7 Best Foods for Mental Health
While we often associate a good diet with physical health, maintaining your energy levels and making sure you get the right nutrients can also keep your brain healthy.
Creating a nutritious diet for mental health can help you cope with stress, alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well keep you energised throughout the day. But what mood boosting foods should you be looking to eat more of?
In this article we’ll explore seven of the best foods for mental health, as well as other ways you can improve your mood through food.
What’s the link between diet and mental health?
Research suggests our gut is linked to mental health. This connection between gut nutrition and mental health is due to the gut-brain axis – the nerves connecting your brain to the gut.
What the gut-brain axis means is that poor gut health may lead to poor mental health, and vice-versa. However, it also means if we optimise our gut health through our diet, we can optimise our mental wellbeing too.
But how do we cater our diet to mental health?
There are a few key elements involved in optimising our gut health through foods we eat, which include:
Eating a variety of plant-based foods.
Increasing fibre intake to 30mg a day.
Including probiotic foods in your daily diet.
Changes like these will help to increase the diversity of ‘good bacteria’ in your gut, which can then help to improve mental health, as well as metabolic health.
7 best foods for mental health
Before you create your diet for mental health, it’s useful to know exactly what foods you should be looking to eat more of to boost your mood.
To help you get started, you’ll find seven mood boosting foods to incorporate into your diet, below.
1. Dark chocolate
Up first on our list of best foods for mental health is one you’ll likely be glad to see – dark chocolate.
There are plenty of health benefits to dark chocolate, but it’s the flavonoids that make it good for your mood. For example, flavonoids can help improve cognition, but they’re also good for reducing emotional stress as well.
The darker the chocolate, the better it is for you. For this reason, you’ll want to look at dark chocolate of at least 70% cocoa when it comes to diet and mental health. About 20-30g per day is a healthy amount. For a vegan alternative, try eating more apples, berries, and cherries, which also contain flavonoids.
2. Salmon
Salmon is one of the best serotonin boosting foods as it contains plenty of omega-3, which has been shown to help alleviate symptoms of depression.
The NHS recommends you eat at least two portions of fish a week, including one oily fish, such as salmon. However, if you don’t like salmon, you can also consider other omega-3 high fish, such as herring, kipper, or sardines.
While it’s best to get nutrition through your diet, you could try omega-3 supplements if you don’t enjoy eating fish. For vegetarians and vegans, there are supplements that are made from algae instead of animal by-products, which you can find in most health stores.
3. Brazil nuts
Most nuts are a great source of healthy fat to include in your diet, but Brazil nuts are particularly beneficial as a mood boosting food.
That’s because Brazil nuts contain a mineral called selenium, which may help with the symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as stave off tiredness. Studies suggest increasing your daily selenium intake can also improve your overall mood.
If you have a nut allergy or intolerance, you can find other foods containing this mood boosting chemical as well. For example, foods like baked beans, mushrooms, and spinach are great nut-free selenium alternatives to consider in your diet for mental health.
4. Eggs
Not eating enough B vitamins can cause you to feel tired and irritable, but eggs are a great food to help keep those levels topped up.
Studies have linked vitamin B12 deficiency to depression and anxiety, so increasing your intake can help stave off such symptoms. You’ll also find that vitamin B6 can help naturally regulate the levels of serotonin in your brain as well.
Eggs contain high levels of most B vitamins, which make them a great mood boosting food. However, if you follow a vegan diet, then you can try supplementing this into your diet or pick up vitamin B fortified cereals from your local health shop.
5. Kimchi
Kimchi is one of the best foods for mental health, as well as for general gut health too.
Fermented foods like kimchi are full of healthy bacteria for the gut. Eating these foods increases the amount of such bacteria in our system, in turn, helping to create the neurotransmitters needed to give ourselves a mood boost. Additionally, there are plenty of the amino acid tryptophan in fermented foods, which is key to the production of the ‘happy hormone’ serotonin.
If you’re looking for variation in the fermented foods you eat, then there are plenty more to consider. For example, kombucha is a good vegan alternative to kimchi, while kefir, yoghurt, and sauerkraut are other mood boosting foods to include as well.
6. Banana
With plenty of vitamin B6, healthy sugar, and fibre, you’ll find bananas are another great mood boosting food to add to your list.
Not only does the vitamin B6 help create dopamine – a pleasure hormone – but the sugar and fibre combination helps to regulate your mood. The fibre allows the sugar to release more slowly into the bloodstream, keeping your blood sugar levels stable. In turn, this helps to better control your mood throughout the day.
Alongside this, bananas are excellent sources of prebiotics, especially when slightly underripe with a little green on the peel. Prebiotics are a type of fibre which feeds beneficial bacteria in your gut - a robust gut microbiome is associated with lower rates of mood disorders.
7. Chicken
Not only is chicken a good source of protein for building healthy muscle, but it’s also one of the best foods for mental health.
Poultry, such as chicken, contains high levels of iron. When you’re lacking iron, it can cause low levels of oxygen in the blood – known as anaemia - leading to lethargy, weakness, tiredness, and apathy.
Look to increase your intake of chicken, especially the thigh and leg as those cuts contain the most amount of iron. For a vegetarian alternative, try including more tofu, beans, and pulses in your meals.
Other ways to boost mental health through food
There are other ways to boost your mental health through the foods you eat, as well as how you eat them.
Eat with others: You may find it helps to eat meals with friends or family, as connecting with others can also boost your mood. If you don’t eat together now, then set a target of at least two shared meals a week, turning off the TV and any phones to focus on talking with each other instead.
Eat regular balanced meals: Eating sweet snacks or sugary drinks may cause a sugar spike followed by a crash. To counteract this, try to eat regular meals, including breakfast. Make sure each meal contains a source of protein, such as lean meat, fish, soy, nuts, pulses, or dairy products such as cheese or yoghurt.
Avoid drinking too much caffeine: Excessive caffeine consumption can cause fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which isn’t good for mood. Try to keep to 1-4 caffeinated drinks a day and stop drinking caffeine at least 8 hours before bed.
How can Benenden Health help with mental health?
As a Benenden Health member, you’ll be able to access our 24/7 Mental Health Helpline, from day one. You can call to receive immediate guidance on the best services and resources to help you.
Plus, you’ll have access to our other affordable healthcare services, including the 24/7 GP Helpline. Additionally, as a member, you’ll have access to My Expert Health Coach via the Benenden Health App. With a range of videos, articles, live Q&A events, and 30 minute 1-2-1 consultations on gut health, weight management, sleep, mental health and menopause (* My Expert Coach is a new service we're testing to see how our members value and use it. It may change or be removed in the future).
Alternatively, for more ways to improve your health through diet, you can find advice on how to reduce salt and how sugar impacts your mental performance on our Be Healthy hub.
