Our food directly impacts our health and our general wellbeing but also our mood. Classical signs which indicate that our body and brain do not get enough necessary nutrients are mood swings, irritability, tiredness, and attention deficit, and many of us are suffering from them.
The link between depression and vitamins
A typical depressed person would rather eat low nutritional comfort foods than vitamin and mineral rich leafy greens. This kind of unhealthy choice would further enhance the lack of necessary vitamins for the brain. The deficiency of most B-group vitamins is linked to being unwell emotionally and psychologically. It makes us feel depressed, tired, anxious, clumsy with decreasing appetite, and finding it difficult to sleep well.
Vitamins are essential for keeping our nervous system functional and blood sugar balanced. B-group vitamins have the most important part, especially folate which most westerners lack these days. We also need to keep our minerals balanced – if we lack magnesium we could end up with extreme emotional reactions and feelings.
The food problem
Oftentimes our diet is rather unbalanced if not unhealthy. Of course, there are exceptions, but they would probably not be reading this article as they do not share any of the symptoms, which is fantastic!
However – nowadays the food is often overly processed, cooked and fried too deeply, and does not contain enough fresh and raw vegetables. Combination of food groups and keeping the processing of it minimum is important for higher nutritional value of any meal. Steaming and lightly frying the veggies can be a better alternative to thorough boiling for instance – the frying of a broccoli can be light, just enough to get some nice touch for the outside layer but keep it raw and crunchy in the inside – and as such, more nutritious than if to cook, boil or fry it entirely.
Another challenge for us is that due to intense farming the soil itself lacks necessary minerals and as such the veggies we consume are rather poor in minerals and vitamins. Also, typically we eat vegetables and fruits also off season when their nutritional potential has decreased greatly. In case the harvest has been ripe and frozen right away the frozen veggies and berries may contain more of what we need than the good-looking fresh vegetables on the counter.
Chew it well!
Did you know that digestion starts in your mouth and the saliva that is emitted during chewing your food kicks the digestion process off? This is why it is important to really chew each bite thoroughly.
The anti-foods
Let’s imagine that we eat balanced and well, do not overly process anything and could expect having all the necessary vitamins and minerals for our proper functioning, but for some strange reason the anxiety, exhaustion, depression etc still kicks in time to time.
One reason may be that we are consuming anti-foods which exhaust our nutrients whilst our body is processing them. Sugar, coffee, tea, cigarettes, and carbonized drinks prevent the absorption of the nutrients in our body.
One easy way to feel better and more energetic is to cut off consumption of anti-foods as it helps our body store healthy nutrients.