among the 738 women whose morning surge was analyzed, those who drank heavily had a morning cortisol surge of 14.15 nmol/L, against 8.69 nmol/L in those who drank moderately.2 That study measured everyone at one point in time, so it shows a link rather than cause and effect, and the link held after the researchers accounted for drinking on the day of the test.2

Alcohol also gets between you and the sleep that resets your rhythm, because it disrupts the normal sleep cycle and makes it harder to reach the deep stages of sleep.5 That's why my recommendation is generally no alcohol, or one to two drinks a week at most.5 If you don't drink, there's no health reason to start, and if you do, a glass of red wine with a meal in a relaxed setting is the way to enjoy it.

Women who drank heavily had a bigger morning cortisol surge

Source: Badrick et al. · Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2008 [2]The morning surge is the rise in cortisol in the first 30 minutes after you wake up, the part of the rhythm that gets you going. Heavy drinking meant 21 or more UK units of alcohol a week, about 12 U.S. drinks.

Added sugar and sweet drinks

Emerging evidenceHuman studyRandomized trial of 37 men · trial of 35 men · 2-week trial of 19 women

Sugar raises cortisol mostly through the crash it sets up and through the way it turns up your response to the next stress. In a randomized trial of 37 healthy men who had fasted for at least 8 hours, those who drank glucose an hour before a public-speaking stress test had a bigger cortisol rise than those who drank protein, fat or water, and the more their blood sugar rose, the bigger their cortisol response.3 An earlier trial in 35 young men found the same thing from another angle: glucose on its own, at rest, didn't raise cortisol, but glucose before the stress test led to a large cortisol response, while water didn't.14

Sugar can also feel calming in the moment, which is part of why the habit sticks. In a 2-week trial of 19 women, in which neither the women nor the researchers knew who got what, drinks sweetened with table sugar three times a day dampened the cortisol response to stress compared with the same drinks sweetened with aspartame, and the researchers concluded that this soothing effect may keep people reaching for sugar.19 That's the loop to break, and the stress-eating habit below shows how.

Sweet drinks are the hardest on your blood sugar, because the sugar reaches your bloodstream with nothing to slow it down. Added sugar is one of the Sinister Six, the six foods I tell people to avoid in The Biblio Diet,20 so watch for hidden sugar in sauces, flavored yogurts and snack bars, and keep whole fruit, which comes packaged with its own fiber, on your plate.

Sugar turns the volume up on cortisol. Protein doesn't; it keeps cortisol balanced.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSFrom 7 Science-Backed Ways to Lower Your Cortisol Fast, The Dr. Josh Axe Show (2026), at 18:04

Refined white-flour carbs

Emerging evidenceHuman studyThe same glucose trials of 37 and 35 men

White bread, pasta, crackers, pastries and boxed cereal turn into glucose quickly, so they set off the same rise and fall in blood sugar as sugar itself. The cortisol trials used a glucose drink rather than bread, so the link to refined carbs rests on that same fast rise in blood sugar.3 14

When I look at why someone's blood sugar is out of balance, the number one reason is just poor diet: eating out too much, eating too many carbohydrates, and not getting enough protein, fiber, fruits and vegetables.7 Processed white flour is another of the Sinister Six.20 Choose sprouted-grain bread or a true sourdough, sweet potatoes and beans instead, and eat your carbs alongside protein and vegetables, which slows them down.

Ultra-processed and deep-fried foods

Emerging evidenceHuman studyPopulation study of 2,525 adults, cortisol measured in hair

Ultra-processed foods combine several triggers in one package: added sugar, refined flour, refined oils and a long list of additives. In a study of 2,525 Brazilian adults that measured the cortisol stored in their hair, which reflects the past few months, people with high hair cortisol had 61% higher odds of being in the middle third for ultra-processed food, getting 13.78% to 21.60% of their calories from it, rather than the lowest third.10 The top third showed no such link, so the pattern isn't a straight line, and a study at one point in time can't prove cause and effect.10

Ultra-processed and hydrogenated seed oils are on the Sinister Six list as well.20 Deep-fried foods belong in this group because of those refined oils, so I recommend going easy on refined and deep-fried seed oils and building your kitchen on olive oil and avocado oil, and baked, roasted or air-fried versions of your favorite fried foods make an easy swap.

