Foods That Reduce Stress

Plus, 4 ways to battle the winter blues

Author

Yasmine S. Ali, MD
January 24, 2024

Hello again!

If you’ve been experiencing extreme weather over the past week, I hope you are staying safe and healthy. As I write this, we are just emerging from over a week of being buried in winter snow and ice here in Middle Tennessee—very unusual for us to get this much snow (or such low temps)!

How about you? I’d love to hear from you, so please don’t hesitate to write me. Just reply to this message. 

Did you know that what you eat can actually play a role in reducing your stress levels? This week’s news includes a rundown of 10 foods that can relieve and reduce stress, as well as some tips on how to beat the winter blues!

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To your health,

Yasmine S. Ali, MD

Weekly Heart-Health News: The Highlights

Burnt Out? Trying Adding These Stress-Busting Foods to Your Diet

Following a healthy diet high in certain foods could help improve your mental health and your ability to cope with stress. Here are 10 foods that may help reduce stress.

www.health.com/foods-to-reduce-stress-8419516

My Take:

You’ve seen me write a lot about stress management and reduction, and for good reason: experts agree that we are facing an epidemic of unhealthy, chronic stress.

So I found this article very interesting, as it outlines 10 foods with stress-reducing properties. The article also explains how each food achieves this.

My only caveat would be with cocoa products—as I’ve mentioned before, you need to buy high-quality, dark (at least 70% cacao) chocolate and eat it in moderation to avoid the impact of added sugars and heavy-metal contaminants.

4 ways to move past seasonal sadness with physical activity | CNN

Short, dark winter days can be tough on your mental health, but moving your body helps, and it’s easier than you think.

www.cnn.com/2024/01/20/health/physical-activity-seasonal-sadness-wellness/index.html

My Take:

I have seasonal affective disorder (SAD) myself, and getting through the winter can be like wading through molasses. I have found light therapy to be crucial to maintaining my mental health and well-being during the winter, and getting regular physical activity is just as important.

For me, being able to get outdoors while it’s daylight (usually through a walk with my dogs) goes a long way toward helping with SAD symptoms. So does working out regularly at the gym (for me, it’s the Y).

This article has some ideas for activities (most of them are low-key and not strenuous) that will boost your mood and improve your physical fitness at any time of year—but are especially important to keep yourself going during the winter.

By the way, if you want a hard-core book on SAD, here is the one that turned my own life around several years ago:

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