The Wellness Scoop - Bite-Sized: Food to Boost Your Mood

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

Ways to support our mood with nutritional therapist Alice Mackintosh. Our mood is influenced by a variety of things including what we eat, and in this bite-sized episode we look at how we can support healthy brain function from the key macronutrients and micronutrients to be mindful of to the importance of whole plant foods, as well as the role of processed and refined foods. Here’s a quick recap: Including a variety of high-quality proteins Including sufficient B vitamins, vitamin D and magnesium Adding in more herbs and spices Aim for 30 different whole plant foods each week Give special attention to dark leafy greens Ensure to include essential fats (omega-3) Try to avoid overly processed and refined foods containing trans fats and additives  Alice Mackintosh: @alicemackintosh_nutrition www.alicemackintosh.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hi, I'm Ella, the founder of Delicious Ciela, and this is our podcast, Delicious Ways to Feel Better. Our bite-sized episodes are all about making health and well-being easy and digestible so that each week you can feel a little bit better to help you implement those learnings we update our app also called feel better every week with tools across nutrition mindfulness sleep and movement you can download the app now from the

app store google play or our website deliciousiello.com and across January we've got a special 25% off the annual subscription making it just £1.75 a month the discount will be automatically applied on the app store or google play and on our website just use the code podcast 25 this week on our app you'll find lots of yoga and mindfulness classes from our newest teacher Jess Wood I've been doing loads of the short classes recently, actually just a little bit short of time. And Jess's 10 minute nourishing yoga flow is amazing. Just very calming and soothing in a busy week, as is her 10 minutes to boost positivity, mindfulness section is so brilliant at reframing any negativity. And if anyone's struggling with stress, that one is for you. So on the subject of negativity, today's Bite Size podcast is with Alice McIntosh, our resident expert for January, and it's all about how we can eat to boost our mood and make us feel that little bit happier.

Alice is a brilliant nutritional therapist who also has a degree in biomedical science, and she is the founder of the supplements company Equi London. So Alice, what is the link between what we eat and how we feel? Can what we put on our plate genuinely make a difference in our mood and in our happiness? Absolutely what we eat can have such an impact on the brain. Our brain is like every other organ in the body it needs the right nutrition and fuel to stay healthy and to keep it working properly. And actually, our brains are really hungry organs. They require about a quarter of our daily energy supplies.

So it is about quantity, but it's really it's about quality. And we need to make sure we're getting the right things to support healthy brain function. I mean, I think it's important to say that mental health issues are hugely complex. Everyone's different. Our environment, our upbringing, our genes, our social interactions, our lifestyle, all of these things contribute. And nutrition is one piece of the puzzle here. And I think it's important to say as well that if you're struggling, get help because there is so much of it out there. And so when we're thinking about our nutrition let's firstly talk about some of the right vitamins and minerals that our brain needs.

Our brain uses compounds or hormones called neurotransmitters that control our mood, our emotions, our concentration, our memory, our sleep. So for example, we have dopamine, which helps us to feel happy and relaxed. We have serotonin, which is also important for happy mood. And in order to make these neurotransmitters, we need protein. So interestingly, the building blocks of protein, which are called amino acids, are also the building blocks of these neurotransmitters. So for example, tryptophan helps us to make serotonin. Tryptophan is found in things like banana. It's found in walnuts. It's also found in dairy and turkey. But interestingly, that particular amino acid helps us to make serotonin. Tyrosine helps us to make dopamine. So basically, we need to make sure we're getting enough protein into our diets and the right amino acids to allow us to make dopamine so basically we need to make sure we're getting enough protein

into our diets and the right amino acids to allow us to make these neurotransmitters and when it comes to plant-based eating we just need to make sure we're eating lots of different types of plant-based protein and that should give us all of these amino acids to build our neurotransmitters so legumes and chickpeas and nuts and nut butter, tofu and tempeh, which actually are, they contain all the amino acids. There's also things like tahini and hemp seeds. So just try to get protein in with every meal. If you can get a couple of sources in with every meal, so much the better and try to get variety. So for example, a lunch could be some roasted veggies with chickpeas and a tahini dressing. That's a great way of getting protein

in and would deliver lots of those amino acids. And also protein keeps our blood sugar levels balanced, which is vital for mood. We talked about that last week, didn't we? But that's going to keep your mood and your energy levels sustained. So what else helps building our neurotransmitters? Well, B vitamins. Again again we've talked about these last week because they're so important for energy but they also help to help our bodies actually make these neurotransmitters so there are eight in total and we need all of them they all work in synergy together so beetroot avocado spinach kale chard green beans chard, green beans, peas, black beans, broad beans, butter beans, all of those different types of nuts and tahini, sesame seeds, they all deliver B vitamins.

Great, great way to support your brain. Some of the most important nutrients to keep our brain functioning properly. We also should talk about magnesium because, and I feel like magnesium requires special attention because it's actually thought to be one of the most common deficiencies now not only does magnesium help us make serotonin and also melatonin which is important for sleep and we all know how important sleep is for our mood but it also helps us to manage anxiety so it helps us to reduce cortisol levels, which is our stress hormone. And it also helps us make GABA. GABA is a very relaxing, calming neurotransmitter that is brilliant when you're sort of trying to switch off and relax before bed. Magnesium also relaxes our muscles and our nervous system. Basically, it's just so important for mood and happiness. Stress increases

our release of magnesium from the body in our urine. And some studies have shown that people who eat less magnesium experience more anxiety. So we need to make sure we're eating enough magnesium to support our mood. Oats, brown rice, again, green leafy vegetables, they crop up a lot. Banana, raw cacao is a great one. A little bit more niche, but it is a great source of magnesium walnuts almonds chickpeas broccoli and cauliflower are great so give some special attention to magnesium i also wanted to mention vitamin d because deficiencies have been shown to be

