Top 5 Foods to Relieve Anxiety
Having an anxiety attack can be both debilitating and embarrassing. When your heart’s pounding, you’re feeling lightheaded and you’re scared without knowing why, you may feel like you’re dying, and it’s hard to explain to friends and family what’s going on. It’s hard to socialize when you have this kind of problem because you never know when an attack will hit. Fortunately, you can reduce your anxiety level by eating the right foods, especially if you combine a healthy diet with regular exercise. Here’s a list of the top five foods you can eat to help reduce your anxiety level. Remember to drink a lot of water as well; plain water does more for your anxiety level than almost anything else and stops you from drinking soda or coffee, which can contribute to anxiety.
1. Cold water fish such as tuna and salmon. Cold water fish is high in Omega-3 oils. These oils help stabilize your mood and reduce anxiety and depression. In addition, they help stabilize blood sugar, so if your anxiety hits when your blood sugar gets low, you may be able to prevent future anxiety attacks by eating fish. You should eat cold water fish at least three times a week. These foods are generally easy to prepare; you can get a can or pouch of tuna to use on a sandwich or bake salmon fillets in the oven.
2. Peaches. In general, fruit is good for anxiety because it contains vitamins and nutrients that can help you feel more balanced. Peaches are especially good because they have a natural tranquilizing effect and contain even more nutrients than most other foods. In addition, peaches are among the sweetest of foods, so they can help you avoid eating excessive sugar, which contributes to anxiety. Try to get fresh peaches during the summer months. If you aren’t satisfied with your local supermarket’s selection, try the farmer’s market.
3. Non-processed chocolate. Most of the chocolate you find in stores is full of fat and sugar, so it’s not healthy–or helpful to your anxiety–to eat it. However, if you buy raw chocolate, you can actually help your anxiety by eating it. Pure chocolate is loaded with magnesium; deficiency in this important mineral can cause anxiety. Look for chocolate that is high in cocoa and has been processed as little as possible.
4. Almonds. Almonds are an extremely healthy variety of nut. This nut contains zinc and vitamin B12, which both can contribute to your sense of well-being and lift your mood. Almonds are also high in iron, which can give you more energy. Although almonds are high in fat, the health benefits of this nut outweigh the risk, and some of the fat in almonds is monosaturated fat, which is healthy for you and helps prevent heart disease. You can eat almonds by the handful as well as get milk made from almonds in your supermarket’s health food aisle.
5. Tofu. Many people don’t like tofu because it has little taste of its own; however, this food is high in protein, which you need to keep anxiety at bay. If you use spices and sauces when cooking tofu, it can easily become a tasty part of your meal, and there are a variety of recipes available both online and in cookbooks to help you. If you’re not a tofu fan, try yogurt, beans and chicken to get your daily dose of protein.
Author Bio:
Tom writes for Assisted Living Today, a leading source of information on a range of topics related to home heating oil and Boston Heating Oil Prices.