Coping With Depression And Anxiety: Can Healthy Eating Make a Difference?
Anxiety and depression are two different things. But they can accompany each other where either depression or anxiety is the main problem.
At some point or the other, every one of us has been depressed or anxious for some or other reason. Therefore, we have a different way of coping with being sad or depressed.
Feeling depressed every now and then is normal when related to loss, challenges, or robust injured self-esteem. Depression can make you feel worthless or that nobody really cares or understands.
Experiencing anxiety from time to time is a normal part of life. Good news: we can deal with it by doing everything we can to improve our well-being conditions.
What are the best foods, vitamins, and minerals to fight anxiety and depression?
Food is considered the best medicine for a human being.
All human cells, bones, tissues are built with what we eat. Many studies have proven that people who eat an anti-inflammatory diet have a lower risk of depression.
Many foods happen scientifically, which may lift the person’s feeling. These meals can boost the potency of antidepressants and ease your own depression naturally and safely.
Serotonin Matters
Serotonin is one of the most essential blood values in anxiety and depression. This hormone influences many physical activities and comes from the central nervous system. Serotonin affects various processes within the organism.
Low serotonin levels indicate a bad mood. People concerned suffer from emotional stress, which may lead to depression.
If stress is due to the lack of serotonin, then having turkey or chicken breast as the lean protein would helpful. These meals contain tryptophan that can potentially be converted into serotonin in the human body. Try to eat something with protein several times a day to clear your mind and boost your energy.
Besides, dark chocolate stimulates brain cells to produce dopamine that activates the brain’s reward centre, helps release serotonin, and relax the cardiovascular system’s blood vessels.
Other good sources of healthy proteins: milk, peas, beans, lean beef, low-fat cheese, soy products, etc.
Role of Omega-3
Omega-3 seems to have benefits and play a preventative role.
We can obtain it by eating cold-water fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, herring, and the like) and also from fish-oil capsules. It works as well as antidepressants because fish oil is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which people with depression may have low blood levels of these brain chemicals.
EPA and DHA must be obtained through dietary intake because the human body can’t produce them.
Omega-3 supplements may help prevent and treat depression and anxiety. EPA seems to be the most effective at fighting depression.
Anxiety, Caffeine, and Sugar
Depression and anxiety commonly occur together, and there’s no doubt that caffeine and sugar may exacerbate them together.
Caffeine is a stimulant.
For some people, caffeine may help with concentration and boost energy. Still, it can cause problems for those with a general anxiety disorder.
If you have baseline anxiety, caffeine can make it worse. It can certainly cause anxiety “coffee jitters” — an actual caffeine psychosis. Anything which leads to sleep deprivation can cause psychosis.
Caffeine and sugar together or separately can trigger dopamine reward. When we crash, we reach for a cup of coffee with candy or cake, and it feels good for a minute, we get the rush, and later we crash again. Though, the cycle repeats itself.
It was reported that sugar intake was associated with depression because it altered endorphin levels and oxidative stress.–Westover, A.N.; Marangell, L.B. A cross-national relationship between sugar consumption and major depression? Depress. Anxiety 2002, 16, 118–120.
Oxidative stress sources trigger inflammation. Inflammation is part of the human body’s natural healing process. Still, high blood sugar, or hyperglycemia, can cause chronic inflammation that will drive changes in neurotransmitters and neurocircuits and lead to depressive symptoms.
According to the Cambridge University study, people who often eat processed foods such as sweets, desserts, fried and processed meals are more likely to be diagnosed with depression than people who mainly rely on unprocessed and whole foods.
Dealing with depression and excessive stress requires avoiding caffeinated drinks and processed sugars and simple carbs such as sugary breakfast cereals and white flour baked goods. Although they act as a quick energy fix, they cause an insulin rush in our body, and the energy suddenly drops and leaves you more worn out a few minutes later.
Best Vitamins for Stress and Anxiety
We are better prepared to deal with stress and anxiety if our diet is healthy, balanced, and nutritious, providing all the necessary vitamins and minerals.
Many of the B vitamins, including B6 (Pyridoxine), B1 (Thiamine), and B3 (Niacinamide), are excellent supplements for anxiety. In particular, B12 (Cobalamine) deficiency may develop anxiety neurosis symptoms.
”Vitamins B1, B3, B6, B9 and B12 are essential for neuronal function, and deficiencies have been linked to depression.” — Kathleen Mikkelsen, Lily Stojanovska, Vasso Apostolopoulos. The Effects of Vitamin B in Depression, 2016
Vitamin D is a key player when it comes to your mental health. It’s produced in our skin from cholesterol using the energy from ultraviolet B (UVB) rays. The more skin you expose to sunlight, the more vitamin D is produced. Today it’s also possible to get vitamin D by taking supplements like Vitamin D3 that is easier for the human body to absorb.
Food that is rich in Vitamin B and Vitamin D, including fish, egg yolks, nuts, legumes, avocados, dark oats, leafy vegetables (broccoli, spinach, etc.), can help with depression and can be considered in daily servings.
Magnesium Helps Too
The research shows that magnesium can help brain functions reduce stress and anxiety.
Basically, magnesium relieves stress and helps calm the body and relax muscles by dampening adrenaline and cortisol release. It indirectly calms down inflammation by its antioxidant effects on the inflammatory processes.
The lower the magnesium levels we have, the more stress and anxiety we get. The more stress and anxiety we get, the more we lose magnesium (stress hormones — catecholamine release goes up).
However, extra magnesium can help build up our immune resources back, because it affects the nervous system that relaxes the body. It’s the mineral for better sleep and mood.
Water Can Heal
Chronic dehydration might cause depression. It’s an electrolyte imbalance!
Remember that we will have health problems if we don’t have enough fluids inside our cells. No wonder, since our body is 70% of water and our brain is about 85% of water. To survive, we need fresh water along with the essential minerals to maintain the function of all of our 9 trillion brain cells.
Water is the most effective natural medicine to help manage and eliminate the warning signs of depression, such as enormous stress and anxiety.
Drink plenty of water! At least 5–6 full glasses as dehydration can cause low energy levels. Hydration is the key to boosting metabolism and, therefore, energy levels, elevating the mood.
Bottom Line
Feeling stressed makes us eat badly, but eating badly can also make us depressed in the long run.
The foods we choose under challenging times are often rich in sugars and saturated fats, stimulating excessive dopamine and serotonin pathways, two neurotransmitters associated with happiness. Hence, they make us feel good, but only at the moment.
For that reason, a balanced diet can make a significant difference for some types of anxiety. It doesn’t usually have the same degree of impact on depression or specific types of anxiety such as social anxiety or OCD.
Still, generalised anxiety can be triggered by nutrient deficiencies. Moreover, a poor diet certainly can worsen depression.
If we aren’t eating to keep our body healthy, our mind will have a much harder time keeping itself healthy.
There is a lot of truth in the old saying “healthy mind in a healthy body.”
Disclaimer: The article isn’t medical advice. Author is not a medical doctor. The information is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose or treat any medical conditions.
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