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How to tackle anxiety through dietary change…

Anxiety can range from the mild unease with a situation or concern about something, or someone, to a crippling condition that limits your life and affects your whole health and well-being. Frequently with clients it has to be taken into consideration when devising a nutrition plan for that individual. So, just what can we do to help ourselves to worry less?

Well, there are a number of dietary interventions that you can try and these vary from including certain foods in your diet, changing the way you eat or indeed, in more extreme cases, taking supplements to help.

First and always foremost for me, let’s look at food. Anxiety can be relieved by boosting the levels of certain inhibitory neurotransmitters in the brain. These act to inhibit the brain’s activity and therefore calm the mood and help you to relax. One such neurotransmitter is called GABA, foods which can be made into GABA by the body include beans, almonds, mackerel, lentils and oats. Another neurotransmitter, serotonin can be made by nutrients found in bananas, turkey and pumpkin seeds so include these regularly in your diet to boost your feeling of calm. Theanine found in green tea also helps promote relaxation but you need to have 2-3 cups per day to get the benefits.

However, it’s not just the foods that we eat that make a difference, balancing your blood sugar helps too and this is vitally important if you’re wanting to make a difference. It can also help with good energy levels, losing weight and coping with stress. So, how do we do it?

• Never skip meals to avoid low sugar situations
• Eat protein with each meal as this delays the emptying of the stomach so gives you a more even energy release – meat, fish, eggs, lentils, beans, quinoa, nuts, seeds or dairy
• Eat low sugar fruits on their own but high sugar fruits must be eaten with a handful of nuts to prevent spiking your blood sugar
• Eliminate fizzy drinks, cakes, biscuits, fruit juices, again to prevent spiking your blood sugar
• Eat whole foods – brown rice, wholemeal bread, vegetables, meat, nuts, fish and seeds
• Avoid stimulants such as caffeine and alcohol that cause adrenal release
• Don’t eat low fat food as it’s high in sugar, that’s how they get the taste but it spikes your blood sugar if eaten on it’s own. If you want to avoid this but still eat them add seeds to yogurt to get the protein in and prevent the sugar surge.

Don’t forget to get a good night’s sleep, aim for 7-8 hours a night to be fully rested. Lack of sleep stresses the body and increases it’s calorie demand so will play havoc with your system. Exercise can also help reduce anxiety, many people say that running clears their head and reduces tension. Let’s face it, whilst you’re exercising flat out you can’t concentrate on anything else so it has to stop an overactive mind!

Lastly, get plenty of the mineral magnesium in your diet. It can be found in green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds and helps to relax muscles, dilate blood vessels and calm your mind. If you don’t think you’re getting enough you can have a 20 minute Epsom salt foot bath to increase your levels, have it before bed to really help you get a great night’s sleep!

If none of these does the trick for you, get yourself a session with a nutritional therapist for an individualised nutrition plan, there may be other health issues that are preventing it all from working that need to be taken into consideration.