When it comes to your mental health, you really are what you eat. While there are a ton of environmental factors that can affect the way you feel, your diet plays a major role in the whole process. Bad eating habits can make you feel more tired, anxious and irritable and by simply changing them up, you can become a happier you. Are you wondering why you’re feeling so tense all of the time? These food habits could be to blame.
- Overloading The Sugar
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Sugar is a component in so many foods that you might be eating a whole lot more of the stuff than you even realized. While you might know how sugar can negatively affect your body, you might not be so familiar with the kinds of ways it can interfere with your mental health. The more sugar that you eat, the higher that you blood pressure is likely to be, which in turn increases your cortisol production. A hormone, cortisol can interfere with digestion, the reproductive system and the thyroid when it becomes too high. By cutting down on the sugar, you will keep your cortisol levels within normal boundaries and feel all the better for it!
- Drinking Too Much Alcohol
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Having a drink every now and then is perfectly normal but once your habits start to become too regular, you can put your mental health at risk. Both a depressant and a stimulant, alcohol can interfere with your brain’s ability to send signals to the body. When you drink too much, your speech, movements and thought processes become slowed down, which can lead to feelings of anxiety and depression. The more that you cut out of your lifestyle, then, the less anxious you will begin to feel.
- Piling On The Fried Food
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Been getting a takeaway a little too often? You might start to feel more anxious. As well as causing your fat deposits to build up, fried food can have a negative effect on your mood and wellbeing. It’s all to do with trans fats; foods cooked in hydrogenated oils have been linked to feelings of depression and the more you eat, the worse you can feel. Try cutting it out of your diet and seeing just what it can do for you!
- Cutting Out Breakfast
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Eating in the morning is sometimes easier said than done but there’s good reason why you should be trying to get at least a little food in your system in the morning. Failing to eat in the morning can lead to low blood sugar, which in turn can reduce the energy flow headed to your brain. The less energy your brain has to function, the more likely you are to feel in a lower mood than normal. What’s more, leaving out your first meal will make it more likely for you to binge eat later in the day to give your body a burst of energy. Try eating a banana and going on with your day. It’s easy to digest and can have you feeling all the more balanced.
- Drinking Too Much Caffeine
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We all the know the feeling after we’ve have a caffeine overdose. A natural stimulant, caffeine increases blood pressure and heart rate, making you feeling more anxious if you take in too much. Getting too hooked on caffeine can cause your body’s production of serotonin to falter. The lower your levels of serotonin, the more likely you are to suffer from irritability and anxiety. A couple of cups per day of the stuff is ok but anything more than that might put your well being at risk.