Have you ever felt your mood shift after eating certain foods? Perhaps a sense of elation when biting into a favourite chocolate bar; that sleepy satisfaction after a warm roast dinner, or maybe even a spike of anxiety after one-too-many cups of coffee. There’s no doubt that food affects our mood, whether that’s down to cravings, hormonal changes, blood sugar shifts or the ratio of carbs, fats and proteins in a meal – it’s all having an impact on how we feel physically, mentally and indeed emotionally.
When it comes to food and mental health, there are a huge number of topics we could dive into; from gut health to autoimmunity, body image and toxic diet culture. In today’s blog however, we’re making things simple and easy to apply to your everyday life for a greater understanding of how to make food choices that truly lead to a better mood. You’ll learn how your blood sugar is controlling your stress and anxiety levels, how healthy fats are needed to help prevent depressive symptoms, the specific vitamins you need for more energy and happiness, and a mood boosting recipe. So, pour yourself a cup of Pukka’s calming Peace tea, grab yourself a healthy snack (we love the ‘sweet treats’ section of The Immunity Cookbook by Kate Llwellyn-Waters) and get ready to learn how food affects your mood.
How Blood Sugar Crashes & Skipping Breakfast Affects Anxiety
Are you the type of person who gets hangry? You know, that feeling of needing to eat right now, so much so that anyone who stands in your way might just find their hand bitten off? Symptoms of extreme sudden hunger, feeling shaky or faint before a meal, or needing to eat sugary snacks to quickly bring yourself back into balance are all common signs of a blood sugar ‘crash’. When our levels of blood glucose (sugar) dip below an ideal range, this signals an emergency to the rest of the body, because glucose is the brain’s preferred fuel source, and without it, we pretty much stop working. Our muscles also store glucose too, and when those levels dip too low, it can lead to the heart muscle beating faster to try and pump more blood around the body to compensate for the lack of energy from fuel. Another issue that happens when blood sugar crashes, is that the adrenals release a huge amount of cortisol (the ‘stress hormone’) essentially shifting us into ‘fight or flight’, because running low on fuel is a huge problem. All of these things, can massively exacerbate existing anxiety, as well as causing overwhelming feelings of stress, and even panic attacks. If this sounds familiar to you, it’s time to start paying more attention to your blood sugar by keeping a journal of your food choices and symptoms, and making choices that serve you better. Here are two simple ways to help balance your blood sugar:
Eat breakfast (especially if you’re a woman): Even though the wellness industry has been expounding the benefits of fasting and skipping breakfast for years, it’s important to understand that this may actually be harming your body. Upon waking, our bodies naturally experience a normal rise in cortisol in order to stimulate us to get up and out of bed. The longer we go without eating breakfast, the higher the cortisol spike is likely to go, and the longer it stays high for. What this means for us, is that skipping breakfast can easily put the body into a much more stressed-out state, wreaking havoc on blood sugar and disrupting hormonal balance. The reason this is even more important for women, is because our ever-fluctuating hormones make us more susceptible to blood sugar issues, and because our fertility is much more easily affected by stress. Especially if you’re already feeling pretty overwhelmed or stressed, eating breakfast within an hour of waking really can be a powerful way to rebalance your blood sugar levels, hormones, and stress and anxiety levels.
‘Dress up’ your carbs: One way to help balance your blood sugar is to work on making sure it doesn’t spike, because what goes up could come crashing down. Refined carbohydrates like cakes, biscuits, pastries, junk food, soda and even fruit juices can all cause a rush of sugar to enter into the bloodstream, raising our blood glucose levels sky-high. When blood sugar rises sharply, the body tries to rebalance things by pulling levels down quickly – often leading to those nasty symptoms of low blood sugar noted above. You can help prevent these glucose spikes by ‘dressing up’ carbohydrate foods with fats and protein. This prevents the spike, and slows the rate at which sugar enters the bloodstream for longer-lasting energy. Opt for snacks like a banana with almond butter, a bowl of porridge with plenty of seeds and full-fat yoghurt, or toast with avocado. Caffeine can also disrupt blood sugar, so try to have your morning coffee after breakfast, or at least add nourishing fats to create a ‘bullet proof’ coffee that will cause less issues. To nix caffeine altogether, switch to the Wunder Workshop’s Honeybush Chai Latte with natural sweetness from blood-sugar-balancing cinnamon.
