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5 Foods That Will Help Improve Your Mood This Holiday Season

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Halloween is about up. Which means the Holiday season pretty much here. The Holidays tend to bring a lot of stress into people’s lives. All the plans that need to be made, the juggling of schedules, the gift buying and giving, the crowded malls, the gobbling turkeys, and all those darn Santa hats.

What else tends to happen around the holidays for most people are diet and workouts suffer. Bad nutrition and not working out will lead you to be a very unpleasant Mr. or Mrs. Scrooge.

And with everything else going on top of that…

That’s why I stress the importance of good eating. Not good eating in the way of eating BBQ spare ribs

everyday tastes good, but good eating in the way of staying healthy with your nutrition and only cheating on your diet less then 10% of the time.

This is what will keep your mood up. Be happy! The holidays are supposed to be fun. Don’t get stressed. So here are 5 foods that you can eat to help improve your mood. And they aren’t just for the Holiday season either; year round these foods can make you feel good.

Food #1

Spinach.

Calorie for calorie this green leafy veggie provides more nutrients then almost every other food on Earth. Scientifically proven to help protect the brain from age-related declines. A healthy brain will make you happy. Also loaded with the vitamin Folate, which has been linked to depression if the levels are too low.

Did you know Subway has spinach? Replace your sandwich with the nutrient-dense spinach from that nutrient-less romaine lettuce next time. Always opt for a spinach-based salad when you can. Your mood will thank you.

Food #2

Dark Chocolate.

No! I am not talking about Snickers or Milky Way Bars either. The chocolate you want to look for is ‘high cocoa-content dark chocolate’. 60 percent cocoa or above. 70 percent or higher are the best but it is hard to find. But don’t pig out on it either because of the palmitic acid type of fat in it. But chocolate has been proven to release endorphins and will boost serotonin levels, which will give you a happier you. But again keep the intake low—no more then a couple ounces a week.

Food #3

Walnuts.

This nut contains more Omega-3 fatty acids then any other. You need Omega-3’s in your diet. One of the many benefits of Omega-3’s is that they support brain function. They have been used in depression studies and have helped considerably. Your brain and mood go hand-in-hand. They don’t call Omega-3 fats ‘brain food’ for nothing.

Food #4

Salmon.

I’m only talking wild here, not the farm-raised. Wild salmon contains probably the most Omega-3 fatty acids in it then any other food. Notice how we’re coming back to Omega-3’s? The wild kinds of salmon who dine on their oceanic friends are full of this wonderful fatty acid. However the farm-raised kinds are fed grains, not exactly the kind of grub you’ll find in the ocean and rivers where salmon live. The result is a fish that produces very little Omega-3 fats and produces a lot more of the inflammatory Omega-6 fats. We already get more then enough of this fat in our diets. So stick with the Wild Salmon and improve your mood and health.

Food #5

Eggs.

And yes I mean the whole egg. I wrote an entire article on the benefits of this food. For starters, it is without question the absolute best whole protein food you can eat. People are worried about the cholesterol and fat though. But you see eggs contain Choline, which is a B Complex vitamin that many people will be low on if they avoid foods like eggs. Choline to be ‘used’ appropriately by the body needs to be in the presence of fat. Eggs are perfect because of the fat already naturally occurring. Without getting too scientific choline is connected to memory and thought- both very important for affecting mood.

There you go– Eat Up!

Tags: Columbus, depression, diet, eat, eating, food, jason yun, mood, Nutrition, omega-3's, personal trainer
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Do You Eat Fat?

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

Well, you most certainly should be! But not all fats are created equal. What types should you be getting? The major players are saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, trans, omega-3, omega-6, omega-9, and flatystomacher.

Ok, I’ll admit I made the last one up. But it would be nice to eat a fat that does that. Everybody wants ‘easy’. If exercise were available in a pill, it would be the #1 selling pill on the planet. But unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. $Coach potato is how people get fat, you won\'t lose weight sitting on the couch, exercise in a pill will never work$

Fat is necessary, for everybody. And it is necessary everyday. Dietary fats provide extremely important functions that take place in the body everyday. Your skin and cell membranes are two things in your body that need dietary fat to be healthy. If you don’t have healthy cells, your much more likely to get sick, be less productive, have less energy, and a host of other unwanted side effects.

But cell damage can happen anyway if you are eating ‘bad’ fats. Fats that have been altered chemically. These are the fats that make food very cheap to produce and also make your foods taste good. These are most of your processed foods you will find in the supermarket, and the ones that will have misleading claims all over the box (most processed foods do come in a box) Processed food usually comes in a box and has really bad fats that will lead to weight gain, disease, and death
praising what’s inside and making you think that it is okay to eat.

If cells are damaged the rest of the body has to work extra hard to try and repair it and/or continue on with all the other processes that occur in your body on a daily basis. Bad Nutrition doesn’t just affect the weight gain and fat gain; it can also cause some serious cellular damage. It can cause your insides to age prematurely, which will affect your outside. (Extreme Example)

I’m sure you have heard ‘health experts’ say to keep to a low-fat diet. It’s the absolute best way to lose weight avoid disease and stay healthy year round. Some of them are still saying it at this day in age when we have scientific proof that dietary fat is good for us.

I will admit I fell for it to. Back in High School when I became super interested in health and fitness, I took my nutrition to an extreme place. I was on a low-fat diet with a capital-LOW-FAT. I wish I had kept my dietary logs back then, but I do remember most weeks my dietary fat wouldn’t get above 3.5% of my total calories per day. And in high school I was trying to gain weight, big time, so my calories were between 3,000- 4,000 a day.

If I could go back in time in my Delorean I would most certainly smack the tuna fish and power bars out of my younger self.
Today, my dietary fat hovers in between 25-35% a day with right around the same amount of calories.

But it’s not the processed kind of fats being eaten. Most of the fats are good, healthy for you fats. The kinds you find in olive oil, nuts, natural nut butters, fish, fish oil, seafood, eggs, naturally occurring fats in animals, seeds, avocados, and coconuts. Most fats have been lumped together by people, and so it sort of scares people that eating ‘fat’ will make you ‘fat’ and ‘sick’ and die prematurely. It’s just not the case!
coconuts are loaded with saturated fat that is good for you. some fats are bad and will cause obesity and diabetes says Columbus Personal Trainer Jason Yun
The majority of your fats should come from unsaturated sources. So the sources I mentioned in the former paragraph are great place to start. It should comprise about 20-30% of your daily caloric intake. And always remember you should be splitting up your meals into at least 5 smaller meals spread throughout the day!

And don’t be afraid of saturated fat either. You need to be getting some everyday. It should comprise less then 10% of your daily fat calories though. But there are some healthy saturated fat sources out there like avocados, coconuts and eggs.

The real ones you want to avoid are hydrogenated oils (trans fats). Just because it says ‘No Trans Fats’ on the package doesn’t mean its true! Check the ingredients for hydrogenated oils. Other fats to avoid may seem obvious to you, but some people bat a blind eye to it, like fried foods, potato chips, donuts, pastries, etc… Trans fats are bad and should be avoided to lose weight and get healthy other wise you will be fat and unhealthy