If you are like many people, you probably struggle fromhigh levels of stress. This isn’t unusual, as just about everyone has some typeof stress in their life. Things like money, work, relationships, and just dailylife can cause stress.
This isn’t what is damaging to your health, but instead thehigh, overwhelming levels of stress you should be concerned about. It can behard to function on a normal level when you have this much stress in your life.
There are certain times during the year when you mightnotice it more severely, like the holidays or a time when something traumatichappened in your past. Instead of just trying to deal with it, why not overcomeit?
The first way to do this is by looking at your diet. Whatyou eat or don’t eat can have a large impact on the type of stress youexperience.
The following information will show you how you can eat ahealthier diet that includes foods and superfoods to help boost your mood,increase your happiness, and reduce stress levels all at the same time.
1. WhyYour Diet is Important
Before looking at some different tips for eating a healthydiet in order to help reduce stress and talking about individual foods that canhelp, let’s first look at why your diet is so important.
Many people don’t realize the type of impact their diet hason their health and wellness. What you eat or don’t eat doesn’t just affectyour weight, but can make a difference in the medical conditions you have,increase anxiety, and yes, cause or relieve stress.
There are some foods that are good to add to your dietbecause they help relieve stress, while others can be hard on your stress andoverall emotional health. When you are looking at eating a healthy diet, don’tjust consider macros like calories, fat and carbs, but really look at howdifferent types of foods can affect your stress levels.
Here are some things to consider:
Aimfor Vitamins, Minerals, and Well-Balanced Meals
A simple way to know that you are eating the right foodsfor helping to relieve stress instead of making it worse is to focus onbalance. Don’t try to eliminate too many foods, but make sure the foods you eatare healthy and quality. This means choosing complex carbohydrates like sweetpotatoes and whole grains, choosing fruits and vegetables with plenty ofvitamins and minerals, and adding in important nutrients like fiber wheneveryou can.
AvoidRestricting Diets, Unless Medically Necessary
You should also be careful with diets that are toorestricting. It is possible to eat a healthy diet and lose or maintain weight,without having to give up all your favorite things. While this might help youto lose a few pounds, it often ends up hurting you in the end. It createsemotional turmoil and heightened emotional stress because of how important foodand nutrition is in your daily life. You can actually have more stress when youare logging everything you eat and constantly looking up nutritional contentbefore you go to a restaurant with friends.
BeCareful with Stress Eating
As much as eating can help with stress, it can also hurtit. One thing you want to be really careful with is the cycle of stress eating.When you find that you crave certain types of foods when you have stress oranxiety, like sweets, salty or fried foods, it is often not from hunger butbecause you are feeding your emotions instead.
2. How Your Diet May be Hurting You
Another important thing to know about your diet and stresslevels, is that what you choose to eat might actually be making your stressworse. This isn’t just related to stress eating or lack of nutrients, butcertain types of foods that can increase your stress and make life miserably ona daily basis. This is something many people don’t realize and struggle to findways to relieve their stress, when it was exacerbated by their diet all along.
Here are some foods that can make your stress worse:
Foodswith High Amounts of Sugar
Yes, you guessed it – sugar is the enemy when it comes tostress. This might not surprise you, since sugar tends to have a negativeimpact on your physical health, from bloating and weight gain, to making mentalconditions like anxiety worse. Sugar can also be hard on your body when itcomes to stress, most similarly with the sugar crash that happens shortly afterhaving a high amount of sugar in your body. This is also what happens when youhave a lot of simple carbs like bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes.
FatteningFoods
Foods that are high in fat can also worsen your stresslevels, not to mention they are often trigger foods for anxiety, which alsomakes your stress more severe. It is okay to have healthy fats like avocadosand olive oil, but avoid saturated fats like vegetable oil, lard, and mostfried foods. Reduce how much packaged and processed foods you eat, don’t eatanything fried, and you will be well on your way to eating for a stress-freelife.
Drinkswith Caffeine
It is also a good idea to avoid caffeine, or at leastreduce it. Instead of 4 cups of coffee in the morning, try one cup of coffeethen see how you feel. Or switch to drinks with less caffeine, such as tea. Also,be careful with the sugar-laden soft drinks that are also loaded with caffeine.
3. Superfoods for Stress Relief
The first category of foods that can help you relievestress are your superfoods. Superfoods are healthy foods with ahigher-than-normal amount of nutrients, including vitamins and minerals. Hereare some superfoods that are great for reducing stress.
Blueberries
When you’re dealing with stress, the interior of your bodyfeels just as bad. However, consuming berries full of phytonutrients andantioxidants can help improve your body’s defenses and response to stress bykilling off stress-causing free radicals. Try adding blueberries to your cerealor oatmeal or making a morning smoothie with the berries.
