Yes! You Can Reduce Your Stress Level with Nutrition!

Stress is unavoidable. At some point in our lives, we will face stress in a variety of levels from low and moderate stress to high and extreme levels of stress. With that fact in mind, how can we support ourselves from managing stress in a healthy way?

Lifestyle choices such as physical activity, sleep, healthy relationships, termination of substance abuse are all acts of stress management.

Additionally, nutrition plays a great role in managing stress and some foods have certain properties that support the reduction of stress and anxiety levels.

Let us dive deeper into these ways’ nutrition can support reducing our stress levels and how they correlate with another:

· Stress can trigger mindless and overeating. Reminding ourselves to be aware of our emotions before, during, and after eating and using alternative ways (that will be different for everyone) to manage our stress.

- High and chronic stress may lead us to release our emotions with food. Sometimes individuals may lack the awareness of this act and mindlessly eat till past fullness. Take a mental note next time you eat a meal and ask yourself how you are feeling emotionally to bring awareness to any emotional eating patterns.

- Managing your stress and anxiety without food looks different to everyone, seeking professional help from a therapist or your health care provider can provide further insight towards your specific needs.

- Examples of coping and treating your stress without food include:

Ø Taking a walk or any physical activity. Whether it is a run, walk, online Pilates, or Yoga, making the priority to put some time in your regular lifestyle for the physical activity you enjoy.

Ø Jotting down your emotions in a journal or piece of paper. For some, writing can be soothing to release feelings that can be bottled up chronically. Perhaps, keeping a small journal or notepad close by you to brain dump any thoughts throughout the day!

Ø Connecting with a loved one. Staying connected to close relationships in your life that serve you with happiness and joy to keep the positive effect of their relationship constant.

· Regular incorporation of fruits and vegetables provide nourishing health effects from high nutrient qualities

- Rather than focusing on one food group for stress reduction support, we can incorporate an abundant amount of variations to our eating lifestyle for the promotion of balanced eating and including nutrient-dense foods for our physical health.

- Micronutrients (Vitamins and Minerals) contain vital functions for your well being are rich in fruits and vegetables. The phrase “eat the rainbow” comes to play when applying a diverse amount of fruits and vegetables.

- Ways of including fruits and vegetables are:

Ø Keeping fruits such as strawberries, tangerines, apples, pineapple, and grapes around your home to snack on!

Ø Experimenting with different veggies with your meals such as roasting broccoli and cauliflower, sautéing kale and bell peppers into a stir fry or steaming Brussel sprouts!

Ø Adding some veggies into a smoothie such as frozen spinach for a serving of leafy greens (the taste of spinach is usually hidden by whatever else is put into the smoothie) or beetroot to add some essential nutrients such as Folate (Vitamin B9) with a sweetness that comes along with nutritious vegetable!

· Foods that promote healthy Serotonin (mood-enhancing brain chemical) levels are those that contain tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid and is obtained only from the food we eat. Tryptophan has an important role in creating Vitamin B3, Niacin, which has a vital role in the creation of Serotonin.

- Serotonin executes crucial functions from the brain such as moods, sleep, temperature, and energy expenditure (amount of energy to perform physical functions such as breathing or digesting)

- Food is not the only thing to activate Serotonin production. Vitamin D (sun exposure and dietary sources) are studied to enhance Serotonin levels by inducing the enzyme for Tryptophan production.

- Tryptophan rich foods include:

Ø Pineapple

Ø Soy products such as tofu and soy milk (this is a great option for vegan and vegetarians)

Ø Spinach

Ø Salmon (great source of tryptophan and a source of Vitamin D)

Ø Seeds (Do not contain as much tryptophan as the other sources, however, are another source for vegans or vegetarians!)

Ø Turkey

This blog post is not intended to replace medical advice. Always speak to your health care provider for any advice and questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

References:

1) Vieten, C., Laraia, B. A., Kristeller, J., Adler, N., Coleman-Phox, K., Bush, N. R., Wahbeh, H., Duncan, L. G., & Epel, E. (2018). The mindful moms training: development of a mindfulness-based intervention to reduce stress and overeating during pregnancy. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 18(1), 201. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-018-1757-6

2) Sabir, M. S., Haussler, M. R., Mallick, S., Kaneko, I., Lucas, D. A., Haussler, C. A., Whitfield, G. K., & Jurutka, P. W. (2018). Optimal vitamin D spurs serotonin: 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D represses serotonin reuptake transport (SERT) and degradation (MAO-A) gene expression in cultured rat serotonergic neuronal cell lines. Genes & nutrition, 13, 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12263-018-0605-7

3) Głąbska, D., Guzek, D., Groele, B., & Gutkowska, K. (2020). Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Mental Health in Adults: A Systematic Review. Nutrients, 12(1), 115. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12010115

4) Khanna, P., Chattu, V. K., & Aeri, B. T. (2019). Nutritional Aspects of Depression in Adolescents - A Systematic Review. International journal of preventive medicine, 10, 42. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_400_18

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