5 foods that can help boost your mood right now
Immune support and wellness physician Dr. Taz Bhatia shares five healthy, mood-boosting foods that deliver nutrients and make us feel good. One of those foods is a breakfast favorite— eggs. Eggs have two key ingredients that are essential for lifting your spirits: protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Protein helps keep your blood sugar stable. Omega-3s, a key nutrient that our bodies don't produce on their own, aid in decreasing depression. It increases “dopamine levels which make you feel happy,” says Bhatia. Check out the video above for other mood-boosting.
Video Transcript
TAZ BHATIA: I'm Dr. Taz. I'm an immune support and wellness physician here today to talk about the five foods that can boost your mood. Eggs are amazing for your mood, because they have two key ingredients. They're a great source of protein, which keeps your blood sugar stable, and they're high in omega-3 fats. We know a omega-3s help to decrease depression and really pump up your dopamine levels, which make you feel happy.
Salmon is another great food to boost your mood, because salmon has a lot of vitamin D along with the omega-3s that we just talked about. We know from numerous studies that if you don't have enough vitamin D in your system, you're going to have a tendency to have more depression.
Spinach, believe it or not, has folate. Folate is one of our essential B vitamins, and it literally manages every mood booster that our body has. It actually makes us feel good. Almonds are a superfood, because they have omega-3 fats. They also have some fiber, and that fiber is important and the gut brain connection that is critical to all of us feeling happy.
Berries are high in antioxidants. Antioxidants increase your overall oxygen level. They literally feed your brain. I usually recommend blackberries, blueberries, strawberries. Those really have that antioxidant punch in them, and they taste great. And you can do so many different fun things with them.
Some of the foods you want to avoid during this time of quarantine, processed foods, so foods with a lot of trans fats in them. So think of the foods that are packaged. Those will affect our moods, because they will trigger more inflammation. And inflammation will definitely affect our gut and our brain.
High salt snack foods, so think potato chips. Here's the problem with it. We eat way more than we realize we eat. We're filling up on foods that just don't give us the nutrients we need to make us feel good.
