Boosting Mental Wellness through Diet
- Eat regularly. This can stop your blood sugar level from dropping, which can make you feel tired and bad-tempered.
- Stay hydrated. Even mild dehydration can affect your mood, energy level, and ability to concentrate.
- Eat the right balance of fats. Your brain needs healthy fats to keep working well. They're found in things such as olive oil, rapeseed oil, nuts, seeds, oily fish, avocados, milk and eggs. Avoid trans fats - often found in processed or packaged foods - as they can be bad for your mood and your heart health.
- Include more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables in your diet. They contain the vitamins and minerals your brain and body need to stay well.
- Include some protein with every meal. It contains an amino acid that your brain uses to help regulate your mood.
- Look after your gut health. Your gut can reflect how you're feeling: if you're stressed, it can speed up or slow down. Healthy food for your gut includes fruit, vegetables, beans, and probiotics.
- Be aware of how caffeine can affect your mood. It can cause sleep problems, especially if you drink it close to bedtime, and some people find it makes them irritable and anxious too. Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, cola, energy drinks, and chocolate. (Sourced from Mental Health Foundation).
- Eatwell guide for a detailed reference on how to achieve a healthy diet.
- Tips on managing your mood with food, and what foods to avoid when on certain medications.
- Healthy Eating Tips
- What is your diet?
- What is one food you want to try or cut out?
Hopie. Interested in sending a Listener Coach Request or to be a Verified Listener, send me a PM
@HopieRemi Why rapeseed oil when it's so high in a fairly toxic compound? Canola is a safer choice. I find it odd it's linked. I actually had rapeseed listed as an ingredient for something I was working on and couldn't even access it due to it's toxicity with my ordering options at the time.
@AffyAvo I linked it because I didn't know what it was when I read the scholarly article that mentioned it or the website that mentioned it so I googled it and linked it, in case anyone else didn't know what it was. Of course, diet differs for everyone depending on your allergies, tolerances, and you have to advise a doctor or dietician before making any large adjustments. If there are healthier alternatives, that is even better. But in the context, it is simply listed as an example of things that can be used. Canola as a substitute is good.
Hopie. Interested in sending a Listener Coach Request or to be a Verified Listener, send me a PM
@HopieRemi You probably haven't heard of it as it's been banned in the US and Canada as a food for quite some time. For something about healthy eating, it really shouldn't be included.
Other things seem a bit odd too like the mention of eating protein becausse "It contains an amino acid that your brain uses to help regulate your mood". Proteins are made up of amino acids, different amino acids are in different proteins - it's the reason vegetarians often pay attention to 'complete proteins' - it's about getting all the amino acids we can't produce ourselves.
The optimum amounts are also oddly specific despite being for a range of foods, and everyone has different needs. They also seem very small. For fruit, that's about 2 apples, that's it. 60 g isn't going to go far when snacking on snap pea pods.
@AffyAvo That explains it, the source that named that seed was from the UK website. Again, it is important to consult dieticians. Those numbers came from dietican research in the scholarly article I had to read for college. I can see how I can share a PDF with you if you want to read it, I didn't include everything they said as some of it was more scientific.
I got the numbers from this The optimum needs to be discussed with a dietician to see how much you need based on your body
I added a disclaimer to the thread
Hopie. Interested in sending a Listener Coach Request or to be a Verified Listener, send me a PM
Here's a link to the study where the optimal levels came from. https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(19)30041-8/fulltext
@AffyAvo Thanks for sharing!
Hopie. Interested in sending a Listener Coach Request or to be a Verified Listener, send me a PM
@HopieRemi hi! thanks very much for this post. I strongly believe that gut health can really have a big impact on someones mental wellbeing and have personally experienced that shift as well. Great topic!
You’re welcome and thank you, @AveryLove gut health is definitely important. I know when my stomach hurts , I don’t feel great mentally