There’s no denying the effect COVID-19 and a pandemic is having on all of our mental health. Sadly, the resulting issues of financial distress, disconnectedness, anxiety and sleeplessness can often go hand in hand with a poor diet, as we turn to comfort foods to supplement our energy and emotional needs.
Dr Michael Mosley, the brains behind some of the most influential diets of the last decade including popular , warns that turning to sugary high fat treats is certainly not the answer if you want to keep your body, brain and immune system in good nick.
“During periods of higher stress, it’s in fact more important than usual to consider the link between the mind and body, as choosing to eat mindfully can help to reduce stress”, Dr Mosley says.
Research shows that our diet plays a key role in managing stress and reducing sleeplessness, according to Dr Mosley.
“The link lies in our gut; two to three kilos of microbes live in the digestive system, and amongst other things they produce neurotransmitters. These chemicals convey messages from the gut, through the nervous system to the brain — impacting our mood and anxiety levels.”
In fact, 80 per cent of our serotonin (our happy hormone) is produced in the gut and so the healthier the gut, the more emotionally resilient we are, he says.
Naturally, the better we’re feeling the easier it is to achieve a deeper, more restorative sleep, and ultimately foster a positive cycle of eating better, sleeping better and managing stress.
Nailing this winning combination will not only have you sleeping like an infant, but will also improve your body’s ability to fight infection — which has never been more crucial amid a pandemic.
Dr Michael Mosley shares his top four tips for eating to boost the gut/brain axis and improve our body’s ability to cope with stress.
4 ways to eat yourself calm
1. Choose Mediterranean
Eating a low-carbohydrate Mediterranean diet rich in different coloured fruits and vegetables, will give you the best chance of getting the wide variety of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients your body needs.
The high-fibre content is a great way to boost your microbiome, the trillions of microbes that live in your large intestine and which are so important for your health. Olive oil, common within the Mediterranean diet, helps reduce gut inflammation. Try it as salad dressing or drizzled over some cooked vegetables for a double whammy — and it makes all that veg, beans and lentils taste so much better.
2. Eat fertiliser foods
Prebiotic foods such as leeks, onions and garlic, form the foundation of a psychobiotic diet — a vegetable and fibre-rich one that’s good for your brain, keeps your mood up and your anxiety levels at bay. They act as the ‘fertiliser’ for the good bacteria and encourage them to multiply and in time counter the effects of more harmful bacteria.
3. Ferment for strength
If prebiotics act like fertiliser for the gut, probiotics are the seeds that support the healthy growth of ‘good bacteria’. You can find probiotics in fermented foods like live yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha. For inspiration, refer to the Fast800 shopping guide to fermented foods.
4. Cut down on the sweet stuff
It’s also important to try and avoid, or at least cut down on, processed foods like unhealthy takeaways as these destroy the active healthy bacteria in the digestive system. Treat your microbiome with care; feed it well and it will look after you. Eating loads of sugary or processed foods, on the other hand, will just reinforce the “bad” microbes that also live down there.
For mood boosting microbiome friendly recipe inspiration visit .
Dr Michael Mosley is a renowned science journalist, best-selling author of (RRP $29.99), and the creator of weight loss program The Fast 800 ().
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