Stress Reducing Foods - 9 Super Stress Busting Foods

Most people know that a good diet is an important element in a healthy lifestyle. What you may not realise is that the food we eat can also play an important role in stress reduction. Listed below are some of the foods which have been shown to reduce stress levels.

Almonds, Pistachios & Walnuts

Nuts such as almonds are a great source of vitamin E, which acts as an anti oxidant and can boost your immune system. Almonds also contain vitamin B, which can help to support your body during stressful evens.

You only need to eat a small amount at around a quarter cup daily to get the benefit of it’s stress reducing properties. You can eat the almonds themselves or you could try using almond butter in place of peanut butter. While it can be little harder to find, you should be able to buy it at your local health food store.

Other nuts, such as pistachios and walnuts are also excellent at reducing stress. A 2007 study at Penn State University found that eating as little as 1 1/2 ounces of pistachios a day lowered blood pressure. Similar results have been obtained by eating walnuts.

Avocados

According to the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute,  one of the best ways to lower your blood pressure is to ensure you are getting enough potassium. Avocados are rich in potassium, and there is the same amount of potassium in half an avocado as there is in an average size banana.

Skimmed Milk

Studies by the University of California found that foods rich in calcium such as milk can reduce muscle spasms and ease tension. There is also some evidence to suggest that milk can help with PMS symptoms including mood swings, irritability and anxiety.

A 2005 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that women who drank four or more servings of skimmed milk daily were 46% less likely to suffer PMS problems than women who drank only one serving of milk per week.

Oats and Oatmeal

Any form of carbohydrates will make the brain produce more of the stress relieving chemical seratonin, and studies by the US MIT showed that the slower your body absorbed these carbohydrates, the more steady the release of seratonin.

Because oatmeal is full of fibre, it releases it’s carbohydrate more slowly that other foods, and this leads to a more prolonged release of seratonin.

Oranges

Oranges are well known as a great source of vitamin C.  In a study in Psychopharmacology, German researchers asked volunteers to carry out tasks involving public speaking and solving mathematical problems. It was found that the volunteers who had taken 3,000 milligrams of vitamin C reported feeling less stressed, and their blood pressure and levels of the stress hormone cortisol returned to normal levels more quickly. The American Dietetic Association also recommends vitamin C as a great immune system booster.

Salmon & Other Oily Fish

A Study from Diabetes & Metabolism in 2003, found that a diet with a high level of omega 3 fatty acids helped to keep the stress hormone cortisol and adrenaline under control. In addition, omega 3 also helps to prevent heart disease.

The Journal of the American Medical Association recommended that eating as little as three ounces of oily fish such as salmon, herring or mackerel twice a week would have an impact in protecting against heart disease.

Spinach

Magnesium is another chemical that can help to lower your stress levels. If you don’t have sufficient magnesium in your diet, it can cause problems such as migraine headaches and low energy levels.

Just one cup of spinach can provide 40% of your recommended daily amount of magnesium, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to incorporate this into a well balanced diet.

While diet alone will not completely eliminate stress, eating stress reducing foods can certainly help as part of an overall stress reduction program.

How to make a stress ball

Stress balls can be a great help in reducing your stress levels. Not only that, but they can also help improve your coordination, prevent arthritis and rheumatism, stimulate blood circulation and help with meditation.

If you’ve ever searched for information on how to make a stress ball you’ve probably come across many sites where they recommend a technique of partially filling a balloon and then using a funnel to pour in flour or cornstarch to make the stress ball.

I’ve tried this method and found it really doesn’t work very well. What tends to happen is as your opening the balloon to let the corn starch or flour in, the air in the baloon comes out. The result can be clouds of flour everywhere and not much in the balloon - something that doesn’t do much for your stress levels!

I’ve found a simple additional technique when making home made stress balls that completeley avoids this problem and makes the whole process much simpler, less messy and more enjoyable.

Just try the instructions below and you will end up with a nice homemade stress ball without the mess.

Items you will need:

1. A small, thick round balloon.

2. An empty 2 litre plastic drinks bottle.

3. Corn starch or flour for filling the balloon.

Method:

1. Put your corn starch or flour, into the empty 2 litre plastic bottle.

3. Stand the bottle upright and put the balloon over the bottle rim without inflating it.

4. Squeeze the bottle to partly fill balloon with air.

5. While still squeezing the bottle, turn it upside down and shake the corn starch or flour        down into the balloon.

6. Release the bottle, and work the excess starch back out of the balloon, along with any excess air. This allows the starch to settle and any excess filling goes back into the bottle.

7. Pinch the end of the balloon at the bottle rim and turn the bottle back upright, remove the balloon and tie it off as near to the filling as you can.

After you finish making your stress ball, you might want to decorate it with stickers, or paint a face on it. It’s a good idea to make sure your decorations won’t irritate your skin or rub off on your hand when it is squeezed.

And that’s all there is to it. You now know how to make a stress ball for very little cost compared to store bought stress balls. Of course your home made stress balls won’t last anywhere near as long as commercialy produced ones, bus because they are so easy and quick to make, you can simply replace them any time you need to.