Processed meats such as hot dogs, deli meats, salami and sausage are ultra-processed too. The World Health Organization's cancer agency classifies processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen and red meat as Group 2A.21 As I've said on my show, the studies that link red meat to poor health mostly reflect grain-fed and processed meat, not the fresh, grass-fed red meat I recommend.22 Swap the packaged meats for eggs, wild-caught fish, pasture-raised chicken or grass-fed beef you cook yourself.

Salty packaged and fast foods

Emerging evidenceHuman studyPopulation study of 370 adults, most with high blood pressure

The salt that matters for cortisol is mostly the sodium hidden in packaged, canned, restaurant and fast food. In a study of 370 adults, most of them women and 72% with high blood pressure, the more sodium people passed in their urine, the more cortisol they made, and the high-sodium group had more high blood pressure (81% against 50%) and more metabolic syndrome (69% against 41%) than people with adequate intake, a link seen at one point in time in a group already at high risk.11

I'm not against salt, and a little sea salt on your food is fine; you should be getting that. Fast food and excess electrolytes won't help, though, and a diet high in salt, processed food and sugar also makes your body hold on to fluid.7 Season real food with unrefined salt, and cut back on the foods high in sodium that come in cans, boxes and drive-through bags, such as canned soup, frozen dinners, deli meats and salty snacks.

Dietary habits that raise cortisol

Quick answer

The eating habits that raise cortisol are skipping meals, cutting calories too hard, a sugary breakfast with no protein, big meals late at night, not drinking enough water, running low on key nutrients and stress eating. Each one drops your blood sugar, adds to the stress your body has to handle or pushes cortisol up at the wrong time of day.

How and when you eat matters as much as what's on the plate. The caffeine, alcohol and processed-food habits are covered above, and these are the seven other patterns that keep the alarm going off.

Skipping meals

Going long stretches without food can push cortisol up and throw its daily rhythm off. In a study of 65 women aged 18 to 45 that followed their own eating habits rather than assigning them, the 30 who habitually skipped breakfast had higher cortisol from the morning into mid-afternoon, a bigger cortisol response to lunch and a flatter daily rhythm than the 35 who ate breakfast, along with higher blood pressure, even though their weight and self-reported stress were no different.23 Our guide to skipping breakfast covers the rest of what's known.

A planned fast is different from a skipped meal, and intermittent fasting done on purpose has its place. Women are more hormonally sensitive to calorie restriction than men, though, and do best avoiding extended fasts, especially in the week before a period.24 On most days, eat every four to five hours and make each meal real food.15

Cutting calories too hard

Dieting hard is a stress your body notices. In a randomized trial of 115 women, with full follow-up on 99 of them, three weeks on 1,200 calories a day raised their total cortisol output, mostly in the evening, while simply tracking calories raised how stressed they felt without changing their cortisol.25 Another thing I see on occasion is undereating. If you want to lose weight, the better path is a gentle deficit: reduce your calories by about 300 a day and hold that steady.7

A sugary breakfast with no protein

Breakfast sets the shape of your cortisol curve for the day. A sugary breakfast looks like it helps at first, but then it causes your cortisol curve to crash down and flatline, while protein, fat and fiber create the ideal rhythm.6 The ideal breakfast I teach is 30 to 40 grams of protein, from eggs, grass-fed beef, a plant protein or collagen protein, plus some fiber such as berries.6

Big meals late at night

Eating late keeps your body working when cortisol should be winding down. In a randomized trial of 20 healthy adults who each ate the same dinner at 6 p.m. and at 10 p.m., with bedtime at 11, the late dinner brought higher blood sugar afterward, less fat burning and higher cortisol, and the effects were strongest in people who usually went to bed early.26 If you go to bed at 10, I want dinner eaten by 7 at the latest, a three-hour gap.7

Not drinking enough water

Water may matter more for your stress response than you'd expect. In a 2025 study of 32 healthy adults, half drank little day to day, about 1.3 liters (about 5½ cups), and half drank a lot, about 4.4 liters (about 18½ cups). During a stress test both groups felt equally anxious and their hearts sped up the same, but cortisol rose significantly only in the low drinkers, 6.2 nmol/L against 4.0 nmol/L.27 Several of the researchers worked for a bottled-water company.27 An older study of 10 active men found that light exercise in 91°F heat while dehydrated by 3.8% of body weight didn't change cortisol, so the link seems to be about how you respond to stress rather than dehydration on its own.28 Keep water with you through the day, and lean on hydrating foods such as cucumbers, citrus and melon.

