Managing anxiety and stress through healthy eating

South Scarborough Acupuncture Clinic is closed at the moment to support the government’s stay at home policy and protect our clients. However, there are still lifestyle changes that we can all make right now, at home, that can help to reduce anxiety and stress. Today I’m focussing on managing anxiety and stress through healthy eating.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) teaches that people with different patterns of disharmony (health conditions) need different foods to support them. At an initial consultation at the clinic, we go through an extensive set of questions that help me to diagnose each individual’s specific patterns of disharmony (and yes, these can change over time).

Given that this is such an individual process it is difficult to give a great deal of advice about healthy eating within a blog. Anxiety and stress as we think of them, can be the result of different patterns of disharmony in TCM terms.

Some tips on healthy eating

There are however, a few general healthy eating principles that can be helpful to anyone feeling anxious or stressed.

• Eat at regular mealtimes and don’t skip breakfast
• Reduce sugar (check this NHS article for tips on cutting down)
• Limit alcohol
• Include fresh foods free from chemicals, preservatives, and over-processing
• Don’t carry on eating past feeling full

Don’t feel that you have to change everything at once. It’s better to make one small change that you can sustain, rather than trying to do too much at once and simply adding to anxiety and stress levels. Choose something simple to start with and apply it each day for a week. When you can do that one thing consistently, then it’s okay to choose another tip and work on that one. Every little change will contribute big time in managing anxiety and stress through healthy eating.

If you haven’t seen them yet we’ve already shared tips on managing anxiety and stress through exercise and sleep.

Stay safe and stay well.