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Depression has a range of causes, both physical and emotional. Diet can play a role in depression, as does sunshine. While comfort eating (eating high-fat high-starch foods to recapture feelings of love and nurture) can be harmful, eating the right foods in moderation can help treat the symptoms of depression and regulate moods.
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Good Mood Foods positivetranceformations.com.au
The first of the good foods for helping to alleviate the symptoms
of depression is oily fish.
These are high in omega-3 fatty acids, and these are beneficial for
your heart as well as for your soul.
Tuna, mackerel and salmon are the most common oily fish, which you can eat as part of your regular diet (e.g. tinned tuna sandwiches
for lunch, salmon as the main meal for dinner).
Alternatively, you can take fish oil supplements. This sounds like the sort of thing an old granny would do – taking cod liver oil – but like
many other traditional remedies, it does work.
Perhaps you can visualise a merry old crone or an ideal grandmother
who loves you and encourages you to take it.
The second helpful food is banana.
Bananas contain tryptophan, which the body converts to
serotonin.
Problems with serotonin lie behind many cases of depression, and many antidepressants aim to
maintain a good level of serotonin in the brain.
Eating bananas also helps with sleeping problems.
In Queensland, we’re a banana-growing centre, so there’s no
excuse for you not to eat them unless you’re allergic to them.
Have them as snacks, add them to wholegrain cereals for breakfast or dress them up to make a dessert.
Wholegrains are also recommended by dieticians
because they are a rich source of some of the B vitamin group,
especially Vitamin B1, Vitamin B3 and Folate.
The B vitamin group helps control and regulate moods, and can help combat some of the problems with
mood swings.
Last but certainly not least in the list of foods that can help moods
is dark chocolate, with an emphasis on the “dark”.
Dark chocolate with a high proportion of cocoa solids (70% or more) is extremely high in a large range of vitamins and minerals, including selenium, which is hard
to get from other sources.
Dark chocolate also contains a substance that stimulates the body to produce the substance
that biochemists refer to as PEA, another powerful feel-good
chemical that the body naturally produces in quantity during happy
experiences.
Now, what you believe is pretty powerful, but you’re not just
imagining things if you feel more cheerful after having a bit of
chocolate.
Here, two things have to be borne in mind before you give yourself
license to wolf down a huge family-sized block of dairy-milk
chocolate: Dark and Moderation.
The good thing about dark chocolate is that it naturally
makes you feel full and satisfied, so it’s hard to really pig out on it.
They say that about 50 g a day will give you the vitamin and
mineral boost you need.
Molasses and Brazil nuts are also mentioned as being beneficial
for helping to relieve the symptoms of depression.
So here goes a recipe combining as many of the beneficial foods as possible. Take two bananas and
slice them. Chop up a cup or so of Brazil nuts and sprinkle over the
chopped bananas.
Melt 50 g dark chocolate (70% or more cocoa solids) and pour this over the nuts and bananas. Add a tablespoon of molasses. Take the
bowl outside and eat it in the sunshine while reading a funny or
cheerful book.