Good Mood Foods positivetranceformations.com.au
The first of the good foods for helping to alleviate the symptoms of depression is oily fish.
These are high in omega-3 fatty acids, and these are beneficial for your heart as well as for your soul.
Tuna, mackerel and salmon are the most common oily fish, which you can eat as part of your regular diet (e.g. tinned tuna sandwiches for lunch, salmon as the main meal for dinner).
Alternatively, you can take fish oil supplements. This sounds like the sort of thing an old granny would do – taking cod liver oil – but like many other traditional remedies, it does work.
Perhaps you can visualise a merry old crone or an ideal grandmother who loves you and encourages you to take it.
The second helpful food is banana.
Bananas contain tryptophan, which the body converts to serotonin.
Problems with serotonin lie behind many cases of depression, and many antidepressants aim to maintain a good level of serotonin in the brain.
Eating bananas also helps with sleeping problems.
In Queensland, we’re a bananagrowing centre, so there’s no excuse for you not to eat them unless you’re allergic to them.
Have them as snacks, add them to wholegrain cereals for breakfast or dress them up to make a dessert.
Wholegrains are also recommended by dieticians because they are a rich source of some of the B vitamin group, especially Vitamin B1, Vitamin B3 and Folate.
The B vitamin group helps control and regulate moods, and can help combat some of the problems with mood swings.
Last but certainly not least in the list of foods that can help moods is dark chocolate, with an emphasis on the “dark�.
Dark chocolate with a high proportion of cocoa solids (70% or more) is extremely high in a large range of vitamins and minerals, including selenium, which is hard to get from other sources.
Dark chocolate also contains a substance that stimulates the body to produce the substance that biochemists refer to as PEA, another powerful feel-good chemical that the body naturally produces in quantity during happy experiences.
Now, what you believe is pretty powerful, but you’re not just imagining things if you feel more cheerful after having a bit of chocolate.
Here, two things have to be borne in mind before you give yourself license to wolf down a huge family-sized block of dairy-milk chocolate: Dark and Moderation.
The good thing about dark chocolate is that it naturally makes you feel full and satisfied, so it’s hard to really pig out on it.
They say that about 50 g a day will give you the vitamin and mineral boost you need.
Molasses and Brazil nuts are also mentioned as being beneficial for helping to relieve the symptoms of depression.
So here goes a recipe combining as many of the beneficial foods as possible. Take two bananas and slice them. Chop up a cup or so of Brazil nuts and sprinkle over the chopped bananas.
Melt 50 g dark chocolate (70% or more cocoa solids) and pour this over the nuts and bananas. Add a tablespoon of molasses. Take the bowl outside and eat it in the sunshine while reading a funny or cheerful book.
More info at positivetranceformations.com.au