Foods to help your mood in times of stress
▶ As stress eating reaches its peak, Sonali Kokra seeks out foods that are proven to improve moods
How many times have you felt guilty about craving and then caving into eating a late-night bowl of ice cream or packet of crisps after a terrible day at work? How often have you found yourself feeling worse than before once the food coma wears off, and you’re left guiltily surveying the astonishingly empty supersized carton or packet?
“Finding comfort in food in times of extreme duress is nothing new. Food alters our brain chemistry and hormonal profiles in so many ways that it’s understandable we turn to it as a crutch when things go awry,” says Juliot Vinolia Rajarathinam, head clinical dietitian at Medeor 24x7 Hospital in Dubai. “It’s also a form of control for many, in times when one might feel particularly helpless.”
Enter, stage right, 2020. Even those who had a more or less reasonable relationship with food struggled more than ever last year. A recent global study of 8,000 people across 50 countries headed by Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in Louisiana found that 27 per cent of people surveyed gained weight last year, as more turned to junk food to deal with pandemic-related stress. Several smaller studies corroborate these findings. People around the world have looked for solace from Covid-dread in the packaged and fast-food aisles.
Ironically, stress shuts down the body’s appetite at first as the adrenal glands kick into action, triggering the body’s fight-or-flight response. But a prolonged period of stress has the opposite effect.
The adrenal glands now shift gears and produce cortisol, which makes you want to start eating and keep eating calorie-rich food, so the body has enough fuel to fight its way out of the threat. This would have been an excellent mechanism if we lived in an era where stress-inducing events were more physical than mental or emotional. But that’s rarely the case in the modern world.
Technically, this should be a short-lived affair. Once the stressful situation goes away, your body should go back to its regular patterns of eating. But if it doesn’t, and stress becomes a constant, the cortisol levels never fall, and the body’s stress response becomes its “normal”.
Celebrity Indian nutritionist and author of Eat. Delete., Pooja Makhija believes the pandemic should be a wake-up call for us to fix our emotional responses and relationships with food. “If nothing else, 2020 has taught us that nothing in the world matters more than health. So many comorbidities and multi-morbidities that make a person extra vulnerable to dangerous infections like Covid are directly linked to health issues caused by poor eating habits in many cases,” she says. “It all ties back to the fact that we think of food as either a friend or enemy. It’s neither. It’s simply fuel for the body to perform better. The sooner we learn this, the better it is for all of us.”
Even though Makhija’s advice makes perfect sense, it’s difficult to remember that when you’re panic-reading about the explosion of new strains of the virus. When that dreaded hour arrives, and you find yourself twitching for a quick fix to your negative feelings, consider reaching for these feel-good foods instead.
Sweet potatoes
If your body craves carbs as a response to stress, pick sweet potatoes, which are also dense with nutrients, particularly vitamin C and potassium, which help with lowering your body’s cortisol levels. The mild sugar fix is an added bonus.
Eggs
These are jammed with antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, amino acids and more, making them a great dietary inclusion irrespective of stress eating. One egg also contains about 140mg or roughly 30 per cent of the body’s daily requirement of choline, a nutrient necessary for brain health, smooth functioning of the nervous system and mood regulation by lowering stress.
Citrus fruits
Increasing your intake of vitamin C can significantly lower stress levels and even prevent bouts of anxiety. If you regularly feel yourself getting overwhelmed or anxious, make friends with oranges and berries.
Yoghurt and other probiotics
Your gut health has a direct effect on your mood. A healthy gut helps to combat depression and anxiety by producing bacteria that boost the production of serotonin
and gamma-aminobutyric acid, both of which help keep you in a good mood.
Cheese
Calcium-rich foods not only promote good bone health, but reduce stress and prevent depression as well. Dairy products such as cheese, milk and yoghurt that are packed with calcium and vitamin D, relax the muscles, have a soporific effect and help to stabilise agitated moods.
Wholegrain anything
Most of us crave carbs while feeling low, as they can temporarily help to increase the production of serotonin. The downside is that most of us reach for simple carbs in the form of cookies, pastas and breads, which cause a quick but very unhealthy spike-and-crash in blood glucose levels. Choose complex, high-fibre, and slowrelease carbs in the form of brown rice, wholewheat breads, rye rotis and buckwheat salad instead.
Nuts
They contain healthy fatty acids and B vitamins, both of which help to reduce stress. Most nuts, especially pistachios, are also rich in magnesium, which has been linked to improved anxiety management.
Garlic
Enjoy your garlic breath for once. Garlic boosts the production of glutathione, an antioxidant that is critical in protecting the body’s cells against all forms of stress.
Dark chocolate
While the thought of a rich piece of chocolate melting slowly and deliciously in the mouth is enough to brighten up the lousiest of moods, dark chocolate contains a host of antioxidants that lower stress hormones and release serotonin. So a small piece without added or refined sugar keeps you healthy and happy.