Mental Health Awareness

Here are few ideas of what you can do to get yourself into positive spirits.

There are so many things that you can do to support mind function especially dietary wise.  Remember, food is fuel to give you energy and drive to do things, therefore what you are eating has an impact on how you will feel.

Example of where food affects your mood and how to support that

Blood sugar balancing

Problem If you aren’t doing a physically energy demanding activity and you eat certain foods you can cause a spike in your blood sugar levels. The spike tells your body to release insulin to store the sugar in cells so that you don’t pass out from too much glucose whizzing round your body.    When the sugar is packed into cells you can have a major dip in your blood sugar causing you to feel a bit emotional ie: irrational, moody and sad.

Common causes of blood sugar spikes and dips:

• Chocolate, crisps, sugar, refined carbohydrates
• Caffeinated and fizzy drinks
• Portions bigger than your two fists put together as this is the size of your stomach
• Smoking
• Alcohol
• Sweeteners
• Carb loading
• Longer than 4 hours without eating
• Stress

Solutions:

• Eat protein or fat with everything you have ie beans, meat, fish, eggs, pulses, avocado, nuts and seeds
• meal portions no bigger than your two fists together
• de-stress with breathing exercises
• herbal teas
• chromium rich foods (ie: broccoli, mushrooms, green beans, eggs, and meat)
• Eat B vitamin rich foods such as rice, meat, avocado, green leafy vegetables, sea plankton to encourage the production of positive brain chemicals to be produced.

Sunshine 

Problem most people in a westernised world don’t get enough sunshine as people tend to spend most of their time indoors whether it be working, or social and one of the reasons for that is unfortunately we don’t have great whether or year round in the UK 

Solution sunshine for at least 20 mins per day helps you produce the happy vitamin D, due to the lack of sunshine that we can get in the UK it may be a good option to take supplementation to improve mood especially during the winter.

Essential fatty acids essential for the mind

Problem low fat diets and the choice of poor fats in the diet, ie rich in saturated fats from biscuits and pastries means that people are not fuelling their brain.  Think about it this way; the brain is made up from between 60-70% fat.

Solution its all about the fats you do choose to eat so aim for omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids from oily fish and nuts to help your mind function. Include these foods daily, both fats together have been used together to improve symptoms of most mental health problems.

Exercise

A great way to encourage endorphins to keep you feeling happy.  If you go for a run outside, even better as you will be getting your happy hormones from the sun too.