Certain foods help to keep your spirits up. We are not talking about what is sometimes pleasant to eat, such as a pizza, a hamburger, sweets… But rather about foods whose composition allows us to stimulate the hormones favorable to our mental health. As experts interviewed by the Huffington Post, the vast majority of receptors for the neurotransmitter serotonin are located in the intestine. So, what to eat to boost our morale?
The president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research, Dr. Wolfgang Marx, explains that the Mediterranean diet is associated with a lower risk of depression, unlike other diets which tend to be “inflammatory” and increase this risk. For example, the high-sugar diets are associated with symptoms of anxiety and poor mental health.
Studies tend to confirm that there is indeed a connection between the belly and the brain, and that “the food we eat sends information to our brain, with an impact on our mental health“, adds Uma Naidoo, a Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist and author of the book “Here’s Your Brain’s Food – A Guide to Surprising Foods That Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD and More.”
There is no miracle food, the recipe is more complex than that, you have to combine various categories of products. Experts agree on the following five:
- Salmon: and in general, foods rich in omega 3 (walnuts, chia seeds, sardines), whose beneficial role against depressive symptoms has been proven in several studies.
- THE “complex” carbohydrates: legumes, vegetables containing starch and whole grains, allowing to have a regular supply of glucose and to stimulate serotonin.
- Most wide variety of fruits and vegetables possible, for their intake of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, good for general health and for brain health included!
- Foods rich in tryptophan, which is an amino acid precursor to serotonin. It is found in chicken, turkey, eggs, nuts and seeds.
- Foods containing probiotics: because the balance of intestinal microbiota plays a role in our mood.
Source: Huffington Post