Running low on key nutrients

Your adrenals and nervous system run on nutrients that stress burns through. If your body is deficient in certain B vitamins, it stresses your adrenal glands, and if your cells don't have magnesium, it's hard for your body to relax.7 Vitamin C matters for adrenal function too, and among the B vitamins, B6 and folate matter most here.7 In a placebo-controlled trial of 120 healthy young adults, 108 of whom were analyzed, 3,000 mg of vitamin C a day for 14 days brought a smaller jump in systolic blood pressure during a stress test (23 against 31 mmHg) and a faster cortisol recovery afterward, though the overall cortisol response was about the same.29 Citrus, bell peppers and other vitamin C foods cover that need well.

Omega-3 fats show the clearest effect on cortisol. In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 138 sedentary, overweight, middle-aged adults, with cortisol analyzed in 110 of them, 2.5 grams of omega-3s a day for 4 months lowered cortisol during a stress test by 19% and the inflammatory messenger IL-6 by 33% compared with placebo, while a 1.25-gram dose didn't change cortisol; the supplement maker provided the capsules free of charge.8 A much smaller study of 7 healthy men, with no comparison group, found that 3 weeks of fish oil at 7.2 grams a day blunted the rise in cortisol and adrenaline during mental stress.30 For omega-3s, I recommend 2 to 3 grams of EPA and DHA a day, and omega-3 foods such as wild salmon, sardines and mackerel are the place to start.7

Omega-3s lowered cortisol during stress by 19%

Source: Madison et al. · Molecular Psychiatry, 2021 [8]Cortisol was measured in saliva through a public-speaking stress test, before and after the 4 months.

Stress eating

Reaching for food when you're stressed sets up a loop. Sweet comfort food can quiet the stress response for a while, as the 2-week sugar trial in the sugar section showed, which teaches your brain to reach for it again, and then the crash sets off the alarm.19 The way out is to deal with the stress itself, which the next sections cover, and to have a steadier snack ready, such as an apple with almond butter or a handful of nuts. Our guide on how to stop stress eating has more ways to break the cycle.

The stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas stacks most of these triggers at once, with more sweets, more drinks, later dinners and fuller calendars. You can enjoy the celebrations and still protect your rhythm: eat a protein breakfast on party days, have dessert after a meal rather than on an empty stomach, keep to one or two drinks across the week and guard your bedtime.

Cortisol-friendly food swaps to make

A swap keeps the moment, the coffee break or the evening treat, and changes what fills it, which is far easier to live with than giving foods up. Each of these trades a trigger for a food that steadies your blood sugar or supports your stress response.

Instead of	Try	Why it helps
Sugary snacks and sweets	Whole fruit with a handful of nuts or seeds	Fiber, fat and protein slow the sugar down
White bread, pasta and pastries	Sprouted-grain or sourdough bread, sweet potatoes, beans	A slower rise and fall in blood sugar
A sugary breakfast	30 to 40 grams of protein with berries6	A steadier morning curve
A third coffee or an energy drink	Green tea, matcha or holy basil (tulsi) tea	Less caffeine, with L-theanine in green tea for calmer energy4
Soda and sweet tea	Sparkling water with lemon or lime	No sugar spike
Fried foods	Foods baked, roasted or air-fried in avocado or olive oil	Fewer refined, reheated oils
Packaged snacks and processed meats	Nuts, seeds, goat or sheep yogurt or kefir, coconut yogurt, eggs	Real food with protein and fat
Evening sweets	A little dark chocolate (85% cacao or higher) or a mug of bone broth	Calmer stress response and calming glycine31 7

For myself, I drink a lot of green tea and matcha, and green tea contains L-theanine, which helps promote a calm, sustained energy.4 A little dark chocolate makes a better evening treat than candy, too. In a placebo-controlled trial of 65 healthy men, 50 grams of 72% dark chocolate eaten 2 hours before a stress test blunted the rise in cortisol and adrenaline compared with a placebo chocolate without the cocoa flavonoids; the chocolate maker supplied both bars.31 Bone broth is the other evening option I suggest, because it's high in glycine, which helps calm the body.7 For the full list of foods that help, see our guide to foods that lower cortisol.

