Eating a varied assortment of foods is not only essential for your physical health, but your emotional health as well. When you feels healthier emotionally, a encouraging outlook is much easier to hold on to. There is a definite and strong correlation between the mind and the body. Each supports and enhances the other. In order to obtain most favorable health, you must have a strong positive mind-set in place. Try looking at what is on your plate to determine what kind of good mood foods you are ingesting.
You need to be eating good mood proteins. Eating foods that are naturally high in tryptophan (fish, chicken, turkey, meat, eggs, dairy food, legumes, beans, tofu) can improve your mood as the tryptophan is converted by the body to serotonin. Serotonin elevates your mood, self-esteem, feelings of cheerfulness, and induces calming feelings and sleep. Foods such as bananas, kiwi and tomatoes also provide serotonin.
You also need to be eating good mood carbohydrates. To help your body absorb tryptophan into the brain from your protein sources, you need to eat carbohydrate-rich foods. Some slow-releasing complex carbohydrates are foods with a low glycemic index (GI) such as oatmeal and the natural sugars in found in fruits and vegetables, particularly pineapple, plums, broccoli, spinach, and those mentioned above.
Finally, you will need to be focusing on good mood fats. The human brain is over 60% fat. Avoiding all fat can lead to anxiety, depression, and other mental health troubles. Omega-3 fats are particularly important. They are found in oil rich fish such as salmon and sardines along with pumpkin seeds, ground flax seeds or their oil and walnuts. You also need an adequate amount of omega-6 fats found in nuts and seeds.
By paying attention to the foods that you are eating and choosing wisely, you can begin to balance your mood in a healthy and natural way.
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