A few years ago, around 400BC, Hippocrates gave the advice that our diet, all that we eat and drink, was the most important part of being and staying healthy. Here I outline some of the ways that food can be used to help with anxiety issues.
If you want to de-stress without buying any medication, yet more books, or anything else, the first place you have to look at is your diet. There are many foods which will help to make you calmer. And quite a few foods which can make even the calmest cucumber agitated.
THE TWO MAIN FOOD GROUPS
The two main food group types can be summarised into Acid and Alkaline foods. They can also be characterised as Good and Bad. Unfortunately, in the Bad Food camp are all the foods we’ve been trained in the last thirty years or so to looooove…. cakes, biscuits, ice-creams, white bread, pasta….- the list is endless.
BUILDING A HEALTHY BODY IS BUILDING A CALM BODY.
The alkaline foods are the ones that build healthy calm bodies and minds. They're the foods your parents nagged you into eating when you were growing up.
Guess you figured it out: the foods and drinks under the heading of Acid food group are definitely anti-calming. That’s not open to debate any more. As well as being anti-calming, acid foods actually cause restlessness.
AND THE NUMBER ONE ANTI-CALMING FOOD IS?
What’s right up there at the top of the list of acidic foods? That’s right: Caffeine.
By now, you know that one of the reasons you feel you “need” your coffee, is that the substance is highly addictive. If you can’t kick your caffeine addiction, please make a personal commitment, from this moment on, to control it.
I can’t be hypocritical. I drink one cup of coffee per day. Never more than one. At one stage, I kicked the habit completely and may do that again. For the moment, it’s one coffee a day. No teas except caffeine-free herbal teas. Soft drinks including colas have quite high amounts of caffeine, so they’re off my diet. There are some newer non-alcoholic beverages with guarana in them and once again, they're highly stimulating, therefore de-calming. That’s how they’re marketed – as substances that can drive you to a frenzy.
FOODS WITH A HIGH GLYCAEMIC INDEX (GI)
The other major villains in the acidic camp are the foods which have a high Glycaemic Index (GI). They are preservatives, sugar and refined carbohydrates
That means that all preserved meats, particularly salami, ham and bacon are bad for you. Let’s not radically alter your eating patterns overnight. If you like a salami (or ham or bacon) sandwich, and you have two sandwiches with ham/salami/or bacon each week, cut it back to one a week.
After about a month, cut back to one sandwich with preserved meats a fortnight. Then cut back to one a month, one a quarter. After a few months, see how you feel.
HIGH GI = TOO MUCH INSULIN
Go to any Diabetes Institute and read their (usually) no-cost information about GI. That advice can be summarised as High GI = too much insulin
Foods with a high GI cause our bodies to secrete insulin to balance our sugar levels. The more our bodies have to secrete insulin, the less effectively our bodies metabolise all foods. That’s one reason why losing weight is very difficult if you continue to eat refined carbohydrates, sugar and preserved foods. Even if you reduce the number of calories, if those calories are coming from refined carbohydrates, sugar and preserved foods, your metabolism is still under threat because your body has to secrete too much insulin.
SUGAR IS STRESS-INDUCING
Sugar is one of the many substances we eat and drink that make us even more jumpy than normal. You can see its immediate effects on very young children. Even people who are not particularly interested in healthy eating will say about their little child : “Oh look at him! He’s always so hyper (active) after he’s had those lollies (that candy, those sweets).” Most of us can see that eating candy with particular colours make us very agitated: blue and green artificial colourings are the worst.
Monitor your own reaction to sweet things. Do you love eating an ice cream at the movies but feel quite tired most days? That general low level fatigue could very well be due to over indulgence in refined sugar.
NOW FOR THE GOOD FOODS AND THE GOOD NEWS
The calming foods are the ones in the low glycaemic index (GI) groups – proteins (fish, meat, eggs, tofu, soya), good fats, the whole grained breads, whole meal pastas, brown or basmati rice, fresh raw fruits and vegetables.
THE #1 NUTRITIONAL ANGEL, THE BEST FAST FOOD: SPROUTS.
Apart from eating them raw, the very best way to eat a number of vegetables and grains is to sprout them.
For example, the vitamin B content of oats soars by 200% when sprouted. I provide more information about the nutritional value of sprouts in Anxiety and Panic Attacks - the Ultimate Solution (www.calmingwords.com ). Here I just want to alert you to their amazing health benefits.
Alfalfa sprouts have more chlorophyll than spinach, kale, cabbage or parsley. Soybean sprouts have 28% protein – twice that in eggs and only 10% of the fat. Lentils comprise 26% protein when sprouted.
That's it for now, but do please look out for my article on vitamins and minerals that keep you calm.
No comments:
Post a Comment