Other ways to manage cortisol

Food is one part of the picture, and a few daily habits work right alongside it. Anchor your morning with 10 to 15 minutes of sunlight, ideally within 30 minutes of waking and on a quick 10-minute walk, which helps set your cortisol for the day.7 Protect the night by keeping your room dark and cool and bringing screen time down as early as you can, and calm your nervous system after dinner with 2 minutes of slow breathing, in for 5 seconds, a 1-second hold and out for 5 to 7 seconds.7 Keep exercise in balance as well, because overexercising, constant high-intensity training, fasting, undersleeping and too much caffeine are all forms of stress on your body.6

Diet is incredibly important, but emotional stress is still the single biggest thing I see throwing cortisol off.7 That's why I encourage a daily spiritual triathlon: take your 10-minute morning walk in the sunlight, spend 5 minutes of it saying everything you're grateful for and 5 minutes praying, then read your Bible for 5 minutes when you get inside.7 Learn to say no, set boundaries and give the things you can't control to God. Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

God did not create you to carry everything on your shoulders.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSFrom The Truth About Cortisol Face and The Exact Steps To Fix It, The Dr. Josh Axe Show (2026), at 36:13

Adaptogens can support all of this. Ashwagandha is an adaptogen that helps your body adapt to stress, and I recommend 600 mg a day, taken as 300 mg twice a day.7 If major fatigue comes with your cortisol imbalance, rhodiola is the best herb for that, taken in the morning, and holy basil, used in Ayurvedic medicine, works well as a daily tea; I'll often have turmeric and tulsi tea together.7

Bloodwork that shows the blood-sugar side of your cortisol

Blood sugar is the main way food reaches your cortisol, and two markers show how your body has been handling it. A single blood draw can't map your cortisol rhythm across the day, which takes saliva samples, but it can show whether high blood sugar or high insulin is part of the picture.

HbA1c: Your average blood sugar over the past few months. The optimal range is 4.8% to 5.3%.
Fasting insulin: How hard your body works to keep blood sugar steady, and the hormone that rises with cortisol.7 The optimal range is 2 to 8 µIU/mL.

Have results? Analyze them free →

Who should be careful changing how they eat for cortisol?

Changing how you eat to calm your cortisol is safe for most people, and a few situations call for extra care.

Before you change how you eat for cortisol

Signs that point beyond food. Rapid weight gain around the face and middle with purple stretch marks or easy bruising, or deep fatigue with dizziness, salt cravings and weight loss, calls for testing by a doctor before any diet change, and suspected low cortisol should never be treated on your own.
Blood-sugar medication. If you take insulin or another drug that lowers blood sugar, cutting carbs, skipping meals or fasting can drop your blood sugar too far, so adjust your doses with your prescriber before you change how you eat.
Heavy daily drinking. Stopping all at once after long, heavy drinking can bring dangerous withdrawal, including delirium, so cut back with medical help.32
Adaptogens. Skip ashwagandha during pregnancy and while nursing.33 Check with your practitioner before taking rhodiola in those times or either herb with any medication, and keep rhodiola to the morning, since it can be activating.
Caffeine in pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists treats under 200 mg of caffeine a day as moderate during pregnancy, about one 12-ounce cup of coffee, and tea, chocolate, energy drinks and soft drinks count too, so confirm your amount with your OB.34

The bottom line

Caffeine and alcohol raise cortisol most directly, sugar and white flour do it mostly through your blood sugar, and ultra-processed and salty packaged foods go with higher cortisol too, so each one adds to the same alarm in the end.

The fix is the same for all of them: a protein breakfast, steady meals every four to five hours, coffee in the morning with food, little or no alcohol, dinner finished three hours before bed and real food in place of packages, backed up by morning light, slow breathing and time with God.

Your body was designed to keep cortisol on a healthy rhythm, rising with the morning and settling at night, and when you stop setting off the alarm, it can find that rhythm again. Start with one swap this week, and let the next one build on it.

Bring your cortisol rhythm back, one phase at a time

The free Stress, Anxiety & Mood Protocol starts with the protein breakfast, steady meals and morning light that calm the alarm, then walks you through what comes next.

Free with your Dr. Axe account (email or Google). You'll also get the protocol's short email series and the Dr. Axe newsletter; unsubscribe anytime.

Start the free protocol →

Foods that raise cortisol: frequently asked questions

What foods raise cortisol the most?

The four foods that raise cortisol most clearly are excess caffeine, alcohol, added sugar and refined white-flour carbs, with ultra-processed, deep-fried and salty packaged foods close behind. Caffeine has the most direct evidence: in a placebo-controlled trial of 47 young men who each tried caffeine and a placebo, a dose equal to about 2 to 3 cups of coffee raised cortisol 30% within an hour.1

Does coffee raise cortisol?

