Anxiety: cause, effects and how to combat it

Have you ever wondered why you eat because of anxiety? Or why do you get anxious about chocolate? Or why do you have anxiety about soda? * The first thing you should know is that anxiety does not originate because you are on a diet. There really is a much stronger cause than just being on an eating plan. But what is meant by anxiety? It is a set of conditions that cause nervousness, stress, fear, apprehension or thoughts that you are worried about something or someone. It is very common for people, when entering into a method to lose weight, to feel anxiety about eating their favorite junk foods, such as sweets. In this case, your body would miss the sugar that soft drinks, chocolate, bread, etc. could contain, but why does this happen? Because our body is used to eating these foods, so by removing them from one day to the next, we would be entering a stage of withdrawal.

Symptoms of anxiety

One of the symptoms that is very common is difficulty breathing. It can even lead to nausea, headache and stomach pain. However, it is not only about the changes that you can experience and what you transmit to others, but also physical changes, changes in the organism at a cellular level or alteration in the functioning of your body. Symptoms such as a lowered immune system make people get sick faster and not only that, their glucose and cholesterol levels increase when they constantly feel anxious. Also, if you are constantly anxious, the risk of cancer and tumors increases because there is a chemical alteration in the brain and the hormonal balance is greatly affected.

Emotional eating

Once you enter a period of anxiety, your body is obviously going to send you the signal to feed it and if you do, you will be satisfying a false hunger, so you will keep eating and that will make you gain weight instead of losing it. This is because you are only satisfying or rewarding your body for that situation you are going through. Whether it’s stress, whether it’s fear, whether it’s fear, or a bad memory of an episode that has happened to you. This is where we will begin to talk about eating food guided by emotions. This is when any person consumes food because of their anxiety, which is released by some type of negative emotion that causes uncontrollable hunger. We are talking about all the junk food that we already know, all the fast food that bombards us everywhere, advertising, its marketing and that we fall for very easily, plus we have it very easy to access.** This is a problem if we take into account that by overeating foods high in sugar and fat, your body can produce insulin resistance, which will lead to type 2 diabetes. By suffering from this type of disease, it will cause you to suffer from much greater anxiety, so you would be creating a negative circle by giving in to emotional eating.

**Foods against anxiety

The number one foods you should eat if you suffer from anxiety are all green leafy vegetables. For example, spinach, lettuce, chard, versa, arugula. Among many other green leafy vegetables. These types of foods will help you calm that anxiety because they contain a substance called folates. Folates will help us produce dopamine, which is the brain chemical that sends pleasure to the body. * Obviously, the moment your brain releases that substance, you will feel calm, you will feel tranquility. That is why you should consume all green leaves, all vegetables that have an intense green color. An example of lettuce that you can eat are: Italian lettuce, escarole, orejona, and sangria. You should try to choose the darker ones. Avoid the discolored romaine lettuce found in every supermarket. Another food you can eat is turkey breast, but organic. This food is rich in tryptophan. It is one of the foods that produces serotonin in the brain. This is another neurotransmitter that will help you feel more calm, calm, and you will also be happier. * Also all fermented foods, including kimchi, kefir or cream. These fermented foods bring us a very good load of probiotics. This is important because they will give you good intestinal health and that will always put you in a good mood. Having probiotics, or consuming a good amount of probiotics every day, this is what will improve your mood. Furthermore, it is already more than proven that probiotics also help to greatly reduce cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that is triggered when we are under stress. So, consuming probiotics or this type of fermented foods that contain it in a high quantity will precisely make our mood improve, make us feel happier and in this way also not have these episodes of anxiety so often.** Here it is important to mention that the intestine is known as the second brain because if there are problems in the intestine, it will transmit it to the entire body.** So, if you want to free yourself from food anxiety, the first thing you should do is consume vegetables and probiotics. You can also include in your list of foods to control anxiety, good fats, mainly omega 3. These fats are mainly in foods of animal origin such as salmon, Alaskan salmon, krill oil, sardines, etc. However, omega 3 is also found in grains or seeds such as nuts, avocado, olive oil or coconut oil. As for fruits, you can consume blueberries or blackberries, because they contain a substance called anthocyanins, which are what give blueberries or blackberries that dark color. And this will make us produce a higher level of dopamine. While in the fruit category, you can consume blueberries or blackberries. These two options will make you produce dopamine. * Another fruit you can eat is kiwi, which will provide you with more than 85 percent of your vitamin C intake, which is associated with reducing stress. * Another fruit that may be an option for you is banana. Banana is a fruit that causes us to produce dopamine. It contains high amounts of vitamin B and this will also make you feel less stressed, more relaxed, because this will calm our nervous system, in addition to containing a lot of magnesium, and magnesium is the mineral that makes us always have a positive mind. A more complete option than everything you just read is to make a fruit cocktail with all the fruits we just mentioned, this would be an excellent ally against anxiety.

**Other options against anxiety

If you like smoothies, another food you can consume is turmeric. Turmeric has been recognized for having great properties, but not only nutritionally, but also in terms of beauty. It works as a neuroprotectant and will also help you improve your mood. So there you can make a smoothie with blackberries, banana, kiwi and a teaspoon of turmeric. ** Another food that can help you against food anxiety is dark chocolate, but it is 100 percent cocoa. No, we are referring to dark chocolate that has a lot of sugar and quite a few additives. We are referring to 100 percent cocoa chocolate, which has no added sugar. This chocolate contains a substance called anandamine that will make you produce more dopamine, adjusting your serotonin levels to be adequate to have a good mood. ** * Some drink options can be teas. Teas are recommended when people are going through a period of anxiety.** During a period of anxiety, the person usually feels like drinking something or grabbing something or eating something. Then a tea helps the person calm down, calm down and also have a feeling of well-being.** Some more recommended teas to reduce anxiety are green tea, chamomile tea, lemon balm tea, passionflower tea, lavender tea or rose tea. That’s right, in fact some teas that we recommend the most to reduce anxiety are green tea, chamomile tea, lemon balm tea, passionflower tea, lavender tea or rose tea. These are some recommendations for those patients who suffer from anxiety, which can be included in the eating plan. It is important that you know that you should not be sweetening it, not with honey or anything else, you just have to drink the tea.

Other activities to reduce anxiety

Other activities you can do to reduce anxiety are being outdoors, being in contact with nature, listening to the birds, that can help you relax. You can play some classical music in the background of your office or listen to it on headphones at a low volume to help you relax. If with none of the aforementioned options you can find peace of mind, then one option is to go to some treatment, whether mental or nutritional. How we eat is closely linked to how we feel. So, before considering seeing a psychologist, you could make changes to your diet. If you want more information on nutrition and health topics, or need advice to find the healthiest eating plan to help you lose weight, **click here. **