The foods that you consume each and every day can contribute naturally to help you maintain adequate stress tolerance levels. Eating your way to a better mood may keep you from having to medications that cause unpleasant side effects. Planning meals that incorporate these foods could spell less anxiety for some. Please note that some of these foods may be out of season or simply may not agree with you so talk with your doctor before changing your diet.
Spinach
Spinach is a highly nutritious dark leafy green that contains iron, vitamin C, and tryptophan. When you consume tryptophan, it helps to calm your mind along with relaxing your nervous system. Use spinach in salads and on sandwiches.
Oranges
Oranges contain vitamin C and antioxidants that will boost your body’s immune system. With a healthier immune system, the cortisol levels in your body will decrease, helping to reduce your anxiety.
Salmon
If you can get past its smell, salmon contains antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, and protein. Omega-3 fatty acids help to create a healthy brain that can withstand the daily stresses that occur at work or school.
Blueberries
Delicious blueberries are considered a superfood that is recommended for making smoothie beverages or baked goods. This fruit contains the antioxidants, iron, and vitamin A that your body requires to overcome the bad effects of a stressful lifestyle.
Almonds
When you eat almonds, you are ingesting vitamin E which helps to reduce the free radicals in your body’s cells. If you are experiencing stress, then your body’s glands release hormones that will damage the cells in your mind and body, but almonds can repair this damage.
Avocado
Avocados contain several types of vitamin B, and this nutrient helps to reduce your mind’s anxiety levels. You can use avocado slices in a salad, or you can mash avocado to create a tasty dip for tortilla chips.
(True) Dark Chocolate
When you feel anxious, you may crave dark chocolate because this delicious treat contains a lot of antioxidants. By eating a small amount of dark chocolate each day, you can have a reduction in the fight-or-flight chemicals in your body.
Asparagus
After eating asparagus, the vitamin B in this vegetable helps your brain to produce dopamine. This chemical improves your overall mood so that you feel less anxious on a daily basis.
Oatmeal
Begin your day with a bowl of hot steel-cut oatmeal. When you are experiencing stress, it is important to eat comfort foods, and warm oatmeal helps your brain to release serotonin that will improve your mood.
Turkey
Turkey has a lot of tryptophan that will increase the amount of serotonin in the pleasure center of your brain. By eating roasted turkey or having a turkey sandwich, you can reduce your stress levels.
That’s all folks. Do you have any other mind and memory-improving foods? Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below. Bon Appetit!
Two of the most popular superfood fruits to enjoy in the fall are apples and pears. They are both loaded with vitamins and nutrients, have a sweet flavor for healthier desserts,
and even go great in more savory dishes. Here are some a few ways to incorporate them into your fall diet.
Add to a Smoothie
This is perhaps one of the easiest ways to use apples and pears in your fall foods. Add one or both sweetening’s and any type of [green] vegetable smoothie to reduce the tart, sour or bitter taste. But don’t stop with apples and pears, throw in a banana, a cup of yogurt, and your preferred milk of choice.
Make a Fruit Salad
If you enjoy salads as a way to add in more superfoods and eat healthier at the same time, don’t be afraid to add some fruit to it. It gives it a light, crisp flavor that is great during this time of year. When adding fruit, a vinaigrette is usually the best type of dressing, or you can just make your own by combining olive oil with a little lemon juice and honey if you want to sweeten it up. Another superfood you can consider is kale, nuts, and cranberries, right alongside your sliced pears and apples.
Sautéed Fruit
This turns your chosen superfood into a type of dessert that is light and sugar-free, aside from the natural sugars within the fruit itself. You can go with just apples and pears or mix and match with other fall fruits as well. If desired, you can use coconut butter or cashew butter instead of regular butter, for a nuttier flavor. Sautee on low heat some coconut oil with a little sea salt and cinnamon.
Apple and Pear Butter
Apple butter is a very popular choice in the fall, as it is perfect for topping your cookies, muffins, scones, or even toast. You might even consider going one step further adding in pears. It can be made using a slow cooker. If you want, you can also mix in some pumpkin, maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, and other fall spices like ginger and cloves.
For nearly a decade, I’ve been an avid Mountain Dew drinker. Unlike many, I’ve never been a coffee drink – EVER!!! Sodas have always been my go-to drink of choice. Even during my pregnancy, I wasn’t satisfied with the doctor’s response regarding how much Mtn Dew® I could consume. Surely, she was lying. Nevertheless, I tried to keep myself on no more than two 16 oz bottles per day or 2 or 3 cans per day. I tried to continue that amount in the years since but sometimes I’d hit that 4th can if I was having a really rough day.
