The Top Foods That Fight Stress
Excerpts from an article found at healthyurbankitchen.com, January 1st, 2009
Your brain & body are amazing. They come with a 24 hour, all natural, highly efficient pharmacy that dispenses the right drugs in the right amounts at the right times. During stressful times, the brain & body produces bio-chemicals and hormones from this pharmacy that help you stay calm, alert, focused and elevate your mood. When we are stressed, we naturally use up these bio-chemicals.So it makes sense then to choose foods that are higher in these aminos to support us in stressful times.
Unfortunately, most people tend to do the opposite. Many Americans do things that deplete these bio-chemicals, like reach for coffee, alcohol or junk food. Excuses like ‘it takes the edge off’ or ‘it calms my nerves’ or delusional concepts like ‘comfort foods’ often accompany this approach. Before you know it, your overwhelmed, overweight, exhausted, under slept, underfed, have bags under your eyes, blood pressure is off the charts!
Welcome to burnout.
A much more intelligent, sustainable and profitable approach to reducing stress is to specific foods that enhance health, give us energy and keep our body’s pharmacy stocked up, simultaneously avoiding the stimulants & habits that deplete them.These foods are high in tryptophan and tyrosine which support your body’s production of serotonin and catecholamines. These foods can alter your mood and offer many other benefits that are essential for reducing stress and improving health & wellness. Best of all, there are no side effects, nervousness and no risk of addiction.
Stress Reducing Fruits - the fruits that are highest in tryptophan & tyrosine include avocado, kiwi, cranberries, raisins, guava, plantains, figs and last but certainly not least, starfruit. If some of these fruits are not part of your normal routine, then when would be the perfect time to get more variety into your diet while eating good mood foods that are also juicy and delicious.
A comprehensive stress management program means not only avoiding foods & habits that are stressful, but also choosing smart foods that are supportive.
Your brain & body are amazing. They come with a 24 hour, all natural, highly efficient pharmacy that dispenses the right drugs in the right amounts at the right times. During stressful times, the brain & body produces bio-chemicals and hormones from this pharmacy that help you stay calm, alert, focused and elevate your mood. When we are stressed, we naturally use up these bio-chemicals.So it makes sense then to choose foods that are higher in these aminos to support us in stressful times.
Unfortunately, most people tend to do the opposite. Many Americans do things that deplete these bio-chemicals, like reach for coffee, alcohol or junk food. Excuses like ‘it takes the edge off’ or ‘it calms my nerves’ or delusional concepts like ‘comfort foods’ often accompany this approach. Before you know it, your overwhelmed, overweight, exhausted, under slept, underfed, have bags under your eyes, blood pressure is off the charts!
Welcome to burnout.
A much more intelligent, sustainable and profitable approach to reducing stress is to specific foods that enhance health, give us energy and keep our body’s pharmacy stocked up, simultaneously avoiding the stimulants & habits that deplete them.These foods are high in tryptophan and tyrosine which support your body’s production of serotonin and catecholamines. These foods can alter your mood and offer many other benefits that are essential for reducing stress and improving health & wellness. Best of all, there are no side effects, nervousness and no risk of addiction.
Stress Reducing Fruits - the fruits that are highest in tryptophan & tyrosine include avocado, kiwi, cranberries, raisins, guava, plantains, figs and last but certainly not least, starfruit. If some of these fruits are not part of your normal routine, then when would be the perfect time to get more variety into your diet while eating good mood foods that are also juicy and delicious.
A comprehensive stress management program means not only avoiding foods & habits that are stressful, but also choosing smart foods that are supportive.
