Managing Stress - Part 3
Top Foods for Stress Relief
Eating regularly and having lots of nutrient-dense food is important to help your body when you’re under a lot of stress. Here are a handful of particularly stress-busting foods.
Matcha Tea –
This beautiful green powder is high in antioxidants and is also high in the super calming amino acid L-Theanine. All green tea has L-Theanine, but matcha is extra high because of how it’s grown (it’s grown in the shade).
You can drink it as a tea, add it to smoothies, or make yummy matcha cookies.
Dark leafy greens (chard, kale, collard greens, etc)
Steam these puppies and you’ll get a pile of stress-relieving magnesium. Magnesium helps to relax your muscles and helps you sleep.
1 cup of chard gives you 1/3 of your daily needs of magnesium. Steaming helps to open up the cell walls and release all of the minerals.
Sweet Potatoes (and other starchy veggies)
Starches are currently out of fashion because carbs are out of fashion, but they are very important during a high stress day. A study done on women found that regularly eating whole, nutrient-dense starchy vegetables helped to lower cortisol.
Cortisol gives you that boost of energy in a stressful day, but longterm high cortisol can cause high blood pressure, weight around the waist, and inflammation. Enjoy some sweet potatoes to lower your cortisol! YUM!
(btw, very low carb diets, like Keto, can cause high cortisol…so watch out for those)
Fermented veggies (sauerkraut, kim chi, etc)
Fermenting food can unlock nutrients, like B vitamins, but their superpower is found in your gut. Eat fermented veggies is like sprinkling fertilizer on your gut bacteria and it helps your microbiome grow into a strong and varied community.
A strong microbiome can help calm anxiety, boost low mood, and help calm down stress. A study found that fermented food can even help to calm down social anxiety! There’s so much we don’t know about the gut/brain connection that there may be MANY other great benefits to fermented foods.
Just one serving a day is enough, about 1 – 2 spoonfuls.
Egg yolks (free range or farm fresh preferred)
Egg yolks are full of amazing nutrients, including the brain superfood choline. Few foods are sources of choline, and egg yolks are easy sources. Choline is important for our mood and can help to relieve stress.
Beans
Beans are really high in B vitamins, magnesium and are a good source of tryptophan. Your body burns through a lot of B vitamins and magnesium during a stressful day, and many of us are deficient. Tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin, which helps to balance mood.
If you have any questions, jump to our private Facebook Group or the Ask Lisa page :)