On a weekly average, I probably had around 1,134 milligrams (mg) of caffeine from Mountain Dew alone. (Hint: A single can of Mountain contains 54 mg of caffeine as indicated right on the back of the can itself. So, I’ll let you do the math on how many that was.). In case you’re still wondering how much caffeine I drank early on – when I was in high school, I developed a breast cyst, which was a hard mass that moved around and was quite painful when I tried to sleep on my left side or even face down. According to the National Cancer Institute, that only happens in those who drink in excess of 500 MILLIGRAMS PER DAY! 😲
Just like anyone addicted to caffeine, I had tried plenty of times throughout my life to break the habit but couldn’t. I wasn’t a fan of water or coffee so what else what’s there. I obviously find a way to add water to my diet through Starbucks Instant Refreshers: Strawberry Lemonade, which was a green coffee extract, but even that contained caffeine. (But wait? Does that mean I really was a coffee drinker?)
Plenty of times, I’ve tried to quit to no avail but as you know the withdrawal symptoms – mainly the headaches and nausea were too much to bear. Within a few days, I’d be driven back to my drug of choice. So imagine my shock as I was preparing this piece to find out there’s an actual 12-step program for excessive caffeine drinkers called Caffeine Addicts Anonymous. Nevertheless, the purpose of this post is to share how I was able to break my addiction holistically. In the past year, while enrolled in a holistic wellness program, I performed two different experiments in an effort to hopefully decrease if not eliminated my reliance on caffeine. But before I go into that, let me explain how caffeine is what I consider a killer cousin to us all.
Caffeine Explained:
Caffeine is a legal, unregulated consumable drug that stimulates the brain and the central nervous system (CNS). It takes about 20 minutes for caffeine to reach your bloodstream and an hour to reach its heightened states of alertness. (Healthline.com)
“Once consumed, caffeine is quickly absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream. From there, it travels to the liver and is broken down into compounds that can affect the function of various organs…It functions by blocking the effects of adenosine, which is a neurotransmitter that relaxes the brain and makes you feel tired…It may also increase blood adrenaline levels and increase brain activity of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine…[which] further stimulates the brain and promotes a state of arousal, alertness, and focus.” (Healthline.com)
It goes on to say: “Caffeine helps you stay awake by connecting to the adenosine receptors in the brain without activating them. This blocks the effects of adenosine, leading to reduced tiredness.” In other words, caffeine blocks your ability to deal with phases of lethargic expression through tiredness, weariness, sleepiness, and apathy due to diet, stress, sickness, etc. Unfortunately, adenosine is a chemical found in all of our human cells. (WebMD) Remember, caffeine affects no only the brain but also the central nervous system, which explains how it impacts so many organs.
Does that mean one should quit all caffeine? Well, that’s gonna be hard when caffeine is present in a lot of different food, beverages, and even supplements. Caffeine is found in coffee, cocoa, soft drinks, energy drinks, chocolate, medicines, especially OTC liquid medicines like cough syrups. (Better Health Channel) It’s really about recognizing how much you are ingesting and recognizing if it has a detrimental effect on your health. Here are a few indicators of caffeine overload on the body:
increase in body temperature
frequent urination
dehydration
dizziness and/or headaches
rapid heartbeat (or heart palpitations)
restlessness and excitability
anxiety and irritability
trembling or tremors (hands)
Sleeplessness
Crash and burn (energy highs and lows)
L-Theanine vs Caffeine Intake
In my first experiment, which lasted for about three weeks, involved taking a supplement called L-Theanine, which I picked up from a local health food store. At that time, I tried L-Theanine by Source Naturals®, which was a part of the Serene Science® brand. On the bottle itself, it provides the following background information:
L-Theanine is an amino acid that preliminary evidence suggested may help ease some psychological and physical aspects of normal everyday stress, including occasional anxiety and tension. Human studies have shown that taking L-Theanine affects the emission of alpha waves in the brain associated with stages of relaxation and focused attention. Preliminary research has shown that L-Theanine crosses the blood brain barrier and suggests that it may support healthy neurotransmitter levels in the brain, and inhibit the stimulatory properties of caffeine.
Per my own research, L-Theanine is derived from Green Tea Leaves (Camellia Sinensis) and it was discovered by Japanese researchers in 1949. In 1990, a patented form was manufactured and enzymatically synthesized as a supplement by Takio Kagaku (Japan) under the brand name: Suntheanine®. In a nutshell, its benefits include preventing anxiety from caffeine, promotes relaxation and reduces stress, improves learning ability, improves tastes of foods and supplements, and improves sleep quality. Its 100% water-soluble and does not degrade when heated at 121° for 5 minutes. Unlike caffeine itself, it’s not habit-forming and single doses are from 50-200 mg and kick in within 30-40 minutes after ingestion.
