Feed your brain

January can be a long and dark month and this year there are five Monday mornings to contend with. The third Monday in January has been dubbed ‘Blue Monday’, which is enough to put most of us in a bad mood before the week even starts.

Of course, our mood depends on so many factors – financial worries, family, workload, and someone telling us that it is Blue Monday can all contribute to our stress levels and affect our mood, but the food we eat plays a big part in levelling out our mood and supporting our mental health too.  

If we are living on a junk food diet devoid of much nutrition, we are not going to get the nutrients our brain needs to balance our neurotransmitters and support our mood. Here are some better ways to feed your brain.

1.       Get some morning sunshine (or at least some morning daylight). Getting outside in the morning can be a game changer for your mood and energy levels for the rest of the day, even if it is a dark, cold and wet January morning. Exposure to natural daylight helps to reset our circadian rhythm and shake us out of hibernation mode to put a bit more spring in our step. Evidence also shows that morning daylight helps us sleep better that night too.

2.       Start your day with some protein. Swap your cereal, or breakfast bar for eggs, or a protein packed porridge – in other words add a couple of tablespoonfuls of nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts) and seeds (chia, flax, sunflower, pumpkin) and a dollop of natural yoghurt, to superpower your breakfast. The additional protein will help to fuel you for longer and stop the mid-morning sugar crash that leaves you reaching for a biscuit and a cuppa at 10am. You are likely to feel fuller for longer with this extra protein too. Breakfast should sustain your mood and maintain your energy for 4 hours. If you need food before this, then give yourself a protein boost and see if it makes a difference.

3.       Feed your face with fats. Fat is vital for your brain, mental health and cognitive function. Do your brain a favour and eat more healthy fats from nuts and seeds in that superpowered porridge, oily fish, extra virgin olive oil, olives and avocados.

4.      Rethink your drinks. If you feel jittery, anxious, or stressed to the eyeballs, it could be partly thanks to what you are drinking. If you are strung out on too much caffeine, reaching for energy drinks to get you through your afternoon or switching off with a glass of booze at the end of the day, this could be contributing to your mood. Cut back on caffeine, drink less alcohol and cut the fizzy drinks and see if that alone makes a difference for you mood. Try replacing your favourite fizzy drink with kombucha. You’ll find this is most supermarkets and even some corner shops now. It is teaming with probiotic bacteria (they make it fizzy) and good for your gut, and your brain.

5.       Feed your gut to fuel your brain. Eating some fermented foods like kombucha, kefir or kimchi, getting plenty of fibre in your diet and eating a wide diversity of plant foods will help to keep the friendly bacteria in your gut microbiome in good health, and this has a huge impact on our mood and neurotransmitters like serotonin.

6.       Move your body. There is no doubt about it, exercise make us happy, and especially if you do it outside, Go for a walk, take a bike ride or find an outdoors exercise class. Commit to getting moving every day.