Seeds
Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds are greatsources of magnesium, which can help you maintain your emotions and reducestress. Additionally, this mineral can also help you manage fatigue,irritability, and depression. If you’re on your period, consuming seeds canalso help you combat PMS symptoms, such as water retention and cramps.
Salmon
When you feel stressed out, your body can increase certainhormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline. Fortunately, the omega-3 fatty acidsfound in salmon has powerful anti-inflammatory properties, which can help youlower your stress hormone levels. Not only will eating more salmon help reducethe stress response in your body, but the omega-3 fatty acids in this superfoodcan also help you to reduce your risk of heart disease.
Dark Chocolate
Who doesn’t love some chocolate? Instead of milk chocolate,switch to the healthier dark chocolate. A healthy consumption of dark chocolatecan help lower your overall stress levels. Research studies have found that thechocolate can help reduce rising stress hormones, in addition to cortisol. Antioxidantsfound in dark chocolate also help your blood vessel walls relax, lowering yourblood pressure and improving your blood circulation.
Dark chocolate also has a natural substance that creates a euphoria that’s quite similar to falling in love. Just make sure you go for the dark chocolate variety that has at least 70 percent cocoa content. The higher the cocoa, the darker it is, and the healthier it is going to be for you.
Green Leafy Vegetables
Green leafy vegetables are known to help your body producedopamine, which is a chemical in your brain that induces pleasure and can helpkeep you calm under stress. There have also been studies that look at how dark,leafy green vegetables can help with anxiety and depression thanks to theunique combination of nutrients in this vegetable.
All leafy greens are best but look for greens with a lot ofvitamins and minerals, such as kale, spinach, and collard greens.
4. Other Foods to Add to Your Diet
There are also many other healthy foods that can also helpyou to reduce your stress levels. Give some of these delicious foods a try whenyour holiday stress is getting to be a little too much.
Yogurt
Believe it or not, the bacteria located in your gut may becausing you stress. Researchers have found that the brain often signals the gutwhen it’s stressed, which is why you can experience gastrointestinal problemswhen you’re stressed out. However, the connection can go the other way as well,and the gut can send stress signals to the brain as well. The probiotics inyogurt can be extremely helpful for your body and mind, so having it more oftenis always a good thing.
Turkey breast
It’s true that tryptophan in turkey is commonly associatedwith the traditional “food coma” on Thanksgiving. However, the amino acid, alsofound in other protein-based foods, helps you produce serotonin, which is achemical that helps your body regulate both hunger and stress. Tryptophan alsohas a noticeable calming effect, which can be soothing to stressed out people.If you’re tired of eating turkey, you can also eat fish, lentils, beans, eggs,tofu, and oats, all which contain tryptophan.
Oatmeal
When you’re stressed out, you usually go for comfort foodshigh in carbs, such as donuts. Surprisingly, the rule of thumb we can tell youis to avoid denying your cravings. It is true that some carbs help to releaseserotonin in your brain, which helps to reduce your stress. But, instead ofreaching for your next donut or bear claw, eat complex carbs such as oatmeal.Since the stress you feel is already increasing your blood pressure, complexcarbs can help regulate your blood pressure, rather than add to it.
Cashews
Only one ounce of cashews can give you nearly 11 percent ofyour daily recommendation of zinc, which is a powerful mineral that can helplower your anxiety levels. While it is good to have more zinc from cashews andother healthy foods, that isn’t always necessary. Zinc supplements candrastically lower anxiety symptoms and even saw a 31 percent decrease inanxiety levels and help to influence your mood in the right way.
Milk
Fortified milk is a great source of vitamin D, which is anutrient that can help increase your body’s sense of happiness. Milk has alsobeen linked to reduced depression and anxiousness, so if you suffer from any ofthese mental health conditions, it is time to do your body good. However, ifyou are not a fan of milk, you can always go for other fortified foods, such asa fortified cereal with almond milk or soymilk.
Pistachios
The rhythmic motions of cracking open pistachio shells canhelp you lower stress and get rid of negative thoughts in your head. Not tomention, cracking open pistachio shells slows down your eating and overall,pistachios are a healthy, diet-friendly snack to indulge in. Pistachios alsohave a wide range of heart-health benefits, such as being able to lower bloodpressure, acute stress, and your heart rate. Pistachios also containphytonutrients, which offer powerful antioxidant that can improve yourcardiovascular health.
If you want to get rid of stress in your life for good, you should start with your diet. By having well-balanced meals with whole grains, fruits, and veggies, nuts and seeds, you are on your way to a stress-free life.
