Food can certainly be medicine. With a variety of nutrients that support our natural body processes, the foods you consume can support all types of healthy living. Many people acknowledge food connections, such as eating high-protein foods to gain muscle mass. But did you know that your foods improve mental health, too? Here are some ways we can use nutrition, along with food and lifestyle choices to support a strong mental health.
Blood Sugar and Mental Health
MedShadow’s own registered dietician nutritionist, Alison Acerra, MS, RDN, says that we can “focus on the importance of blood sugar control” to improve our mental health with our eating habits.
“Our brain’s primary food source is glucose,” explains Acerra. “Anytime our blood sugars crash, from high high, to a low low, it impacts on our mood. We might feel sad, anxious, or depressed, even more fatigue [depending on what we eat].”
Acerra says that such ups and downs lead to a vicious cycle causing us to eat more and more of the foods that can hinder positive mental health habits.
She says that when our sugars crash, we “go looking for more carbohydrates, more refined carbs, more sugar to bring [our blood sugar] back up. The cycle continues on and on.”
Instead of a blood sugar “roller coaster,” Acerra advises keeping a steady balance throughout the day.
“We want to maintain consistent blood sugars over the course of the day to help maintain stable moods,” she says.
5 Strategies to Eating for Mental Health
Here are five ways to balance both your blood sugars, and in turn your moods and mental health, with the foods you eat!
1. Include protein and fiber with all meals and snacks.
One great way to balance our blood sugars is to keep a high amount of protein and fiber in our bodies. To do so, Acerra recommends eating them with every meal.
“Protein and fiber are crucial because they slow down how fast the carbohydrates we eat in meals turns to sugar or glucose in our blood stream,” she says.
Adding these two food groups allow for a slow and steady rise in your body’s blood sugar to prevent peaks and valleys. Include protein and fiber to allow carbs to digest slowly and more evenly, providing a steady flow of “food” to the brain and avoiding mood swings.
2. Include nutrient-dense foods all day.
Acerra says that getting in “lots of nutrient-dense foods, whole foods, and minimally processed foods” allows room for healthy choices.
“Nutrients help mental health,” she says. “Whole foods provide the nutrients we need, and support mental health.”
Keeping the body full on these healthy foods will also limit room for unhealthy choices.
“This also helps to avoid added sugars or processed foods, which cause inflammation in the body,” says Acerra.
3. Get in more magnesium!
Foods that can contain magnesium help in balancing our mental health.
“Magnesium helps to stabilize blood sugars, which helps with relaxation, eases anxiety, and can help with wonderful sleep,” says Acerra.
She says that foods such as:
- Nuts and seeds (for example, pumpkin seeds)
- Chocolate
- Avocados
- Spinach
can be great choices to include more magnesium in your diet naturally. Should you not be able to eat enough of the nutrient, Acerra says that supplementation can help “to meet gaps.”
4. Think about how you manage stress.
In addition to the foods we eat, Acerra says just thinking about how we handle stress can help immensely in our diets and overall mental health.
“We need to make sure we are managing stress,” she says. “When we have more stress, acute stress or chronic stress, causing surges in our cortisol levels, [it is] pro-inflammatory, which impacts mood and mental health.”
Many people also suffer from eating or drinking alcohol when stress levels are higher. These are times we tend to pick less-than-healthy choices. Managing stress can reduce the likelihood of such tendencies.
5. Avoid dysregulations in blood sugar.
All of these tips lead to one major goal: keep a steady blood sugar level!
“When we manage stress, become more resilient to stress, it helps to stabilize blood sugar and prevent erratic highs and lows,” says Acerra. “It keeps cortisol levels in a good range.”
Stabilizing these levels prevents dramatic changes in mental health, allowing you to feel more in control and balanced.
