Anti-Stress Nutrition - How to Use Food to Stress Proof Your Family

Are you looking for anti-stress nutrition for your family? There are many foods which can relieve stress and help you, your partner and your children to feel good and full of energy. Stress relief foods contain the vitamins B, C and E. And the minerals magnesium, manganese, selenium and zinc all play a role in reducing stress.

Stress Relief Foods

If you suffer from stress, eating foods that contain good levels of these vitamins and minerals will help:

Fresh vegetables - green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, peppers (all colours), peas, beetroot, broccoli, carrots

Fruits - cantaloupe melon, citrus fruits, strawberries, figs, apples

Nuts and Seeds – pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, almond, brazil, cashew, hazelnut, walnut, etc.

Whole grains – wholewheat, spelt, wheatgerm, oats, brown rice, barley, yellow corn, millet and quinoa

Proteins – (in moderate quantities) eggs, milk, liver, kidney, chicken, tuna, lamb, oily fish.

Other foods – blackstrap molasses, brewer’s yeast, mustard, turmeric

Eating a diet high in fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains provides important anti-stress nutrition. It will give your family many of the vitamins and minerals they need. It will also provide them with the co-factors they need to absorb these vitamins and minerals. Your family will also be getting plenty of fibre in their diet. This means that the digestive problems often caused by stress, such as irritable bowel syndrome, constipation and stomach cramps, are much less likely to occur.

Another way that these foods benefit all the members of your family is that they stimulate the brain’s production of serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which helps you to feel relaxed and happy. Serotonin is produced from an amino acid called L-Tryptophan which occurs naturally in vegetables and carbohydrates. Bodies, young and old, can absorb them well from these foods (better than they can from strong proteins such as meat).

Foods which have an alkalising effect on the body are an important part of your family's anti-stress nutrition programme. Try foods such as sprouted pulses and grains, yoghurt (dairy or soya), almonds and millet, as well as all fruits and vegetables. These will help to reduce the acidity that stress causes in the body. Yoghurt also contains good gut flora which helps with a maintaining comfortable digestion.

Oily fish, hemp seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds and other foods containing omega fatty acids also provide anti-stress nutrition. They help to protect your bodies, and especially the heart, from the effects of stress.

So you can see that eating foods that keep your family healthy is important. They play a central role in helping them to manage their stress levels.

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