Healthy diet for anxiety sufferer?

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Asces
Asces Posts: 182
in Food and Nutrition
I suffer from fairly bad anxiety. I was just wondering if anyone else does and what diet changes they have made?

I know that anxiety can be treated with diet and exercise, this has been proven in countries where they don't treat with medication yet still have huge success rates at treating anxiety. They treat with monitored diet and exercise.

So I was hoping someone on here might know of a typical diet to follow when treating anxiety?

I know to cut out caffeine, sugar, and refined food. I am having a hard time with this as I am quite addicted to sugar. But I am working on it. I have cut my coffee down to 1/2 a cup every 2 or 3 days but chocolate is my weakness :(

I read that you should add cheese to your diet, but any time I eat large amounts of dairy I notice my anxiety goes up.

Any vitamin regimen that anyone with anxiety follows? I take a daily multivitamin but am wondering if I should be doing something else.

I want medication to be my last option!
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Replies

  • dls06
    dls06 Posts: 6,774 Member
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    http://www.livestrong.com/article/127698-foods-reduce-anxiety/
  • Asces
    Asces Posts: 182
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    Thank you :) I try to avoid googling anything to do with anxiety, I always come across the scariest things! lol
  • ST99000722
    ST99000722 Posts: 204 Member
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    I also suffer from anxiety, and have found that exercise & eating well have really helped.
    at the moment i am doing 30 day shred and have found that exercising a little every day really helps and has improved my sleep no end. Diet wise I try to eat fairly cleanly - lots of lean protein, veg, fruit, nuts and greek yoghurt. I still have the odd treat though.
    feel free to add me , best of luck :smile:
  • MelissaGraham7
    MelissaGraham7 Posts: 405 Member
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    For me, the exercise helps more than anything for anxiety and I've not had to take medications in a long time now. I have cut out most processed foods and refined sugars, etc. (though I'm not nearly perfect on it and don't obsess about it). But, any time I go more than a couple of days without walking, running, or working out in some way, I can feel depression/anxiety begin to build and just get plain *itchy! So, make sure to exercise. Find something you like so that you can do it for life! You are on the right track with healthy food choices so just keep at it!
  • Asces
    Asces Posts: 182
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    I notice it gets really bad with cheese, higher salty foods, and also on days when I eat a lot of processed flour crap

    I really think a balanced diet, cutting out all the garbage (or at least 99% of it) and continuing my exercise is the best way to start.

    I have done a lot of research and am trying to make up some meal plans that follow all the specifications.
    I need to add magnesium and vitamin b supplements it looks like.

    A lot of learning to do, hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

    Anyone else going through the same issues, I would love a friend request. Would be nice to see what others are doing :)
  • vestarocks
    vestarocks Posts: 449 Member
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    My naturopath has me on the GAPS diet (www.gapsdiet.com) for other health reasons but an added benefit is it has reduced my anxiety to very rare occurrences. I thought it would be hard to come off sugar but I just decided that that was the thing making me the most miserable health-wise and I was willing to stop fighting my body and take care of it.

    Anyways, the diet has worked wonders for a lot of people. It's not for the feint of heart that's for sure but if I can stick with it anyone can. My naturopath had me do 3 days for each stage of the introductory diet. I've been on it since January 18th.

    Message me if you want more info.
  • Asces
    Asces Posts: 182
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    I will look into that vestarocks, and will probably be messaging you. Thanks :)
  • reka74
    reka74 Posts: 70
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    Yoga and tai chi...
    ...and a glass of red wine here and there LOL
  • FlaxMilk
    FlaxMilk Posts: 3,452 Member
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    B Vitamins can be good. I am also taking an Omega-3 supplement a couple of times a day and find that my anxiety is much worse when I fall off of doing so. (Just to add--taking medication was also my last resort, but I regret waiting as long as I did. My life is immeasurably better with it. If you can't find relief, please talk to your doctor about your options. If you talk to an integrative medicine doctor, they may be open to trying the most natural approach possible.)
  • connie_messina
    connie_messina Posts: 495 Member
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    http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52227
  • pinky_pie
    pinky_pie Posts: 127
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    Yoga and tai chi...
    ...and a glass of red wine here and there LOL

    I agree with the yoga and tai chi, if you are mobile enough to do those. However, any type of alcohol can actually make anxiety worse! Plus, if you are on any anxiety meds it isn't recommended that you have alcohol.

