Increase your psychological resilience with healthy food
You can increase your psychological resilience with a healthy diet, says Swiss psychiatrist Gregor Hasler. He gives five tips for a healthy brain and stomach.
1. Don’t get more than 30 percent of your energy from sugars and carbohydrates
Bad gut bacteria feast on sugar and will increase in number due to high sugar consumption. In addition, a high sugar consumption eventually causes our body cells to absorb sugar less easily. Recently it has been known that this also applies to the nerve cells in our brain. When the cells in the hippocampus, the memory center, become less sensitive to sugar, we are more likely to become anxious and depressed.
2. Eat lots of fiber
Good gut bacteria feast on fiber, so they thrive if we eat a lot of vegetables, fruit, legumes and whole grains. In addition, good bacteria convert fiber into fatty acids that have a calming effect on the brain.
3. Go with the natural probiotics
Natural probiotics are found in fermented foods, such as fresh sauerkraut, kefir and raw milk cheese.
4. Eat enough protein
Eat enough cheese, eggs, liver, nuts, fish and cottage cheese to get natural proteins. Proteins contain amino acids, the building blocks of messenger substances such as serotonin and GABA. You need this extra when you are stressed.
5. Calm your gut
The vagus nerve, the large nerve bundle between the brain and the gut, has a calming effect. With yoga, massage and body-oriented therapy you can stimulate and strengthen this nerve bundle. Your eating habits are also important: slow chewing and intermittent fasting help to reduce stress and strengthen the vagus nerve.
Also read: Anxiety Disorder? Everything starts in the gut
Gregor Hasler is a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist and neuroscientist. He is professor of psychiatry and psychotherapy at the University of Friborg. His research focuses on stress, resilience, nutrition and mood disorders.
This article originally appeared in +Gezond april 2022. Want to subscribe to the magazine? You can do that in an instant!