4 Foods To Boost Your Mood and Increase Your Energy, Naturally

Image via Wikipedia
BANANAS!


The fructose in bananas provide a satisfying energy boost and the fibre prevents a spike in your blood sugar.

And unlike a Snickers or other sugary bar, the natural fructose doesn't lift you high then drop you like a stone one or two hours later ensuring that you need another sweet bar to lift you.


Eating just two ripe medium sized bananas keeps you satisfied for hours and prevent sugar cravings as well. Have as many as you like for breakfast for instance — just make sure they are ripe —  the clue here is if it doesn't taste sweet, it's not ripe!

Therefore, after purchase leave bananas on the kitchen counter for at least two days before eating.

This wonderful, sunshine fruit is full of vitamins — B6, A and C as well as Tryptophan, potassium, phosphorous, iron, protein and it's a healthy carbohydrate too!

Carbs help the brain to absorb Tryptophan and vitamin B6 converts Tryptophan into that wonderful mood-lifting hormone, serotonin.

You could also add a hefty slice of ripe papaya; they taste great together and if you find ripe papaya smells/tastes too strong (like me), I have discovered that ripe bananas actually minimise its strong flavour.

Eating such a breakfast meal guarantees you will not feel hungry until lunchtime (with or without papaya).


Bananas make a quick and satisfying snack. You will not gain weight or get a spike in your blood sugar — you will simply feel very satisfied. It's a perfect way to boost your mood and increase your energy, naturally!

You could also make a fabulous smoothie by adding almond or vanilla flavoured Silk Soy milk, rice milk, almond milk or even skim milk if you feel you must add an animal product.

Bananas are solid and much more filling than a muffin. Eat until you feel full. You cannot put on weight eating a bowl of fresh fruit for breakfast! That is a fact regardless of any information to the contrary you may have heard.


Those unaccustomed to eating fruit for breakfast may believe that it's impossible to feel satisfied and full for four hours until lunchtime.They would be correct depending on the fruits you eat.

If you eat only half a papaya, a slice of watermelon or a portion of berries and yoghurt for instance, they would be correct because these fruits contain more than 80 percent water; and a yoghurt has little to recommend it.

A TIP — Fruits eaten alone are digested within a maximum of one to two hours. You therefore must have unsalted nuts or bananas on hand to counter that hunger.

4 types of bananas via WikipediaTwo examples of your body's digestive processes:

1- A slice of banana cake takes six to eight hours to digest because the body has to separate and break down all the individual ingredients which is why it takes so long.

2- A nice meal of a burger (fish, chicken or beef) and fries, a pizza and a coke and/or ice cream or yoghurt, or a steak followed by coffee and dessert goes down great, doesn't it.

For your information people, any of those meals will take eight hours to digest for the non-meat items; your body breaks down and digests the animal products (meat/fish) within three to five days.

So when you eat any combination of animal flesh twice or three times (bacon, sausages, pepperoni pizza, etc.) a day, every day of the week, it adds up to a fat gut and all of the undigested food and rotting meat are all stored in that roll around your middle.

Think on that and go bananas!


WALNUTS!


Walnuts contain more protein than almonds. However, almonds are still my favourite because of the taste. Happily, I stuff my face with all types of nuts and seeds minus peanuts and cashews of course which contain substances and toxins the body cannot break down and digest.


Walnuts by funadiumIn addition to protein, omega-3, vitamin B6, Tryptophan and folic acid (folate) – the mood lifters – are all present in walnuts.

Nutritionists say one gramme is a daily recommendation and that works out to half ounce of walnuts plus the fibre and Omega-3. That's pretty great, don't you think!

Two teaspoons of walnut oil will also do the trick.

A TIP — Use walnut oil in a tasty salad dressing with a few more walnuts thrown in for good measure.

Nut oil adds a subtle flavour and can be mixed with a tasty cold-pressed virgin olive oil (the first pressing). If you add three crushed cloves of garlic, chili flakes or powder, balsamic or a sweet Japanese vinegar to your salad, maybe some cubes of Greek feta or aged goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, black olives (much healthier than green which are not ripe), some raw sunflower seeds and so on...

You get a scrumptious and tasty salad that beats those commercial, fatty salad dressings any day!


SUNFLOWER SEEDS!