    (otherwise I'd say hell yeah to the glass of wine now and again lol)
  • amsparky
    amsparky Posts: 825 Member
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    For me, working out has made more of a difference than my diet. Limiting caffeine has also been a big factor, but working out and working out HARD (not reading a book while idling pedaling a bike) has made all the difference in the world. I haven't had to take any meds for it for over a year now! :)
  • MissLucyDee
    MissLucyDee Posts: 66 Member
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    When I was little I used to get horribly anxious and it would make me feel sick. If my mum gave me strawberries I would stop feeling sick for a while. On the same basis perhaps you could try replacing more refined sugar with fruit sugars?
  • gertudejekyl
    gertudejekyl Posts: 386 Member
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    Low caffeine and high cardiovascular exercise. Google "anxiety brain study exercise" and you might find the study I read about aerobic exercise actually changing the brain cells of rats with anxiety. I have suffered from terrible anxiety over my life...it is better these days. I walk 1 1/2 hr everyday at midday.
  • Asces
    Asces Posts: 182
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    Lots of good ideas for me to look at when the kiddos go to bed tonight. Thanks everyone :)

    Please keep the ideas coming. I want my life back and hopefully will find the right path!
  • gertudejekyl
    gertudejekyl Posts: 386 Member
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    Here is part of the article: Researchers at Princeton University recently made a remarkable discovery about the brains of rats that exercise. Some of their neurons respond differently to stress than the neurons of slothful rats. Scientists have known for some time that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells (neurons) but not how, precisely, these neurons might be functionally different from other brain cells.


    In the experiment, preliminary results of which were presented last month at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago, scientists allowed one group of rats to run. Another set of rodents was not allowed to exercise. Then all of the rats swam in cold water, which they don’t like to do. Afterward, the scientists examined the animals’ brains. They found that the stress of the swimming activated neurons in all of the brains. (The researchers could tell which neurons were activated because the cells expressed specific genes in response to the stress.) But the youngest brain cells in the running rats, the cells that the scientists assumed were created by running, were less likely to express the genes. They generally remained quiet. The “cells born from running,” the researchers concluded, appeared to have been “specifically buffered from exposure to a stressful experience.” The rats had created, through running, a brain that seemed biochemically, molecularly, calm.
  • russellma
    russellma Posts: 284 Member
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    Is your anxiety a symptom of another problem that needs to be fixed?

    Having kids triggered hormone imbalances for me, which has symptoms whice include mild to moderate depression/anxiety. I also had several other hormonal related symptoms.

    For me, I needed to have pretty intense workouts (I do about 30-40 minutes per day 6 days/week) and cutting back on overall carbs (especially yeast and processed food) until my body rebalanced and healed itself.
  • TrailRunner61
    TrailRunner61 Posts: 2,505 Member
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    Less caffeine and exercise! Walking de-stresses me big time and I have a LOT of stress. Also, if I find that I'm dwelling on my stressors, I do something to distract me, whether it's cleaning house, gardening or whatever. My husband has a serious lung disease and we don't know how much time he has to live (hes only 53) and my mother has alzheimers and none of my siblings help out with her. I have to walk to stay sane. Sometimes I'll walk 8 miles though. lol
    Just make sure that you take the time for YOU and do it. It WILL help you!
  • alladream
    alladream Posts: 261 Member
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    You've already received a lot of great advice here, which I hope works for you, but I just wanted to mention how sufficient sleep and drinking water can help so much. I tend to have life stresses, like anyone, and I find things feel so much better when I get a lot of rest and sleep, and now that I somehow doubled my water intake recently (after being dehydrated for a long time but feeling unable to drink more water), I feel a lot better. Walking and these 'power pac' things, like emergen-c packets of vitamins, help so much. Good luck!
  • Asces
    Asces Posts: 182
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    I can't wait until the kids go to bed, there is so much great info to read through!

    I just wanted to add, that it is something that definitely came on with kids.

    I have 4 kids. The second last pregnancy left me with anxiety/agoraphobia but I was able to beat it and go back to a normal life.

    The last pregnancy did the same thing,except she is turning 5 in May and I have still not beat this.

    5 years of my life :(

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