Did you loose your positive vibes? Can a diet help you?

A common problem with some people who have  mood swings is that they often have the need to compensate with “comfort food”. They hope to find solace or relief in eating for example chocolate or sweets. But who suddenly eats a lot of fast sugars, your body gets tired … and that feeling won’t make you happier . As you can see, a downward spiral and a succession of ups and downs will be the result.

The first thing we need is a good base: the Mediterranean diet. (Read the full chapter devoted to this on my homepage)

• Do not skip meals
• Make sure that every day you eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, dairy products and whole grains.
• Regularly eat fish and max. 2x a week meat
• Don’t follow any unilateral diet for example by deleting carbohydrates. But eat with common sense.
  

With this as a base you can also focus on food sources that naturally possess a higher dose of for example: tryptophan. Tryptophan (happiness hormone), makes that our body can produce serotonin and melatonin. Both affect our mood, sleep and appetite. Naturally our body needs relatively little tryptophan. Daily is 3.5 mg to about 6 mg per kg body weight should be sufficient. So for a person of 60 kg, 210 mg tryptophan should be sufficient.

Foods in which we find tryptophan are: soybeans, sunflower seeds, Parmesan cheese, sesame seeds, milk, banana, dates, … Four dates have 7 mg tryptophan and 100 g sunflower seeds 0,30 gr tryptophan.

There are a few things you better delete from your diet:

fast sugars
Industrial prepared dishes
Alcohol
Coffee
Even though it is not easy , try to move, to sport. The fresh air and the sunlight will have a positive effect on you.