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Food can improve your mood- Here's 5

By Jason Yun

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Published: 29Nov2009
Word count: 679
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Halloween is about up. Which means the Holiday season pretty much here. The Holidays tend to bring a lot of stress into people’s lives. All the plans that need to be made, the juggling of schedules, the gift buying and giving, the crowded malls, the gobbling turkeys, and all those darn Santa hats.

What else tends to happen around the holidays for most people are diet and workouts suffer. Bad nutrition and not working out will lead you to be a very unpleasant Mr. or Mrs. Scrooge. And with everything else going on top of that…

That’s why I stress the importance of good eating. Not good eating in the way of eating BBQ spare ribs everyday tastes good, but good eating in the way of staying healthy with your nutrition and only cheating on your diet less then 10% of the time.

This is what will keep your mood up. Be happy! The holidays are supposed to be fun. Don’t get stressed. So here are 5 foods that you can eat to help improve your mood. And they aren’t just for the Holiday season either; year round these foods can make you feel good.

Food #1 Spinach. Calorie for calorie this green leafy veggie provides more nutrients then almost every other food on Earth. Scientifically proven to help protect the brain from age-related declines. A healthy brain will make you happy. Also loaded with the vitamin Folate, which has been linked to depression if the levels are too low.

Did you know Subway has spinach? Replace your sandwich with the nutrient-dense spinach from that nutrient-less romaine lettuce next time. Always opt for a spinach-based salad when you can. Your mood will thank you.

Food #2 Dark Chocolate. No! I am not talking about Snickers or Milky Way Bars either. The chocolate you want to look for is ‘high cocoa-content dark chocolate’. 60 percent cocoa or above. 70 percent or higher are the best but it is hard to find. But don’t pig out on it either because of the palmitic acid type of fat in it. But chocolate has been proven to release endorphins and will boost serotonin levels, which will give you a happier you. But again keep the intake low—no more then a couple ounces a week.

Food #3 Walnuts. This nut contains more Omega-3 fatty acids then any other. You need Omega-3’s in your diet. One of the many benefits of Omega-3’s is that they support brain function. They have been used in depression studies and have helped considerably. Your brain and mood go hand-in-hand. They don’t call Omega-3 fats ‘brain food’ for nothing.

Food #4 Salmon. I’m only talking wild here, not the farm-raised. Wild salmon contains probably the most Omega-3 fatty acids in it then any other food. Notice how we’re coming back to Omega-3’s? The wild kinds of salmon who dine on their oceanic friends are full of this wonderful fatty acid. However the farm-raised kinds are fed grains, not exactly the kind of grub you’ll find in the ocean and rivers where salmon live. The result is a fish that produces very little Omega-3 fats and produces a lot more of the inflammatory Omega-6 fats. We already get more then enough of this fat in our diets. So stick with the Wild Salmon and improve your mood and health.

Food #5 Eggs. And yes I mean the whole egg. I wrote an entire article on the benefits of this food. For starters, it is without question the absolute best whole protein food you can eat. People are worried about the cholesterol and fat though. But you see eggs contain Choline, which is a B Complex vitamin that many people will be low on if they avoid foods like eggs. Choline to be ‘used’ appropriately by the body needs to be in the presence of fat. Eggs are perfect because of the fat already naturally occurring. Without getting too scientific choline is connected to memory and thought- both very important for affecting mood.

There you go-- Eat Up!

Jason Yun, a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Sports Nutritionist, is the owner of Yun Strength and Fitness Systems, LLC and is a Columbus fitness bootcamp instructor and weight management teacher. For your free 2-week try out to Yun Fitness Bootcamps go to http://www.yuntraining.com/2weeksfree.html .

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