Tart red cherries have the highest known melatonin content and can help with quality sleep.
This year has put us all at the top of the highest roller-coaster on Earth and taken life, our emotions and feelings on a ride. We are still on that ride and stress, anxiety, feeling down, and other unwanted mental states likely have taken a toll on your mental health. But you can use the food you eat to help your mind and body at this time.
Adaptogens
Let’s start with the powerful group of adaptogens. Adaptogens are a group of herbs that support the way our bodies deal with stress, specific to their current states. This means when you feel stressed, drinking a tea that has adaptogen properties will elicit a biochemical response to help your body relax. However, if you feel down, unmotivated or apathetic, the same drink will have a stimulating response in the body.
Some of the most well known adaptogens include ginseng, ashwaganda, rhodiola rosea and holy basil. A great introduction to adaptogens is through organic herbal teas. Try picking out a tea to try and create a new ritual with hot tea (add a touch of local honey if sweetness is desired), in a special mug to provide comfort as needed.
Rhodiola rosea is used as a tea to relieve fatigue or exhaustion or to improve performance and endurance.
Melatonin
How are you sleeping? With so much on your mind, stress and anxiety commonly can cause you to have trouble falling or staying asleep. Quality sleep is critical for overall well-being. Therefore, incorporate some melatonin-rich foods to boost your levels for an easier time drifting off at night.
Tart cherries have the highest known melatonin content, but it can also be found in foods like bananas, oatmeal and walnuts. Choose real foods, not processed snack foods that come in packages, to help boost the natural melatonin in your body. Try blending tart cherries into smoothies, adding them to oatmeal or having a couple ounces of 100% tart cherry juice.
Whole foods
Our food choices also impact our desire and motivation to exercise. Physical activity is well known for influencing endorphin (the feel-good hormone) production. However, if we are in a cycle of poor food choices, with high sugar and fat, it is a challenge to feel motivated to exercise.
Carrie Bloemers is a registered dietitian at Lee Health and manager of the Healthy Life Center.
So, as a registered dietitian always does, I support the recommendation of focusing on whole foods, regular meal times, drinking lots of water, while decreasing those processed foods that are high in harmful fats and sugar. When we choose healthy foods, we feel better about our health and are more likely to choose healthy behaviors.
A healthy gut
While on the topic of choosing whole foods, it connects nicely to the last point for today. Approximately 90% of all neurotransmitters are made by the cells in the gut. Neurotransmitters have been referred to as “the language of your brain.” These chemical messengers help us feel motivated, stabilize mood, assist with falling asleep and influence our overall health. You may be familiar with some of the most common ones: serotonin, dopamine, GABA, adrenaline and oxytocin.
To keep up a healthy, stable production of these neurotransmitters we need a healthy gut. By choosing foods high in fiber and phytonutrients we are supporting overall gut health and microbiome. Foods high in sugar and harmful fats can lead to dysbiosis and inflammation of the intestinal lining and impact not only GI symptoms, but your mood and how you feel.
The information in this column is not a substitute for professional medical advice.