Chill Out with Calming Foods

calming foods

Email is down. Deadlines are passing. Errands piling up. Book group coming. I am s-t-r-e-s-s-e-d! The go-to solution? Haagen Dazs dulce de leche or maybe a bag of Twizzlers or a handful of my daughter’s cookies pulled out of the freezer and shoved into the microwave for a quickie defrost. All of these treats are bad choices. I would never pledge to purge them from my diet, but they are not a great prescription for stress-busting. The sugar rush is great, but stress hormones are released when your blood sugar rate drops. What I really need to eat is calming foods.

Chill Out with Calming Foods

While there’s been a centuries-old debate and many books about whether certain foods act as aphrodisiacs, there seems to be a consensus that certain types of food can help you chill out. Research shows that vitamins like B complex, C, and E and minerals like manganese, selenium, and zinc help relieve stress, but the letters and mineral names never register on me in the absence of real food names. Here are some to try. They will not turn your stress into euphoria, but they can turn the meter down.

Guacamole

Was I happy to find this one on the list? My son-in-law whips up giant bowlfuls that I’ve heard declared “the best” by many a taster. With their healthy dose of B vitamins, Avocados help relieve the stress that robs your body. Get them back atop whole-grain chips.

Nuts

Mix them up, eat an ounce or two in total – Brazil nuts to replace stress-depleted zinc, walnuts to replace B vitamins, and almonds to boost vitamin E, which helps fight cellular damage linked to chronic stress.

Orange Juice

Oranges and orange juice show up on lists of tips for dealing with pre-speech stress and anxiety. Studies have shown that vitamin C calms people down quickly by lowering levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) and blood pressure.

Berries

Not as desirable as M&Ms, perhaps, but when stress drives you to Reese’s Pieces or other I-can’t-believe-how-many-I-ate snacks, eating berries one by one fulfills the sugar crave without the inevitable blood-sugar crash. They are another good “C” source.

Decaf Chai Tea

Tea=a calmer you. Sip slowly. Not everyone would say stay clear of caffeine. Family practitioner Dr. Kristie Leong says that green tea contains an amino acid known as L-theanine, which has a calming effect on the brain by altering neurotransmitters, dopamine, GABA, and serotonin levels. Although some people who are extremely sensitive to caffeine may not get this response, most people report feeling more relaxed when they drink a cup of green tea.

Dark Chocolate

Are you “milk” or “darks? The “darks are the winners here because they can reduce stress. All chocolate contains a neurotransmitter known as anandamide that can alter dopamine levels in the brain, causing a sense of peace and relaxation, but dark chocolate contains a lot more.

Send the gift of dark chocolate relaxation with one of our chocolate-covered gifts. For our customers who prefer something healthier, we also have a selection of dark chocolate-covered fruit gifts.

Asparagus

A great source of folic acid, which is a natural mood lightener.

Todd’s Amazing Guacamole Recipe

4-5 ripe avocados
3-5 Roma tomatoes
3-5 cloves garlic
medium red onion
1 cup cilantro
1 jalapeño pepper
1-2 limes
Salt
Pepper
Cumin

      1. Finely dice the onion (reserve some on the side)
      2. Press garlic (reserve some on the side)
      3. Chop cilantro (reserve some on the side)
      4. Seed and finely dice roughly ¼ to ½ of the jalapeño pepper (wear gloves).
      5. Seed and dice Tomatoes (reserve some on the side)
      6. Mix onion, garlic, cilantro, tomato, jalapeño and add the juice of ½ of a lime
      7. Season the mixture generously with salt and pepper (add a dash of cumin)
      8. Halve and remove all avocados from the skin
      9. In a separate bowl, dice all avocados (leave chunky), cover with juice from the remaining ½ lime, and season with salt and pepper. Mix gently.
      10. Combine the onion/garlic/tomato mix with the avocados and mix gently
      11. Taste and add reserved ingredients to taste

 

 

© Featured photo by Kasumi Loffler from Pexels