Super foods beats up comfort foods in combating stress

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Foods affects mood? A recent study conducted by experts aimed to identify the relationship between mood and food, and the implications of these foods to health.

Stress is normal to everyone. But sometimes when people, especially adults, get into too much of it, comfort foods will always be the immediate solution to reduce stress levels.

Comfort foods are foods that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to consumer and is often characterized by its high caloric nature, high carbohydrate level and simple preparation. It may be consumed to positively pique emotions, to relieve negative psychological effects to increase positive feelings.

However, comfort foods like cakes, chocolates, cheese, cookies, pizza, ice creams and many others have negative effects to health.

Moreover, there are also certain foods that can help reduce stress without the damaging health, and these are called superfoods.

According to Australian Healthy Food Guide, superfoods are natural foods that contain high concentration of nutrients and are believed to have health benefits beyond those of common foods due to rich phytochemical and antioxidant content.

Antioxidants are known for their ability to fight against free radicals, which damages DNA and cells, contributing the process of ageing and the development of cancer in the body.

Natural Institutes of Health also define superfoods as items that are found to provide health benefits beyond the basic nutrients.

Per CNN, Pete Sulack, an expert and author of Unhealthy Anonymous book that talks about stress management and overall stress, said, "many of these superfoods also work to boost glutathione in detoxifying the body. So, superfoods nourish and detoxify, and in this way, they combat stress."

Sulack also added, "in animal studies, vitamin C fed to rats who were undergoing stress both prevented an increase in cortisol levels and known signs of physical and/or emotional stress like losing body weight. Animals that did not received vitamin C had three times level of cortisol in their bodies. Also, human study has been done as well."

A research that was conducted in the University of Otago in New Zealand, Kate Brookie, a PhD candidate said, "while there are biologically plausible ways that diet can influence our state of mental health, the exact mechanisms of action are still being investigated"

Brookie also added that whole foods, especially fruits and vegetables provides brain with the nutrients necessary for key processes involved in mood and well-being.

"It could be that eating high quality, whole-food diet, rich in fruits and vegetables, provides the nutrients for these systems to function more optimally, leading to better mental health", Kate Brookie explains.

Likewise, the Australian Healthy Food Guided also suggested that instead of focusing on superfoods, it is also better to take a range of whole foods like oats, blueberries, salmon, tea, linseeds, ginger, broccoli, tomatoes and yogurt.

These whole foods can also be combined to attain more healthy effects like broccoli and tomatoes to reduce the growth of prostate cancer, Avocado and dark green leafy vegetables for fast absorption of phytochemicals, combination of B vitamins to reduce the risk of heart disease as well as vitamin C and iron for boosting iron absorption.