5 Everyday Foods To Help With Stress
Let's be real. When you're stressed out, eating healthy food in general can be difficult. But there are some foods that actually help relieve stress so we should try to add them to our diet.
If you are feeling stressed, here are some foods that you might want to include in your daily diet!
Matcha
If you're feeling stressed out, matcha could help calm you down. In addition to being a natural anti-inflammatory, matcha contains l-theanine, an amino acid that gives you that calm, chill feeling and has been scientifically shown to help reduce stress and anxiety.
This is why drinking matcha and other green teas can help relieve stress-related symptoms like headaches and muscle tension.
The Best Matcha we have ever tasted: is from My Matcha Life.
Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate contains magnesium and tryptophan, both of which have been shown to reduce anxiety and increase serotonin levels in the brain.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, so when it's low (which happens during times of high stress), people can feel depressed or anxious.
Dark chocolate also contains caffeine — which can boost energy levels when you're feeling exhausted BUT can also make some people feel jittery - so you do you.
Turmeric
This spice has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties, which may help relieve pain associated with inflammation from conditions like arthritis or fibromyalgia (chronic pain).
Studies have also found that turmeric helps reduce levels of stress hormones like cortisol.
Broccoli
Not as much fun as the other superfoods out there, but broccoli is a great source of vitamin C, which helps boost your immune system and can help fight off illness when you’re stressed out.
It’s also rich in B vitamins like folate and riboflavin — both of which could help reduce stress hormones like cortisol in the body.
Blueberries
The Psychiatric Times says that blueberries are the number one superfood to reduce the symptoms of depression.
Blueberries have potent anti-inflammatory properties and trigger neurological responses in the brain, which has been shown to significantly improve mood and cognition.
Goji Berries
Studies show that these bright red, raisin-like snacks can help boost our sleep
quality, mental acuity, and lower feelings of stress. This is because goji berries are very high in antioxidants.
We like these Yupik Goji Berries, available through Raw Elements.
We hope that this list encourages you to eat more of the foods that are good for you. Stress is one of the biggest factors in causing long-term physical and mental health issues, so we think it’s highly important to tackle stress from all angles. Diet should be looked at as a means of stress management; it won’t eliminate it, per se, but it can go a long way towards preventing stress in the first place. And isn’t that what we all want?
