[Music] i'm emma mcadam i'm a licensed marriage and family therapist and today we're going to talk
about foods that naturally decrease cortisol managing stress involves a lot of things
a healthy work-life balance good boundaries sleep exercise but changing what you eat can also have
a big impact on your stress levels and that's because what you eat impacts cortisol levels now
cortisol is known as the stress hormone it's part of the activating energizing response in your body
and it triggers the fight or flight response but it plays a lot of other important roles in your
body too cortisol helps regulate everything from sleep cycles and inflammation to blood pressure
and blood sugar levels now cortisol is released by the adrenal gland in response to a physical threat
like an injury or a mental threat like a deadline and cortisol isn't inherently bad it's it's
helpful in the short term but being exposed to it for too long can lead to a chronic stress response
which can contribute to more anxiety depression fatigue inflammation weight gain higher blood
pressure a decreased immune system a higher chance of diabetes and heart disease so you can see how
decreasing cortisol can have a big impact on both physical and mental health so when researchers
explored how diet impacts cortisol they found that people on a traditional american diet of
high fat sugar and carbs had much higher cortisol levels than people who are eating more fruits
vegetables whole grains and polyunsaturated fats so an anti-inflammatory diet can counteract the
impact of cortisol inflammation is essentially a low-level stress response in the body your immune
system sends out macrophages and cytokines to kill off pathogens but the side effect is that it also
damages healthy tissue and leads to chronic stress on the body inflammation also increases intestinal
permeability which is known as leaky gut and this can allow bacteria into the bloodstream and that
can trigger even more inflammation to counter it so when we eat foods that cause inflammation
we essentially trigger that stress response in the body but you can choose foods that lower cortisol
inflammation and the stress response as we go through this list of foods you may recognize it
as having a lot in common with the mediterranean diet the mediterranean diet has been found to be
quite effective at decreasing inflammation and it's been shown to improve mental health okay
one last thing before we jump in while you can supplement with many of these nutrients
you'll almost always be better off eating whole foods that are nutritionally dense
and not just supplements that's partly because your gut health depends on the fiber
from the whole food and also because the nutrients in foods are more diverse and complex than
the simple concentrated supplements okay so let's talk about foods that naturally decrease
cortisol first foods high in b vitamins can help metabolize or burn off cortisol and this
is especially true of foods that are high in b12 and these include organ meat beef chicken eggs
nutritional yeast and fortified cereals so this is when they add b12 to cereals okay next foods high
in omega-3s these reduce inflammation now fish are often the best source but you can get omega-3s
from plant-based sources as well so these include walnuts avocados salmon chia flax olive oil tuna
mackerel herring anchovies etc next is magnesium rich foods magnesium is essential for tons of
bodily processes but it's especially essential for relaxing muscles reducing inflammation and
metabolizing cortisol it also helps regulate the heartbeat and decrease blood pressure
when we're stressed we excrete magnesium and potassium in our urine and low levels of magnesium
can intensify stress which can create a vicious cycle now getting enough magnesium has been shown
to help decrease anxiety and stress you can find magnesium in pumpkin seeds and other seeds like
almonds and pistachios it's also you can also find magnesium in broccoli bananas avocado
artichokes spinach also dark chocolate it's got magnesium and it has high amounts of flavonoids
which lower stress reactivity in the adrenal glands so yeah chocolate right the next thing
that you want to think about is foods that help regulate blood sugar so these are also important
to decrease cortisol if you let yourself get too hungry by going too long between meals
that can actually be quite stressful for the body so eat regular meals and
protein-rich foods especially beans and legumes which have antioxidant properties
another thing that's helpful is foods that promote a healthy gut microbiome now i'll
make an entire video on how important your gut bacteria is for mental health but long story
short most of the serotonin in your body is in your gut and having good bacteria in your gut
can really improve mental health now there's two ways to do this first eat lots of high fiber foods
and a lot of variety fiber comes from plants so fruits and vegetables are really important and
the fiber the different fibers from the different fruits and vegetables is what the good bacteria
eat so having lots of fiber keeps them happy and keeps your gut healthy fiber is called a prebiotic
one dietitian i spoke with recommends that you eat 30 different types of plants per week and
that's going to help keep the probiotics happy in your gut and so that's what we're talking
about for number two is probiotics these are foods that have good bacteria in them these are
things like live yogurt kimchi kombucha kefir and sauerkraut okay and lastly just stay well hydrated
dehydration is a stress around the body so one study showed that young soccer players who
were more dehydrated also had higher cortisol levels so just drink enough water every day
also it's important to know some foods that can really increase cortisol include alcohol caffeine
saturated fats simple sugars like sodas and candy but also simple carbs like white breads can
you know contribute to more cortisol now not all carbs or sugars are bad for you you can eat them
in moderation you just want to be you know mindful of how they're impacting your stress levels
okay so there are five types of food that can help you decrease cortisol and stress levels
now like i said before you can't just rely on food for stress management it's better to take
a whole body approach but knowing what foods to eat and not to eat to manage cortisol can be one
really important piece in your treatment puzzle i hope you found this video helpful if you'd
like to learn more about how to calm the stress response in your body check out my free course
grounding skills for stress anxiety and ptsd i teach about 20 skills to soothe anxiety in your
nervous system and the link is in the description okay thanks for watching and take care [Music] you