Eating food for our health doesn't have to be extreme
and it's available to anything.
You know,
we've been living such stressful lives for the last year.
Our mood really matters as well.
And one of the things that I think, and I've also,
this is something else I've been working on this summer,
is thinking about how the food that we enjoy in our lives.
We don't want foods that can cause more stress,
because sometimes people are really stressed out
about their foods.
We want foods that can fight stress.
And so I've been,
and I brought with me some foods
that can actually help us fight stress, make us feel better.
And I actually have been calling these things, mood foods.
Mood food. I love it.
Oh, it's all in the name, baby.
You got me at mood, mood food.
I love it.
What are your favorite mood foods right now, Will?
All right. I, I, you're going be,
you're gonna love this Rach. First, dark chocolate.
Now, not everybody loves dark chocolate,
but here's another reason to love it.
Dark chocolate has been shown to calm anxiety.
And did you know that research actually studied the stress
markers in the body?
And what they found is that people who eat dark chocolate
have lower levels of stress markers and lower anxiety.
And so chocolate is good for that.
And it turns out that research is figuring out what these
things are in the chocolate.
They're bioactive natural chemicals
called proanthocyanidins.
So, here's another reason to love dark chocolate.
And here's another mood food. Turmeric.
I love turmeric
and turmeric actually has gotten a lot of buzz
recently and it deserves it because it's got these
anti-inflammatory properties, but guess what?
Turmeric's now been shown to improve memory as well.
It turns out that the turmeric can light up parts of your
brain involved with memory and emotion.
So here's the practical tip.
Love it.
When you're actually using
turmeric in food, it's a spice.
It's not a whole food.
You've got to put it in things.
You want to add it with a little bit of
fresh cracked pepper.
So I love black pepper.
They, they work together.
Me too.
And what happens is that the piperine in black pepper,
it helps to increase the body's levels of curcumin,
which is a good stuff in turmeric.
So what I love to do,
and I brought to show you something to show you,
is I love to put a little bit of turmeric
into a virgin non-alcoholic bloody Mary.
And so this is my turmeric with,
I'm stirring it with my celery straw,
and we're going to put a little cracked pepper in it.
That's what I did when I was cooking the pasta and-
I have the same pepper mill, by the way.
Oh, you do. Okay.
I do.
Great minds think alike.
And here we go. We've got a memory enhancing,
Non-alcoholic bloody Mary.
Gorgeous.
Now I'll tell you, my third mood food that I wanted to bring
with you, are walnuts.
Now what I'm about to tell you applies to other types of
tree nuts. So pistachios and pecans and cashews as well.
And, and even by the way, pumpkin seeds.
so walnuts, which I love,
are a great source of another healthy fat called
ALA, this is three initials,
and this is actually a precursor to omega-3.
So our body takes the ALA, the healthy fat and walnuts,
and turns it into omega threes.
Oh, I see.
Okay.
So it turns out omega threes are not just only good for
anti-aging, but they're good for our mood.
So, there's a study that was recently done involving college
students that were not clinically depressed.
So these are kids that were not, they were just bummed out.
They weren't really depressed.
And what they did is they fed them banana bread that
contained crushed walnuts or banana bread that had no
walnuts in it.
So here's my banana bread and here's my crush walnuts here.
And it turns out that the kids who ate just three slices of
banana bread containing crushed walnuts, actually had better
moods as, as well.
And it didn't take very much.
Just a half a cup of crushed walnuts.
Like anybody can actually do it.
And this speaks to this idea that eating food for our health
doesn't have to be extreme and it's available to anything.
And you can use any kind of nut that you want.
Again,
if you guys want more time with Will yourselves
and more great information,
like seeing a doctor for free and getting great advice,
you can go to his online program
called Masterclass with Dr. Will Li.
(chimes)