What to Eat When You’re Anxious, Angry, Tired, or Sad

These are some dark and difficult times. Stress is often cited as the number one trigger for emotional eating. But you don’t have to lose yourself in a bag of M&M’s to feel better. In fact, you’ll likely end up feeling worse.

Consider these seven strategies instead:

1. Eat breakfast, which is consistently associated with better mood than fasting.
2. If you’re craving carbs, choose lower glycemic index grains and starches, which help keep your blood sugar stable. People tend to report poorer mood when their blood sugar falls. Think oats for breakfast, barley soup for lunch, and roasted sweet potato with supper. If it’s cooked al dente, even pasta is a low glycemic index food! Load up the rest of your bowl with veggies and a protein source. Comfort food at its best.
3. Include protein with every meal and snack. This is another strategy to help keep your blood sugar stable. When we say protein, people think meat, fish, and chicken, but remember that eggs, peanut butter, beans, and milk products deliver protein too.  You can turn those oats, for example, into a protein-rich breakfast by adding about two tablespoons of hemp hearts and pairing with a cup of milk or yogurt.
4. Enjoy coffee or tea, in moderation. It’s not your imagination, the caffeine in these drinks can make you more alert and give you a boost of energy. And in moderation, coffee appears to be neutral to positive for a variety of health outcomes, so go for it. Just keep it to two to three 8-oz cups of coffee or 8-10 cups of tea to keep within the recommended 400mg/day max for caffeine. And if you suffer side effects like insomnia, nervousness, GI upset, irritability, or rapid heart rate, certainly skip this one.
5. Stay hydrated. This might sound obvious, but if you’re thirsty, remember to drink! Water is great, but other fluids count too. If you’re looking for comfort food, try this homemade hot chocolate, with just 2-3 teaspoons of sugar per cup.
6. Skip high-sugar snacks and drinks. That cold bottle of Pepsi calling your name? Studies show that their impact on mood is either negative or only slightly positive, and only for a short time. Same goes for sweetened coffee drinks. Have it black if you like, but if not, keep in mind that most people should stick with 6 (ideally) to 12 teaspoons of added sugar per day. If one or two go in your coffee, no problem.
7. Enjoy dark chocolate. The mood-boosting effects of chocolate, on the other hand, are not a myth. If your chocolate is on the high side for cocoa content (say 70% or more), you’ll get just a teaspoon or two of sugar and a higher dose of the good stuff.

If stress is a constant in your life, it may be worth looking at other nutrients, like folate, iron, omega-3 fat, and B vitamins. Your friendly neighbourhood dietitian can help.

An even better strategy is to reduce or manage stress in the first place, to the degree that it’s possible. For example, a study that compared self-reported energy and tension found that a 10-minute walk outperformed a candy bar. Yay for fresh air and exercise!

But if you just need a little comfort food on a tough day, try a bowl of spaghetti with spicy meatballs and lots of tomatoes, a peanut butter and banana sandwich on sprouted grain bread, or a plain latte. You’ve got to be well-fuelled to fight. Let’s do this.