Experiment x 2
In my first attempt, I took a daily dose of L-Theanine between 8-9 AM for four calendar days with a cup or two of water. On the fifth day, I’d discontinue my dosage for two days. I repeated this process for another two weeks as I recorded my Mtn Dew® intake across all three weeks. In my four days, I only drank one plastic bottle (54 mg) one day and that’s because my stress level was at an all-time high. By the second round, I skip two of four days and by the third round, I skipped only one day. Of course, my Mtn Dew intake increased on the days when I wasn’t taking L-Theanine. Yet and still, I returned to drinking it as usual once the experiment was over mainly because of the withdrawal symptoms including headaches and nausea.
For my next semester, I vowed to try again but this time, I found a brand that contained both 100% Pure Theanine along with 100% Pure Caffeine “at a fully-researched dose.” (EU Naturals) I hypothesized once again that it would have a calming effect and thus decrease my intake. This time it worked! I doubled the experiment length from three to six weeks. I also increase my dosage amount from a single pill in the mornings to 2 pills twice daily – once in the morning and later in the evening. I kept my weekends open to monitor my progress without being under the influence of L-Theanine and of course, I binged on Mountain Dew®. But this time, my allergies kicked in and I became super congested to the point that I couldn’t deny that caffeine was a contributing factor to my health. (Mind you, I suffer from year-round allergies and in the past, year and a half I hadn’t had any allergy reaction until I binged on Mtn Dew® for two separate weekends.
Am I Caffeine Free?
Well, I’m happy to say that I’ve been without caffeine for going into my second week now. I don’t have any desire to drink caffeine (or even drink anything with a lot of sugar at all). L-Theanine really does affect your taste buds as I’m striving now to eat differently as well. Now, I’m not as hungry, and when I do it. I’m opting more for organic fruits and vegetables (when available) and eating pasture-raised and/or grass-fed meats, along with greatly reducing eating out especially foods from fast-food restaurants. Who knows? Maybe L-Theanine with Caffeine will work for you too. Why not! It’s worth a try.
*NOTE: This article was originally published May 10, 2021, at https://divinelypreservedhealer.com.
For nearly a decade, I’ve been an avid Mountain Dew drinker. Unlike many, I’ve never been a coffee drink – EVER!!! Sodas have always been my go-to drink of choice. Even during my pregnancy, I wasn’t satisfied with the doctor’s response regarding how much Mtn Dew® I could consume. Surely, she was lying. Nevertheless, I tried to keep myself on no more than two 16 oz bottles per day or 2 or 3 cans per day. I tried to continue that amount in the years since but sometimes I’d hit that 4th can if I was having a really rough day.
On a weekly average, I probably had around 1,134 milligrams (mg) of caffeine from Mountain Dew alone. (Hint: A single can of Mountain contains 54 mg of caffeine as indicated right on the back of the can itself. So, I’ll let you do the math on how many that was.). In case you’re still wondering how much caffeine I drank early on – when I was in high school, I developed a breast cyst, which was a hard mass that moved around and was quite painful when I tried to sleep on my left side or even face down. According to the National Cancer Institute, that only happens in those who drink in excess of 500 MILLIGRAMS PER DAY! 😲
Just like anyone addicted to caffeine, I had tried plenty of times throughout my life to break the habit but couldn’t. I wasn’t a fan of water or coffee so what else what’s there. I obviously find a way to add water to my diet through Starbucks Instant Refreshers: Strawberry Lemonade, which was a green coffee extract, but even that contained caffeine. (But wait? Does that mean I really was a coffee drinker?)
Plenty of times, I’ve tried to quit to no avail but as you know the withdrawal symptoms – mainly the headaches and nausea were too much to bear. Within a few days, I’d be driven back to my drug of choice. So imagine my shock as I was preparing this piece to find out there’s an actual 12-step program for excessive caffeine drinkers called Caffeine Addicts Anonymous. Nevertheless, the purpose of this post is to share how I was able to break my addiction holistically. In the past year, while enrolled in a holistic wellness program, I performed two different experiments in an effort to hopefully decrease if not eliminated my reliance on caffeine. But before I go into that, let me explain how caffeine is what I consider a killer cousin to us all.
Caffeine Explained:
Caffeine is a legal, unregulated consumable drug that stimulates the brain and the central nervous system (CNS). It takes about 20 minutes for caffeine to reach your bloodstream and an hour to reach its heightened states of alertness. (Healthline.com)
“Once consumed, caffeine is quickly absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream. From there, it travels to the liver and is broken down into compounds that can affect the function of various organs…It functions by blocking the effects of adenosine, which is a neurotransmitter that relaxes the brain and makes you feel tired…It may also increase blood adrenaline levels and increase brain activity of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine…[which] further stimulates the brain and promotes a state of arousal, alertness, and focus.” (Healthline.com)
It goes on to say: “Caffeine helps you stay awake by connecting to the adenosine receptors in the brain without activating them. This blocks the effects of adenosine, leading to reduced tiredness.” In other words, caffeine blocks your ability to deal with phases of lethargic expression through tiredness, weariness, sleepiness, and apathy due to diet, stress, sickness, etc. Unfortunately, adenosine is a chemical found in all of our human cells. (WebMD) Remember, caffeine affects no only the brain but also the central nervous system, which explains how it impacts so many organs.
