While ice cream and potato chips might be up there on the list of foods to dig into when you’re down, real comfort food comes from healthier place.
People who eat nuts, fruit and vegetables have significantly lower incidence of depression that those who eat sweets or processed foods. See below a list of foods that fight depression!
Mussels
Mussels are loaded with some of highest naturally occurring levels of vitamin B12 on the planet, a nutrient that most of us are lacking. So what’s B12’s mood saving trick? It helps insulate your brain cells, keeping your brain sharp as you age. Mussels also contain the trace nutrients zinc, iodine, and selenium, which keep your mood-regulating thyroid on track. Another benefit? Mussels are high in protein and low in fat and calories, making them one of the healthiest, most nutrient-dense seafood options you’ll find.
Swiss Chard
This leafy green is packed with magnesium, a nutrient essential for the biochemical reactions in the brain that increase your energy levels.
Purple Potatoes
Purple spuds get their color from anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants that provide neuro-protective benefits like bolstering short-term memory and reducing mood-killing inflammation. Their skins are also loaded with iodine, an essential nutrient that helps regulate your thyroid.
Chocolate
The cocoa treat gives you an instant boost in mood and concentration, and improves blood flow to your brain, helping you feel more vibrant and energized. But sorry, Snickers bars don’t count. Cocoa is the chocolate ingredient that does your body good, so pure dark chocolate is your best bet if you want the mood-boosting benefits minus the extra belly flab.
Greek Yogurt
This dairy pick is packed with more calcium than you’ll find in milk or regular yogurt, which is good news for your mood. Calcium gives your body the “Go!” command, alerting your brain to release feel-good neurotransmitters. As a result, inadequate calcium intake can lead to anxiety, depression, irritability, impaired memory, and slow thinking. Greek yogurt also contains more protein than regular yogurt, making it a terrific stay-slim snack.
Asparagus
This vegetable is one of the top plant-based sources of tryptophan, which serves as a basis for the creation of serotonin—one of the brain’s primary mood-regulating neurotransmitters. Asparagus also boasts high levels of folate, a nutrient that may fight depression (research shows that up to 50 percent of people with depression suffer from low folate levels).
Honey
Unlike table sugar, honey packed with beneficial compounds like quercetin and kaempferol that reduce inflammation, keeping your brain healthy and warding off depression. Honey also has a less dramatic impact on your blood-sugar levels than regular sugar, so it won’t send your body into fat-storage mode the way the white stuff can.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are a great source of lycopene, an antioxidant that protects your brain and fights depression-causing inflammation. And because lycopene lives in tomato skins, you’ll get more of the stuff if you throw a handful of cherry tomatoes into your next salad instead of slicing up one full-size tomato. Or enjoy them on their own with a little olive oil, which has been shown to increase lycopene absorption.
Coconut
Coconut is chock-full of medium-chain triglycerides, fats that keep your brain healthy and fuel better moods.
Red Peppers
Why red? In fact, red bell peppers—which have been allowed to ripen on the vine and not picked when still green—have considerably higher nutrient scores than their underdeveloped brethren—more than double the vitamin C and up to 8 times as much vitamin A.
Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin seeds are like crunchy little nuggets of Prozac Helper. They’re one of the best food sources of an amino acid known as tryptophan, which helps the production of serotonin in your brain. Antidepressants help the brain to circulate serotonin, so if you’re taking them now, these little pumpkin pick-me-ups may make them even more effective.
Chamomile Tea
In summer, your body clock is like Dr. Dre—perfect beats. Once winter hits, the music gets all discombobulated. Your circadian rhythm is thrown off by the decrease of (natural) light, making it harder to sleep at night and to stay on top of your game during the day. Research shows that chamomile tea not only brings on better sleep, but actually improves your cognitive functioning during the day. Meanwhile, a study last year linked soft drinks to depression, particularly the diet variety—those who drank more than four cans a day were 30% more likely to have had depression, due partly to the artificial sweetener aspartame.
Blueberry Juice
Darkly colored berries lead to weight loss, decreasing the formation of fat cells by up to 73%—that alone will improve your mood. But berries also carry heavy doses of vitamin C. Too little C—a possibility when you’re hunkering down on comfort foods and no longer enjoying a summer bounty of tomatoes, peppers and fruit salads—can lead to fatigue, depression, low motivation, and the general feeling that you’re sloshing around in wet snowboots 24/7
Canola Oil
Canola oil is one of the cheapest sources of omega-3 fats and one of the easiest to incorporate into your diet. When consumed, these fats concentrate in your brain and help elevate your mood.
