Stress is a part of life, but not a pleasant one or one that enhances your life or sense of wellbeing. When stress levels rise, you might feel down or experience symptoms of anxiety, like a rapid heartbeat and feelings of fear. This can lead to insomnia and even health problems if they persist.
There’s growing evidence that food plays a powerful role in mood and how you manage stress. Dietary changes may help reduce those unpleasant feelings and provide stress relief, but which ones? Let’s look at five practical dietary changes you can make to rein in stress and regain your sense of calm.
Add More Magnesium-Rich Foods to Your Diet
You may have heard magnesium referred to as a calming mineral. There’s a good reason for that! Studies show magnesium helps soothe an over-hyped nervous system by easing the activity of nerve cells. There’s science to support the calming effects of magnesium. A review of 18 studies looking at magnesium and anxiety revealed encouraging results. Around half of the studies, they looked at showed magnesium helped subdue symptoms of anxiety.
How can you get more of the “calming mineral?” Good sources of magnesium include green, leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. To increase your magnesium intake, choose more whole, unprocessed foods since processing removes much of the magnesium from food. Various types of magnesium supplements are also available but talk to your physician before taking one.
Skip the Sugar and Ultra-Processed Carbohydrates
When you eat a meal that contains sugar or refined carbohydrates, your blood glucose level rises quickly and then drops. When your blood sugar drops rapidly, it can trigger anxiety symptoms and worsen feelings of stress. Plus, animal studies show that animals who eat a diet high in refined carbohydrates are more likely to develop symptoms of anxiety and depression. The solution? Skip the fast food and choose more whole, fiber-rich foods that won’t cause big blood sugar fluctuations. That order of French fries and a soft drink isn’t worth it!
Change the Beverages You Drink
What you drink can play a role in how stressed you feel. The worst beverages to sip for stress are those high in caffeine or sugar. As mentioned, sugar causes blood glucose swings that trigger anxiety, and caffeine hypes you up. Caffeine is hiding in many popular beverages, including coffee, black tea, green tea, sports drinks, and soft drinks. Even fruit juice, with its high sugar content, can provoke anxiety as your blood sugar skyrockets and drops.
What are better sipping alternatives if you’re stressed out? Chamomile tea is a caffeine-free, herbal tea that contains a flavonoid called apigenin that binds to receptors in the brain that cause sleepiness. So, people have used chamomile for hundreds of years to treat insomnia.
Passionflower tea is another type of herbal tea with calming properties. One study even found it has as strong an anti-anxiety effect as benzodiazepines, medications that reduce anxiety. It works by increasing levels of GABA, a calming chemical in the brain. With its sedating effects, don’t drink passionflower or chamomile tea if you’ll be driving or operating machinery.
Add More Long-Chain Omega-3s to Your Diet
Long-chain omega-3s are abundant in fatty fish, like wild-caught salmon, and fish oil supplements. These fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties, but can they help anxiety too? A study published in JAMA Network Open and discussed on Harvard Health Publishing looked at the results of 19 studies on omega-3 fatty acid supplements and anxiety. It showed that people who took large doses of omega-3s (up to 2,000 milligrams per day) were less likely to suffer from anxiety symptoms.
Increase the Vitamin C Content of Your Diet
Vitamin C is an antioxidant vitamin that lowers the stress hormone cortisol. By lowering cortisol, vitamin C may give you a stress-relief edge. When you’re stressed or anxious, two small glands above your kidneys, the adrenal glands, release more cortisol. It’s cortisol’s job to give your body the energy it needs to fight or flee from a dangerous situation. Cortisol works with other hormones, including epinephrine and norepinephrine. Unfortunately, too many people release these “fight or flight” hormones when there’s no danger. Instead, they lead to anxious feelings and a rapid heart rate. Research shows vitamin C helps calm the body’s stress response.
The Bottom Line
Food alone may not cure your anxiety but making these five dietary changes is one step you can take to tame anxiety and ease stress. Make sure you’re practicing other healthy lifestyle habits too, by getting enough sleep and having strategies to ease stress when the going gets rough. Some that may work include meditation, controlled breathing, walks in nature, and adequate sleep. Take advantage of what you can do from a dietary and lifestyle standpoint. That way you can avoid the downsides of taking prescription medications for sleep.
References:
- com. “The Calming Effects of Passionflower”
- com. “Drink A Cup of Passionflower Tea Every Night for Better Sleep”
- Boyle NB, Lawton C, Dye L. The Effects of Magnesium Supplementation on Subjective Anxiety and Stress-A Systematic Review. Nutrients. 2017;9(5):429. Published 2017 Apr 26. doi:10.3390/nu9050429.
- Santos CJ, Ferreira AVM, Oliveira AL, Oliveira MC, Gomes JS, Aguiar DC. Carbohydrate-enriched diet predispose to anxiety and depression-like behavior after stress in mice. Nutr Neurosci. 2018 Jan;21(1):33-39. doi: 10.1080/1028415X.2016.1213529. Epub 2016 Jul 29. PMID: 27472404.
- Harvard Health Publishing. “Omega-3s for anxiety?”
- com. “Scientists Say Vitamin C May Alleviate The Body’s Response To Stress”
- Boyle NB, Lawton C, Dye L. The Effects of Magnesium Supplementation on Subjective Anxiety and Stress-A Systematic Review. Nutrients. 2017 Apr 26;9(5):429. doi: 10.3390/nu9050429. PMID: 28445426; PMCID: PMC5452159.
- Liakakos D, Doulas NL, Ikkos D, Anoussakis C, Vlachos P, Jouramani G. Inhibitory effect of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) on cortisol secretion following adrenal stimulation in children. Clin Chim Acta. 1975 Dec 15;65(3):251-5. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(75)90250-8. PMID: 173480.
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