Ask the expert: mood foods

Hello Dora,

I suffer with anxiety, depression and OCD, and wondered if you could give me any nutritional information to help - other than the generic information you can read anywhere.

Regards,
Zara

Dora says: What you eat and the frequency of your meals can have a dramatic effect on your moods and emotions because the foods you eat provide a supply of energy to your entire body including your brain.

The carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals you consume provide the building blocks needed to produce your feel-good hormones, so it's safe to say that any single deficiency can affect their production.

And if your digestion isn't working then you might be eating very well but not absorbing your nutrients, which can affect your mood and your blood sugar control.

Support your digestion and balance your blood sugar by eating small, regular, nutrient-packed meals and never let yourself go hungry. Low blood sugar can mimic depression and make you feel weepy. Don't eat sugar as it will take you on a rollercoaster up and then down, and alcohol is best avoided as it's a depressant.

Eat foods to help de-stress and relax your body

• B-rich foods: whole grains ie brown rice, oat cakes, rye bread, spelt bread, red meat (1-2 a times week), eggs
• Zinc-rich foods: seafood, peas, all types of beans, fish, poultry, lamb (occasional), sunflower and sesame seeds, all types of raw nuts
• Magnesium-rich foods: almonds, seeds, all green vegetables, pulses (lentils, kidney beans), whole grains such as oats and rye and spelt. Magnesium will also relax your muscles
• Tryptophan-rich foods: turkey, almonds, bananas, avocados

Eat mood boosting foods like oily fish, raw nuts and seeds.

Try flower remedies like Bach Rescue Remedy which is great for anxiety.

Use the emotional freedom technique(EFT)

• EFT can provide great results for OCD, and there's plenty of free information on the internet on how to do it.
• EFT collapses the immediate need to perform the obsessive compulsive behaviour and in some cases it also collapses the entire compulsive behaviour.
• Use EFT to address the true cause of your compulsions, which could be the need to tranquilise anxiety caused by unresolved emotional issues. Until your underlying anger, fear, guilt, trauma, etc are dissolved, the compulsive behaviour will remain.
• The techniques need to be applied several times over a period of time, depending on the severity. Also, if you are not familiar enough with EFT and you have severe OCD, you should consider getting help from an EFT professional.

Wishing you a good recovery.

If you have any health or diet dilemmas, email your questions to Dora at msn-health-expert@hotmail.co.uk

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