Can Food be the Mood Cure?
Do you know what is in your food? How aware are you of the fuel on your plate?
Did you know that the food you eat impacts your state of mind? Your choices with what you put in your mouth can determine whether you are happy, joyful, motivated, content and at peace or anxious, tired, stressed, angry, lazy and discontented.
Can food be the Mood Cure?
Having the freedom to know what is in your food to make better choices will keep you in control of your mind and allow you to choose foods that are healing to your Mood.
The anti-nutrient Food Pandemic
Anti-nutrient food is a silent pandemic that creeps up when you are plugged into the system — a fast-paced diet designed for consumers in the zone or the struggle. They are unaware of the sneaky truth they have grown so comfortable loving and depending on - their food is toxic. These anti-nutrients include oxidants, alcohol, sugar, stimulants, poisonous minerals and processed foods.
Not only are these anti-nutrients addictive, but they are unhealthy for your blood sugar and cause imbalances in your mind.
These chemical-based foods are dead ingredients that act as flavour enhancers, binders, fillers and isolated compounds. As a result, they slowly degrade your body and mind by providing empty calories, processed sugars, free radicals, and Trans and Saturated Fats lacking in quality nutrients.
Processed Foods such as White Flour, Granola Bars, Fried Foods, Types of Cereals, Pasteurized Juices, Milk and Cheeses, Candy, milk chocolates, and Alcohol disrupt the Natural Body and Mind Health.
Why?
These foods are not in their whole forms. Instead, they have been processed and stripped of their natural states, where they once held abundant nutrients protecting the Microbiome and providing the body and mind with essential fuel.
As a result, what is left of these foods are simple, fast-acting sugars of high-fat empty calories that are responsible for damaging nerve cells and stopping them from working accordingly. This brain damage causes anxiety, depression, Bipolar disease, forms of schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Whole Organic Natural Food and its Nutrients
Several key nutrients are designed to keep the body and mind healthy and balanced, and they are solely found in whole organic natural foods. These foods are our planet’s natural resources that have not been compromised or vastly manipulated. Instead, these whole foods are designed for our biochemical makeup that thrives at full vitality when consumed.
To protect the brain and keep the mind happy, you must absorb various antioxidants that protect the brain from free radicals when working together.
Whole Organic Natural foods contain these antioxidants as follows:
Vitamin C — berries, tomatoes, citrus fruit, peppers, broccoli
Vitamin E — Wheat germ, nuts, seeds, beans, cold-pressed oils, fish
Beta Carotene — carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, watercress, dried apricots
Selenium — Brazil nuts, tuna, mushrooms, molasses, oysters
Lipoic Acid — Red meat, carrots, yams, beets, spinach, potatoes
Co-enzyme Q — Mackerel, nuts, seeds, sardines, soy
Glutathione — Legumes, tuna, nuts, garlic, onions, seeds
Anthocyanidins — red grapes, beets, cherries, berries, prunes
Stay Lifted, stay balanced, and Eat Good Fats and Quality Protein
The brain requires Healthy Fats such as DHEA and Omega 3s to control stress, maintain proper mineral balance, control the production of sex hormones and maintain lean body mass while reducing fat tissue. The University of California has shown that DHEA supplementation can significantly improve memory and depression.
DHEA and Omega 3 fatty acids are found in Wild Caught Salmons, Mackerel, Cod, flax seeds, shrimp, Chia Seeds, Walnuts, wild yams, soy proteins, Golden Root, and Roseroot
The body and brain require quality protein that is easily assimilated into necessary amino acids responsible for the functioning of neurotransmitters in the brain. These neurotransmitters influence our Mood and motivation and balance our stress levels.
Tryptophan is an amino acid found in bananas, oats, organic hormone-free Chicken, Dried prunes, raw milk and cheeses, peanuts and chocolate. It converts into 5-HTP and finally to Serotonin, a neurotransmitter responsible for a balanced mood.
Phenylalanine found in Grass Fed Beef, Lamb, Organic Hormone Free Chicken, Wild caught Salmon, trout, tuna, mackerel, shrimp, Whole Eggs, and nuts will convert into Tyrosine and finally to Dopamine, Noradrenaline and Adrenaline, responsible for our motivation, stress levels and reward centers.
The Ecosystem of Critters in our Gut
Inside our guts is a beautiful ecosystem of life that thrives depending on what we feed it. As a result, our stomachs have a balance of harmful and good bacteria, which naturally live in a healthy equilibrium known as gut flora. The harmful bacteria thrive on anti-nutrients of processed sugars, yeast, stimulants, oxidants, heavy metals and unnatural environmental factors. At the same time, good bacteria thrive on plant-based foods and whole organic natural resources from the earth.