associated with a low mood now more research is always needed on this kind of thing and basically that could be correlation not causation so there could be an association of people who have low mood and vitamin d it doesn't mean that vitamin d causes low mood but we know that it's important for brain health another thing that's important for mood are eating more plants so obviously i'm preaching to the converted with you ella but basically eating more plants has been shown in some cases to slow the breakdown of our happy hormones like serotonin. So eating things like green tea, onions, grapes, apples, berries, and also spices and herbs like cloves

and oregano, cinnamon and nutmeg, they help to slow the breakdown of our serotonin. So what that comes down to is eating seven portions of vegetables and fruit per day and trying to get lots of herbs and spices in as well. I guess we can't talk about mood and happiness without discussing fats. And I love the fact that when you're on a plant-based diet, you tend to embrace fats more. You're not so scared of them and you know that they're not bad for you and they don't make you overweight they're just so important for the brain the brain is made up of 60 fat and we need that fat to keep it healthy omega-3 is the big one here and there's a lot of research about omega-3 and the brain and our mood it basically allows the brain to communicate properly it supports our our memory. It helps to reduce inflammation,

which is very important for mood, actually. People with depression have been shown to have more inflammation in their brains. So eat things like walnuts and flaxseed, chia. Hemp seed is a great, great source of omega-3. It's a little bit more expensive, but it's widely available and you don't need too much. It's a lovely thing just to add onto some porridge. K porridge kale sea vegetables like seaweed and samphire also great and i think if

you're struggling to get enough omega-3 on a vegan diet then you might want to think about supplementing with an algae-based omega-3 dha especially if you're struggling with your mood it's just something that might be worth trying run it past your doctor if you've got any diagnosed medical conditions obviously so those are some key things just to get started with and on the flip side is there anything in particular that dampens our mood that makes it harder to feel happier or harder to make those neurotransmitters and get them working as well as they should be yes I mean I think we have to come back to inflammation here because we know that having the right balance of neurotransmitters is very important for our mood and our happiness but it isn't just about the brain anymore we know that the rest of the body is linked here as well and it's been shown that some people just don't respond to antidepressants

for example so what else could be going on there? What else could be a factor there? And it's thought that inflammation could be a factor. And there are certain foods such as trans fats being in things like ready meals, deep fried foods, fats that have been overly processed and heated during the cooking process. These types of trans fats have been shown to be inflammatory and not good for the brain. So I'd certainly be thinking about reducing things like that. And I mean, it does just come back to these refined foods, processed foods,

additives, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and so on that don't seem to do our brains any favours. I think the other thing to note is that, I mean, I've just mentioned the fact that it's not just about the brain anymore. We know that the gut is really important for our mood. And so the wrong types of bacteria can actually send signals to the brain that influence our emotions, which is an amazing, you know, I think we're just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to really understanding all of this and so much more research needs to be done in this area but I think eating for your gut which comes down to eating fiber and eating lots of anti-inflammatory beneficial foods which we can talk about is one of the other ways to be thinking about supporting your gut. And again, those inflammatory foods, burnt foods, charred

foods, overcooked saturated fats, alcohol, too much caffeine, all those things not so good for the gut and actually not so good for our brain either. We know, right, that when you're feeling stressed and anxious, your gut can be affected, But actually, an inflamed, unhealthy gut can also impact our mood. So it kind of works both ways. Absolutely fascinating, Alice. So if there's one change our listeners could make to their diets, to their lives, to try and support their mood and feel that little bit happier, what's the one thing people could start to implement after listening to this show well I think I would say aim to get 30 different types of whole foods per week and I know delicious yellow the app you guys put the number of vegetables and fruits on each recipe

for this exact reason but if you're doing that it covers a lot of bases it means more nutrients more healthy fats more fiber more color and freshness more support for the gut and all of that has such a positive impact on the brain so when I say whole foods I mean fruits vegetables whole grains but also beans lentils pulses herbs and spices all of that contributes to that 30 different foods per week so that's probably the one thing I'd be really working towards I love that and actually I think I remember when I first heard that statistic of 30 different plant-based foods a week I found it quite overwhelming and I realized actually it's a lot easier than you think because it's not 30 different vegetables is as you said Alice it's if you made a curry and you

had onion and garlic and loads of veggies and chickpeas and spinach that would all count but if you also added toasted pine nuts and sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds with chickpeas and kale and spinach and rocket for example as your leaves to your salad you can clock up like eight different ones in a meal very very easily so yeah I think it perhaps sounds harder than it is but it's a really really nice starting point and I also absolutely love your advice Alice because I think what's so nice about it and it's a thing that I'm so passionate about and I think it's particularly important in January as well is when you're thinking about something that you can change in your life trying to change something that's positive and adding stuff in

instead of negative because I think so often we think when we want to make a change, we say we'll stop doing this and we won't do that instead of we're going to start doing this. And it feels like a gentler, more supportive and most importantly, a more sustainable place to start. So I think that's really, really fantastic advice. So, Alice, thank you so much for the app, for all those recipes. Don't forget there's 25% off across January, either applied automatically on the App Store, Google Play, or with the code PODCAST25 on our website, deliciousiella.com. And otherwise, we will be back with one more bite-sized episode with Alice next week. And that will be focusing on our gut health

and how we can eat in a way that supports our gut health and why that's so important. So we will see you next week. Thanks for listening. Listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libsyn ads. Email Bob at Libsyn.com to learn more. That's B-O-B at L-I-B-S-Y-N dot com.