Can your mental health be affected by what you eat? Yes, there are foods that can impact your mood and psychological well-being. Can you actually feel better by eating healthy foods and staying away from processed and fast food ? The answer is absolutely!

Are you stressed and don’t have time to create a healthy meal? Try to go toward  Omega 3 fats with the essential vitamins for a healthy brain and mood.  Try a soup that includes spinach and other folate rich foods. Vitamin B is important for psychological well-being and a deficiency in B6 or B9 or B12 can trigger symptoms of depression.

If you’re too busy for a big meal, over the weekend, make a large soup with organic leafy vegetables such as broccoli asparagus, cabbage and turnip greens that you can heat up during the week for a comforting and mood-enhancing lunch or dinner with a side salad. If you add bread, try non-gluten because many people seem to have symptoms of inflammation when eating gluten.

Tryptophan is also an important ingredient to add. High tryptophan foods include nuts, seeds, tofu, cheese, red meat, chicken, turkey, fish, oats, beans, lentils, and eggs. The recommended daily intake for tryptophan is 4 mg per kilogram of body weight or 1.8 mg per pound. So a person weighing 70 kg (~154 pounds) should consume around 280 mg of tryptophan per day.

If you need coffee in the morning to get going, try organic coffee. Although the benefits for depression are inconclusive you can at least know that organic coffee has less possibility of harmful toxins.

Do you want to bring balance into your life, reduce stress, and  improve your overall well-being? By taking small steps you can make progress toward a less stressful and mentally healthy lifestyle.  When you start to make small changes in your diet and lifestyle, your relationships, energy, and mental health will also improve.

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