It is crucial to keep your Good Bacteria at a higher advantage in your body to promote healthy digestion, a balanced immune system and a healthy mental and spiritual state.
Live natural foods contain active enzymes that digest the food for us and put less stress on our digestive organs, such as the pancreas, the stomach, the liver, the kidneys and so on.
The mood-balancing neurotransmitter serotonin is created in the gut in response to the receptors that surround the digestive system. Thus, by feeding your body’s good bacteria, you manifest a healthy digestive system that functions efficiently and releases good feelings, happy thoughts, and balanced perception of reality, reflecting a healthy rhythm and sound mind.
How to embody a Healthy Mind to Balance your Mood.
Nutrition
To embody a healthy state of mind and work to stay in a good mood, one should include Natural Organic Whole foods such as Wild Fish, Organic Poultry, Raw Milk and cheeses and plant-based foods high in live nutrients such as Legumes, Nuts, Seeds, Whole Grains, Fruits, Green Leaves and Cruciferous vegetables. These nutrient-dense foods will feed the good flora in the gut and provide the body with vital nutrients, promoting a healthy body, mind and spirit.
One should limit their intake of toxic anti-nutrients such as oxidants found in burned oils, stimulants such as tobacco, processed foods such as White flour, High fructose corn syrup, fillers, binds, natural flavours, enhancers, etc. You want to avoid feeding the harmful bacteria.
However, as a food scientist, I strongly believe in moderation, evolution, adaptation, and genetic mutation.
It is important to note that anti-nutrients surround us. Therefore, finding a healthy relationship with awareness of these foods and creating balance and moderation are the keys to a healthy body and mind.
Lifestyle
It is essential to recognize that food is not the only source of living a healthy life with a happy mind filled with peace and contentment. To be connected to your food and understand its source’s value, you need a solid connection to your soul and natural healthy rhythms. Practices such as Meditation, Movement, Cooking, Cleaning and acts of service that feed the good spirits in your life magnify your awareness of what you put in your body. Thus, you can make better choices that reflect how you feel inside yourself.
It is important to note that media consumption can stimulate our dopamine receptors in an addictive form. It creates a feeling of instant gratification that is short-lived and unsustainable. Furthermore, this surrounding digital reality can lead to addictive behavior to other stimulants such as caffeine, alcohol, processed sugar, and chemical drugs. This consumption creates an imbalance in the nervous system, making one anxious, depressed, angry, frustrated, and sometimes dealing with intrusive thoughts and manipulative implications.
>>Are you Struggling with Intrusive Thoughts? Read Overcome Telepathic Abuse: 10 ways to heal your mind.
Thus, with awareness, focus on creating positive habits and routines surrounding your digital media to limit the intake and be mindful of the information and the energetic radiation you are exposed to regularly.
Supplementation
Supplementation is a fabulous way to enhance the positive nutrition and lifestyle you implement daily to maintain a healthy mood.
If one is deficient in specific nutrients, it can disrupt the natural balance and harm the mind. Thus, supplementation can significantly enhance your state if you cannot get it from food.
5-HTP is a precursor to releasing this happy molecule to create a natural release of serotonin in the body.
Precursor L-Tyrosine will blast your low moods and help you set goals to enhance motivation and stimulate your metabolism in active form.
To ease your stress and relax your mind, take the amino acid Taurine with the neurotransmitter Gaba to reduce anxiety.
If you are dealing with insomnia or disrupted sleep, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Iron, and Vitamin E can all be taken in supplement form.
Exercise
Movement is a natural antidepressant that stimulates the flow of your blood and lymphatic fluid and the detoxification of harmful compounds. You are like a recycling machine when you exercise and undergo creative construction, detoxification, and regeneration.
Exercise stimulates dopamine receptors and releases endorphins, making you happy and stabilizing your Mood.
In addition, exercise stimulates natural contraction and relaxation of the muscles and organ functions. Thus, peristalsis can occur in the stomach when you exercise, increasing your metabolism, detoxifying the body and keeping your gut mentally healthy.
Are you eating for a healthy mind?
Understanding the food you choose in your diet is essential to living without stress, anxiety, depression and other mental instabilities.
Natural, Whole Plant-based foods are provided to us by this planet to utilize and maintain so we can be healthy inside and out. These foods are born to our biochemical needs and provide essential nutrients, a healthy mind, and a good mood.