How Healthy Fats Can Boost Your Mood
Fat is an essential part of our diets. It’s needed to make sex hormones like oestrogen and testosterone, protects the organs, supports cell growth, and aids in the communication of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical substances which relay nerve impulses and play a vital role in our mental health. The neurotransmitter dopamine helps us feel motivated and up-beat, whilst the neurotransmitter serotonin helps us feel happy and relaxed. Other neurotransmitters include adrenaline, endorphins, GABA, acetylcholine, glutamate and noradrenaline, and they’re absolutely vital. When serotonin isn’t ‘working’ properly, this can lead to increased anxiety; when there’s an issue with GABA, it can be difficult to sleep. Fats play an important role in neurotransmitter communication, brain health, and nourishment of the nervous system, so if your diet is low in healthy fats, this could be impacting not only your physical health (we need fats in order to absorb fat-soluble vitamins like D, A, K and E) but your mental health too. Here’s one powerful way to boost your mood with healthy fats:
Decrease Omega 6 and increase Omega 3: We do need both omega 3 and omega 6 in the diet, but most of us get way too much of the pro-inflammatory omega 6 oils, and not enough of the anti-inflammatory and brain-boosting omega 3s. Decrease omega 6 oils in the form of sunflower and rapeseed oil, soybeans, corn and too many nuts, and increase your consumption of omega 3s from walnuts, flax, olive oil, chia, and fish like salmon, tuna and anchovies. The anti-inflammatory effects of omega 3 oils have been shown to help relieve depressive symptoms by decreasing inflammation in the brain, especially foods high in EPA such as fish and fish oils.
Boost Your B Vitamins To Boost Your Mood
There are eight B vitamins, and they all play essential roles in the body. Vitamin B6 for example, is important for keeping the immune system and nervous system healthy, as well as converting the food we eat into energy. Vitamin B9 and B12 work in tandem to ensure the healthy development and distribution of red blood cells, as well as producing DNA and RNA, maintaining healthy nerves and muscles, and helping produce those neurotransmitters that keep mood balanced. B vitamins are not stored for long periods in the body, so we need to eat them on a regular basis, and they’re also ‘used up’ rapidly when we’re stressed, making it even more important for us to obtain them.
Many B vitamins are found in a wide array of foods, but the absolutely essential vitamin B12 can be hard to get enough of if you follow a plant-based diet (sources of vitamin B12 include meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, and to a lesser degree some types of algae, fortified foods, some mushrooms and nutritional yeast). Symptoms of low vitamin B12 levels can include fatigue, mouth ulcers, irritability, muscle weakness, low energy levels, depression, brain fog, a sore and red tongue, and vision disturbances. If you do follow a plant-based diet, it may be worth speaking to a nutritionist, health coach or your healthcare provider for guidance on supplementing, and ensure you’re consuming foods rich in B vitamins regularly.
A Mood-Boosting Smoothie Recipe
Now you know how important it is to keep your blood sugar balanced, to consume plenty of healthy fats, and to boost your intake of B vitamins to boost your mood, here’s a recipe that combines it all in one go! This mood-boosting smoothie combines a balance of healthy carbs, fats and protein, omega 3s and B vitamins either from the live yoghurt with gut-health benefits, or from a fortified plant-based version. You’ll get a non-caffeinated lift from the raw cacao too, which is naturally high in calming muscle-soothing magnesium.
INGREDIENTS
(serves 1)
- 1 banana
- 1 handful frozen blueberries
- 1 tbsp cacao powder
- 1 cup full-fat live yoghurt or non-dairy yoghurt fortified with B12 (The brands SoDelicious and Alpro are fortified).
- 1 tbsp flax
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp maca powder (optional – this adaptogen can help reduce symptoms of stress and depression)
- Dash of milk or plant-based milk
METHOD
- Add all ingredients to a blender and whizz
- Enjoy!
