Your diet affects not only your health but also your mind. Nutrients that help in promoting production of brain chemicals that regulate mood play a vital role in calming the mind and reducing anxiety. If you worry a lot, add foods that contain these essential nutrients that help in improving your body’s natural resistance to stress and anxiety to your diet.
Anxiety also affects the quality of your health. It causes palpitation, shortness of breath, sleeping difficulties, nausea and heartburn. Your anti-anxiety diet, in addition to calming your mind, should help in addressing your anxiety related health problems.
To Manage Anxiety, Try The Following Diet Plan:
Healthy Protein Foods
Two amino acids that can help in easing anxiety are tryptophan and glutamine. Your body needs tryptophan to produce serotonin, the neurotransmitter that helps in improving mood and reducing anxiety. The amino acid glutamine is needed for producing the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which helps in calming the nervous system that stops you from worrying too much. Fish, lean meat, poultry, legumes, dairy and nuts are best sources of these two amino acids.
Whole Grain
Eating carbohydrates along with tryptophan rich foods is essential for increasing the supply of the amino acid essential for serotonin production to the brain. Apart from being a healthy source of carbohydrate, whole grains contain vitamin B6, a natural anxiety buster. Deficiency of vitamin B6 worsens anxiety.
Vitamin C Rich Food
Anxiety rapidly depletes the vitamin C level in the body. The adrenal glands use vitamin C for producing the stress hormone cortisol. Deficiency of vitamin C triggers a strange paradox. It stimulates abnormal secretion of cortisol that worsens your anxiety and harms your health. Therefore to manage your anxiety, add sufficient amount of vitamin C rich fruits and vegetables such as citrus fruits, tomato, berries and bell peppers to your diet.
Green Leafy Vegetables
The high concentration of folic acid makes green leafy vegetables the ideal component of the anxiety fighting diet. Folic acid helps in the production of the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine that help in regulating mood.
Omega-3 Fat Rich Foods
Studies have found an association between low omega-3 fatty acids, especially EPA, and anxiety. Increasing intake of EPA helps in improving mood. It helps in maintaining healthy communication between the nerve cells that can help in providing relief from anxiety. Fish oil is an excellent source of EPA. It is also found in walnuts, flaxseed and soybeans.