Sunflower seeds are an excellent source of folic acid, Tryptophan, fibre and magnesium which regulate and significantly boost your mood! Now I know why I used to stuff my face with the stuff right out of the the dehydrator.


A handful of sunflower seeds contain what the powers that be say is half of your recommended daily dosage of magnesium. Not only that, sunflower seeds make a very filling snack. Add 3 dates, 2 dried figs, maybe some dried apricots, throw in a handful of your favourite unsalted nuts (raw is best) and you have a bang on target meal whenever you feel hungry or get an anxious attack and feel the need for solace through food.

Nuts, grains and seeds stop hunger cold - just like bananas!


When you feel tired, anxious, nervous, irritable, depressed, suffer from insomnia, have poor concentration, it means your body is probably low in magnesium. This is probably an unknown and tasty mood booster which is lightweight and easy to carry.

Sunflower seeds with & without shell via WikipediaGet a natural fix from food or herb drinks and stay away from the chemical equivalent – which your body cannot absorb – that only benefits the food-pharma industry by boosting their ratings on the NYSE.


Folic acid is a B-complex multivitamin necessary for the optimum functioning of your central nervous system.

And here's something else I didn't know, fibre helps maintain stable hormone levels as well, so pay attention here ladies.

Stock up, snack up and keep it raw. They are easy to digest and absorb in this way.


TWO TIPS —  

1- In Middle East countries, they eat tons of grilled sunflower seeds in the shell.  However, it is not necessary to buy shelled seeds that you have to chew and spit out. That's messy and you don't get the full benefit of the nutrients they contain.

Seeds already shelled are widely available unless you are grilling seeds from your own garden pumpkin. Good luck with that.

2- Heating food above forty degrees Farenheit (40F) kills most of the nutrients. So if you want your body to function at its best, give it a fighting chance and stick to raw nuts and seeds.


I am not going to lecture you about the food you eat nor the lack of nourishment they contain after being picked, processed, stored, shipped then sold to you as fresh in the supermarket because I am also part of the problem. 

You see, I now live in a house with a microwave oven which I haven't used in two decades and I started using it over the last year or so to reheat food. So let's not be too rigid, okay.

Raw nuts and seeds are easy to digest and absorb. Okay, enough with the preaching.

CHOCOLATE!

Chocolate fountain by rachelandrew The all time favourite mood booster that we all know and love is undeniably... chocolate!

I was never a big fan of chocolate until I moved to Switzerland, the chocolate consumption capital of the world. Eating more than a few squares gives me a terrible headache and too much chocolate makes me gag but I still indulge from time to time.

When my body is deficient in iron and magnesium I feel like I'm dragging myself everywhere. Low levels of these minerals cause depression – it's a scientific fact. When in that state I can and have eaten an entire Lindt hazelnut bar. No remorse!

My chocolate binges must always include hazelnut or almonds which means I need the nutrients contained in the nuts as well. Your body will always steer you right when you pay attention to what you put into it.

All chocolate mood boosters are sugar-related so let's not be naive about this, eh. Chocolate mood elevators are sugar, fat, caffeine, phenylethylamine, flavonols, theobromine, tyramine, magnesium and tryptophan.


Caffeine and Theobromine are stimulants that naturally occur in chocolate and you get a quick burst of energy when sugar and fat are added. These quick energy bursts are sustained by phenylethylamine, tyramine, magnesium and Tryptophan.

Now, despite the fact that these substances occur in higher concentrations in other foods, chocolate's advantage is the yummy, rich, texture that tastes so good and it's that very aroma that causes us to salivate, pulling us in by our collective nostrils.

Many women feel turned on just at the thought of their next touch-taste-smell chocolate encounter; I don't get it!

I guess you can tell that I am not not one of those who experience an orgasmic response to the thought of indulging in chocolate.

Rasberry chocolate by greenlagirl Because chocolate pleases so many of our senses, when eaten, it releases serotonin in the brain and mood-lifting endorphins in the body which makes you feel euphoric temporarily. That's probably why we over-indulge:-)

However, you need to know that constantly feeling the need for chocolate i.e. you have to have it every day, all year long and every year indicates that you have a serious illness that must be addressed.

If you fall into this category, get a thorough medical checkup (blood work, scans, the works), find an Ayurvedic doctor or a doctor who practises Chinese medicine but whatever you do, get yourself sorted.

And there you have it folks, 4 foods to lift your mood and boost your energy, naturally.

Dig in!