Food and mood
Question
I'm having quite a stressful time at work and someone told me that changing my diet might help me get through it. Are there any foods I should be eating to help me cope?
Answer
The relationship between diet and emotional and mental health (or food and mood) is interesting, and is increasingly recognised as important. A balanced diet (including all the food groups and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables) keeps the body healthy, but can also be really important in keeping the mind balanced.
Currently a lot of media coverage is given to low-fat and low-carbohydrate diets and dieting in general. Consequently, people often exclude essential food groups in order to try to lose weight or feel healthier. In fact, proteins, carbohydrates and some fats are essential to keeping the mind and body healthy.
Equally, an important part of stabilising emotional health through food is about how you eat, not just what you eat. In order to keep your blood sugar level stable, it's important to eat regularly and not skip meals; especially breakfast. Eating foods with a slow release of energy (those with a low glycaemic index) will keep body and mind fuelled much more steadily. These foods include: wholegrain rye bread; basmati rice; and oats. You can find out more about the relationship between food and emotional health on the food and mood website, they also have a list of nutritionists in the UK, should you wish to talk to someone about your own specific needs.
It's good you're thinking about looking after yourself. Often, in times of stress, people's good intentions about food go out of the window and they snack on whatever comes to hand, skip meals and generally don't pay much attention to what they're feeding their bodies with. Although it's difficult to say what specific foods you could eat to decrease your stress levels, certain vitamins and minerals, particularly vitamin C and vitamins in the B group are used up quickly when you are stressed, so it's important to replenish these on a daily basis. Wholegrain foods (such as wholegrain bread, pasta or rice) are good because they include B vitamins and are also a slow-releasing carbohydrate.
Finally, although it's important to look after yourself nutritionally it is also important to tackle the stress itself. Try to make time to relax and not take too much on at work. Being busy at work can be motivating and make you more productive, but a very stressful period is unlikely to have any positive effects. It may be worth considering talking to your employer about how you could reduce some of the pressure on yourself.
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Question answered by SANE
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