Good Food, Good Mood
Having a good mental health has a lot to do with our diets. Having a healthy diet provides your brain with the necessary nutrients to function to the best of its ability. It will increase your focus in school, increase energy & mood. The suggestions for a healthy diet in this blog are based on research and apply to most individuals, if your doctor told you to follow a different diet for you be sure to follow that!
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Like all other organs the brain functions best when it is provided with nutritious foods. Too much of anything can be a bad thing. If a person’s diet is comprised of mostly sugars & fatty food it can negatively affect your mental health. We all love having sweets and bread but having a good diet is all about having a good balance of your food. It’s perfectly fine to have sweets but it is important to make sure you are getting the good nutritious stuff to fuel your body first. This includes eating proteins (chicken, beans, eggs, nuts), vegetables (spinach, carrots, broccoli), fruits, whole grains (brown rice, oatmeal, whole wheat bread & pasta), calcium rich foods (cheese, almond milk, yogurt, dark green leafy vegetables).
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Starting a healthy diet can be hard especially because high salt, sugar & fatty foods taste very good. However, a healthy diet doesn’t mean sacrificing good flavors. There are plenty of good & healthy foods that are great substitutes for your favorite unhealthy foods. See our list of delicious & healthy recipes to try out! Having a healthy diet doesn’t happen overnight, gradual changes in your diet to healthier foods will allow you to have a good transition to a healthy & nutritious diet. Another suggestion is to start paying attention to how different foods make your feel. Everyone is unique and has different tastes, bodies & feelings toward different foods, it is good for you to try new foods and figure out what types of good foods make you feel the best.
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What does my diet have to do with how I feel?
Serotonin is a chemical in our body that controls how we feel. Serotonin helps improve your sleep, appetite, & mood. Serotonin is mainly produced in our stomach and it has a lot to do with the foods we eat. Fibers, wholes grains, fruits, & vegetables all work in our digestive tract to promote the growth of good bacteria in our gut, this good bacterium increases serotonin thus improving our mood. The better we eat the more serotonin we make, thus increasing our mood & sense of wellbeing. On the other hand, foods that are high in fat and sugar have been shown to reduce the number of good bacteria in the gut decreasing the amount of serotonin in our body.
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An amazing resource to get educated on how to take charge of your health:
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Our resource tab has great information on links for food resources near you
Don't forgot to check out our blog post on healthy eating & recipes