Does that mean one should quit all caffeine? Well, that’s gonna be hard when caffeine is present in a lot of different food, beverages, and even supplements. Caffeine is found in coffee, cocoa, soft drinks, energy drinks, chocolate, medicines, especially OTC liquid medicines like cough syrups. (Better Health Channel) It’s really about recognizing how much you are ingesting and recognizing if it has a detrimental effect on your health. Here are a few indicators of caffeine overload on the body:
increase in body temperature
frequent urination
dehydration
dizziness and/or headaches
rapid heartbeat (or heart palpitations)
restlessness and excitability
anxiety and irritability
trembling or tremors (hands)
Sleeplessness
Crash and burn (energy highs and lows)
L-Theanine vs Caffeine Intake
In my first experiment, which lasted for about three weeks, involved taking a supplement called L-Theanine, which I picked up from a local health food store. At that time, I tried L-Theanine by Source Naturals®, which was a part of the Serene Science® brand. On the bottle itself, it provides the following background information:
L-Theanine is an amino acid that preliminary evidence suggested may help ease some psychological and physical aspects of normal everyday stress, including occasional anxiety and tension. Human studies have shown that taking L-Theanine affects the emission of alpha waves in the brain associated with stages of relaxation and focused attention. Preliminary research has shown that L-Theanine crosses the blood brain barrier and suggests that it may support healthy neurotransmitter levels in the brain, and inhibit the stimulatory properties of caffeine.
Per my own research, L-Theanine is derived from Green Tea Leaves (Camellia Sinensis) and it was discovered by Japanese researchers in 1949. In 1990, a patented form was manufactured and enzymatically synthesized as a supplement by Takio Kagaku (Japan) under the brand name: Suntheanine®. In a nutshell, its benefits include preventing anxiety from caffeine, promotes relaxation and reduces stress, improves learning ability, improves tastes of foods and supplements, and improves sleep quality. Its 100% water-soluble and does not degrade when heated at 121° for 5 minutes. Unlike caffeine itself, it’s not habit-forming and single doses are from 50-200 mg and kick in within 30-40 minutes after ingestion.
Experiment x 2
In my first attempt, I took a daily dose of L-Theanine between 8-9 AM for four calendar days with a cup or two of water. On the fifth day, I’d discontinue my dosage for two days. I repeated this process for another two weeks as I recorded my Mtn Dew® intake across all three weeks. In my four days, I only drank one plastic bottle (54 mg) one day and that’s because my stress level was at an all-time high. By the second round, I skip two of four days and by the third round, I skipped only one day. Of course, my Mtn Dew intake increased on the days when I wasn’t taking L-Theanine. Yet and still, I returned to drinking it as usual once the experiment was over mainly because of the withdrawal symptoms including headaches and nausea.
For my next semester, I vowed to try again but this time, I found a brand that contained both 100% Pure Theanine along with 100% Pure Caffeine “at a fully-researched dose.” (EU Naturals) I hypothesized once again that it would have a calming effect and thus decrease my intake. This time it worked! I doubled the experiment length from three to six weeks. I also increase my dosage amount from a single pill in the mornings to 2 pills twice daily – once in the morning and later in the evening. I kept my weekends open to monitor my progress without being under the influence of L-Theanine and of course, I binged on Mountain Dew®. But this time, my allergies kicked in and I became super congested to the point that I couldn’t deny that caffeine was a contributing factor to my health. (Mind you, I suffer from year-round allergies and in the past, year and a half I hadn’t had any allergy reaction until I binged on Mtn Dew® for two separate weekends.
Am I Caffeine Free?
Well, I’m happy to say that I’ve been without caffeine for going into my second week now. I don’t have any desire to drink caffeine (or even drink anything with a lot of sugar at all). L-Theanine really does affect your taste buds as I’m striving now to eat differently as well. Now, I’m not as hungry, and when I do it. I’m opting more for organic fruits and vegetables (when available) and eating pasture-raised and/or grass-fed meats, along with greatly reducing eating out especially foods from fast-food restaurants. Who knows? Maybe L-Theanine with Caffeine will work for you too. Why not! It’s worth a try.
*NOTE: This article was originally published May 10, 2021, at https://divinelypreservedhealer.com.