Yes, coffee raises cortisol, most of all when you drink more than usual or drink it later in the day. In a placebo-controlled trial of 96 healthy young adults who each tried every caffeine schedule, five days of daily caffeine stopped a 250 mg dose at 9 a.m. from raising cortisol, but another 250 mg at 1 p.m. still did.12 Keep coffee to 1 or 2 cups, 3 at most, in the morning with or after food.4

Does alcohol raise cortisol?

Yes, alcohol raises cortisol, mainly at heavier amounts. A review found that a drinking session usually raises cortisol, particularly once blood alcohol passes 0.10%, and in a population study of 2,693 British men measured at one point in time, cortisol ran higher and fell less across the day the more the men drank each week.13 2 My recommendation is no alcohol, or one to two drinks a week at most.5

Can skipping meals increase cortisol?

Yes, skipping meals can raise cortisol and flatten its daily rhythm. In a study of 65 women that followed their own habits, the 30 who habitually skipped breakfast had higher cortisol into the afternoon and a flatter daily rhythm than the 35 who ate breakfast.23 A planned fast is different, and on most days eating every four to five hours keeps the rhythm steady.15

Are all carbs bad for cortisol?

No, whole, fiber-rich carbs such as vegetables, fruit, sweet potatoes, beans and sprouted whole grains are fine for cortisol, because they don't hit your bloodstream all at once. Refined carbs and sugar are the problem: in a randomized trial of 37 healthy men, a glucose drink before a stress test made the cortisol response bigger, while protein and fat didn't.3 Eat your carbs with protein and fat.

Do any foods contain cortisol?

Only small amounts, such as the traces measured in cow's milk,35 and that isn't where your cortisol comes from; your adrenal glands make it, and foods change how much they release. Caffeine sets off that release through the brain-to-adrenal chain, and when blood sugar falls too low, your body releases cortisol to bring it back up.1 9

Can these foods cause adrenal fatigue?

They can contribute to it, because adrenal fatigue is the name for a cortisol rhythm worn down by long stress, and caffeine, alcohol and blood-sugar crashes all push on that rhythm. On my show, I've explained that caffeine stimulates cortisol release, which contributes to chronic stress, adrenal fatigue and hormone imbalance, and if you're dealing with adrenal fatigue, keep coffee to the morning or skip it.4

What are the signs of high cortisol?

Common signs of high cortisol include weight gain around the face and middle, feeling wired at night and tired in the morning, anxiety or irritability, brain fog, and rising blood pressure and blood sugar. The afternoon wall and the second wind at 11 at night are classic signs of a rhythm thrown off.6 Our guide to cortisol levels covers the full list and how to test.

Can foods that raise cortisol add belly fat?

They can contribute over time, because these foods keep cortisol and insulin up together, and when cortisol goes up, insulin rises with it.7 Late eating adds to it: in a randomized trial of 20 healthy adults who each ate the same dinner at 6 p.m. and at 10 p.m., the late dinner meant higher blood sugar, less fat burning and higher cortisol.26 Our guide on how to lose belly fat covers the full plan.

How do you raise low cortisol?

You support healthy cortisol output by protecting your sleep, keeping your blood sugar steady with protein at every meal and choosing gentle movement over hard training, so long fasts and overtraining aren't adding to the strain on your adrenals.6 Truly low cortisol is a different matter, and the warning signs in the safety section above are the ones to have tested.

Freshness & method note

November 9, 2026 — Rewrote the page in full under Dr. Axe's byline, replacing "Foods that Raise Cortisol: What to Avoid for Better Stress & Hormone Balance" (2026), which carried the byline of Ethan Boldt. Kept every section of the old page (how foods affect cortisol, the foods list, the eating habits, the swaps table, other ways to manage cortisol and the FAQs) and every food and habit on it, now with sources: the old page cited none. Changed, after checking his own guidance: the calorie deficit to about 300 a day (from 500 to 700), the caffeine cut-off to morning only (from 3 p.m.), and the swaps to sprouted grains and goat, sheep or coconut yogurt. Folded the caffeine, alcohol and processed-food habits into their food entries so each point appears once. Removed a supplement brand. Added the evidence behind each food and habit, a diagram of how a sugar crash raises cortisol, three charts, the research on the swaps, a bloodwork box for the blood-sugar markers, a section on who should be careful and six new FAQs.

References

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

Doctor of Natural Medicine · Founder, DrAxe.com

Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and multiple New York Times bestselling author. He has spent 20+ years in clinical practice helping people heal at the root cause and founded one of the most-visited natural-health platforms in the world.

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This article is for educational purposes. See our medical disclaimer.