Good Food Creates Good Moods

Forget dieting; it’s time to bring some balance back into your food habits. What you eat has a direct effect on how you think and move. Your brain has approx. 10 billion nerves cells and your body, brain and nervous system are made up of food molecules, so you really are what you eat!

Due to the pressures of daily life- stress, pollution, additives, medicines and chemicals- your body is overloaded and usually nutritionally deprived. This directly affects your health and mood state. You’ve no doubt experienced that when you are sick, your mood drops as well. Your health and your state of mind are directly related.

Stay away from foods that bring little, if any, nutritional benefit to your body such as refined foods, sugars and polyunsaturated fats. Some fat is essential to good brain function, like those found in olive oil or avocadoes.  The main culprit, though, is sugar.

Sugar is added to almost everything, so even if you think you’re not consuming much, have a look at the ingredients in your most consumed foods. If one of the first two ingredients listed is sugar, ditch it!

Excessive sugar not only adds stress to your body, but also your mind. Sugar gives you unregulated mood swings. Eating a bar of chocolate will indulge you for the short term but once the effects wear off, your energy levels drop ...and so does your mood! You go up and then down; sugar is the rollercoaster of foods!

Start your day with a healthy breakfast. Your children aren’t the only ones who have to stay focused for the day! Protein foods such as eggs, yoghurt, cheese and chicken are excellent sources. To combat your stress, eat foods rich in Vitamin C such as citrus fruits, kiwi fruit, and apricots. And to help release energy from your food and give you the boost you need to keep going, you’ll need foods rich in Vitamin B such as dark green leafy vegetables, bananas, brown rice, oats and dairy products.