Top Foods To Boost Your Mood
Remember the old adage “You are what you eat”- so true and in every sense of the word. And, this can be seen most when you are depressed or stressed out – Emotional Eating, which ultimately makes you gain pounds, you wished against. Emotional eating is a hazard, it doesn’t satisfy your ‘hunger pangs’ per se, what it does is to ‘temporarily feed your mood’. The more you put junk into the body when low and down, the more would the body want – vicious cycle and the beginning of everything wrong.
So before you grab a can of condensed sweetness or those fries on the plate, the next time you are depressed or low, and emotional eating beckons, here are a few good foods to boost your mood.
Top Foods To Boost Your Mood
Leafy greens
If you like them dark, long and sprouty, leafy greens are meant for you. With plenty of minerals and vitamin B in them, Folate too, the leafy greens know how to boost the mood in no time. Leafy greens have the power to titillate mood enhancing chemicals in the brain – norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. You wouldn’t overdose on the salad bowl filled with them; the body and the mind get calmer and happier too.
Fruits
Papaya and oranges especially are rich sources of Vitamin B6, folic acid and Vitamin C. They help bring down your body weight too, and studies have shown, depressions biggest enemies are tangerines, oranges, papayas, grapefruit and lemons. Juice them up or have them whole.
Fish Oil
Very famous and a must have in each kitchen; Fish oil has a lot of ‘polyunsaturated fats’ in each serving; helps the brain function well, and keeps your heart happy. Baked salmon and mackerel, or any fish for that matter with high omega 3 fatty acids in them would be best to consume!
Saffron
Very popular across kitchens in India and the Middle East, Spain and some parts of Asia, Saffron has plenty of medicinal and therapeutic properties – enhancing the mood is one of them.
The spice is known to calm nerves and alleviate someone from depression too. A few strands of the spice are enough in warm milk on an empty stomach to do wonders.
Dark chocolate
Nothing enhances the mood best, other than a bar of dark chocolate. The chemicals found in dark chocolate can take you to a different level altogether – and the craving for a bite puts you in a cheerful mood too.
Carbs
With carbs you can have enough serotonin produced in the body. Concentration and energy levels too would rise, and mostly a bowl of crunchy carbs should be had between 3pm to 5pm, say dieticians. This is known as the ‘time-release’ moment; so a muffin which has oatmeal in it or honey would do fine. In 20 minutes your mood would be lifted high.
Recipe
• 1 cup dark chocolate
• 1 cup raisins, almonds and pistachios (mixed and unsalted)
• A pinch of chilli powder
Method
• In a deep dish on low flame, melt the dark chocolate until thick and flowing.
• Add to this the assorted nuts and stir for ten seconds
• Add a pinch of chilli powder and stir
• Remove from fire and empty into small round containers
• Let it cool (room temperature)
• Serves 4
Have a bite of this goodness dark sinful delight – and you wouldn’t want to emotionally eat anymore. The chilli adds the zing, while chocolate takes care of the craving.
Try these foods when you need a mood lift!
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