How Diet and Lifestyle Can Positively Affect Your Mental and Emotional Health

So, you’ve finally had that sudden burst of motivation to get off your bed and improve your mental and emotional well-being. Where do you start?

Well, you have a lot to cover, but a simple change in diet is always a great place to start. Then, we can go over all the other aspects of your lifestyle.

You’re hesitant, aren’t you? Well, that’s what this post is for. Using modern studies, I’ll show you how diet and lifestyle can positively affect your mental and emotional health.  

How Does Your Diet Affect Your Mental and Emotional Health?

In the age of TikTok and Instagram, diets are the new big thing everyone obsesses about. It seems like any social media platform you open, there’s always someone talking about plant-based, keto, or kosher diets.

Even if you’re into following diets, you might have wondered: “Are these diets actually effective? Can they improve my mental health?” 

Yes, health professionals have long believed that the food you eat can affect your mental and emotional health. How? Let’s take a look.

Alleviating Depression Symptoms

How many times have you gone to KFC because you were feeling down and wanted a quick mood boost? Have you ever only had coffee for breakfast or ice cream for dinner during mentally exhausting times?

Most of us have. We look for unhealthy food to cope with stress, anxiety, and depression. What many of us don’t realize is that this type of food can make things worse.

You see, high-sugar/processed food can cause chronic inflammation, which can change your brain’s chemistry and structure.

Not only does it increase the risk of depression, but it also causes neurotransmitter imbalance, hormonal disruption, and oxidative stress.

It’s a gruesome cycle, but one that you can easily get out of by following a healthy diet. A 2019 study shows that eating more vegetables, fruits, and legumes while limiting processed meat reduces the chances of depression by 10%.

The Mediterranean Diet

You’re probably wondering: “But what diet should I follow?” That’s an excellent question. There are hundreds of diets out there, and each one offers unique benefits.

However, various health agencies recommend the Mediterranean diet to reduce the symptoms of depression.

That diet is rich in fruit, vegetables, olive oil, and dairy products, but it also limits baked goodies, sweet beverages, and fried food.

It offers an adequate amount of B vitamins and w-3 fatty acids. These two substances have proven to be effective in alleviating the symptoms of depression.

Ultimately, the more nutrient-dense your diet is, the less chance you have of experiencing depression. 

Offering Mood Stability

A healthy diet isn’t just about eating more vegetables and cutting off processed food. It’s more about being mindful of what you put inside your body.

You see, a proper diet won’t give you the results you’re looking for if you still accompany it with caffeine, added sugar, and alcohol. That last one, in particular, is extremely dangerous.

Despite offering a temporary sense of relief, alcohol is famous for causing several mental health issues, including:

• Depressive symptoms
• Personality changes
• Foggy brain
• Concentration problems 
• Anxiety
• Memory issues

Needless to say, these conditions can negatively affect your mood. Besides, long-term alcohol consumption can prompt your dopamine levels to plummet, which lowers your mood.

As you can probably tell, cutting off alcohol can help alleviate all these symptoms and improve your mood.

Building a Healthy Gut

You’ve probably heard one of your friends say: ”You are what you eat.” People usually use that phrase to encourage each other to eat healthy food and stay fit, but there might be a literal meaning to it.

Studies show that your gut is home to millions of neurons that connect to the brain through numerous nerves. That means your gut and brain are connected and can affect each other.

Your gut can disrupt your brain’s emotional behavior by producing neurochemicals that influence its psychological activity. On the other hand, your brain can change the type of bacteria living inside your gut.

So, by following a balanced diet, you’d be improving your brain health as a result. If you want your brain to function at an optimal pace, provide it with refined carbohydrates, lean proteins, and omega-3 fatty acids. 

How Does Your Lifestyle Affect Your Mental and Emotional Health?

Here’s an imaginary scenario: You’re hosting a survival competition between two participants. One has to live in a cave for a year, while the other lives a normal life.

Both competitors have access to the same healthy food. Who do you think would come out more mentally and emotionally healthy?

Obviously, the normal-life competitor would win, but why? Both participants had access to the same food. So, one shouldn’t have that much of an advantage over the other.

One word: Lifestyle. You see, your life doesn’t revolve around food. Every aspect of your lifestyle can affect your mental health.

Yes, both participants ate the same food, but the one living in a cave led an inhumane lifestyle. That’s down to affect their emotional health.

So, if you want to improve your mental health, make sure you optimize your lifestyle as much as possible. How?

1. Regular Exercise

Most people associate exercising with building muscle and stamina, but running and lifting weights help your mind as much as your body.

1. Releases Neurotransmitters

For starters, exercising releases various neurotransmitters throughout your nervous system. These include dopamine, endorphins, and endocannabinoids.

Dopamine is responsible for making you feel pleasure and managing your heart rate, sleep patterns, motivation, and mood. Endorphins can also increase your sense of pleasure and relieve pain.

Most gymaholics think endorphins are responsible for the high they get after working out. That’s not entirely true, as endocannabinoids also contribute to that feeling.

If you don’t know, endocannabinoids are neurotransmitters that allow your body to function optimally. It’s the combinations of endorphins and endocannabinoids that create that workout euphoria.

2. Increases Oxygen Flow to Your Brain

When you’re exercising, your heart starts pumping faster, increasing blood and oxygen flow to your brain. That optimizes your brain's blood vessel functions, improving your memory, self-control, and decision-making skills.

3. Relieves Stress

You probably already know that physical workout helps relieve stress. Have you ever gone home after a stressful workday, helped your family rearrange furniture, then suddenly felt all that stress lift off your shoulders?

That’s what exercising does. Why, though?

Well, stress is associated with cortisol and adrenaline hormones. When you exercise, your body reduces the production of these hormones and increases your sense of pleasure.

So, you get that coveted sense of satisfaction.

4. Increases Self-Confidence 

Self-confidence has long been associated with physical appearance and body image.

With an enhanced mood, better brain functions, and a fitter body, you'll feel like the king of the world.

5. Improves Your Sleep

Yes, a lot of people hitting the gym don't know exercising can help them fall asleep better. At first glance, the two sound unrelated, but it actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

After all, exercising improves your mood, relieves stress, and increases the flow of oxygen to your brain. These are perfect circumstances to sleep like a baby.

And with a good night’s sleep, you’ll wake up feeling like a little boy who just found out he doesn’t have to go to school because it’s raining.

2. Meditation

At first glance, meditation seems like the simplest thing in the world. You just sit down, close your eyes, and breathe. Well, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Meditation is about increasing your awareness of your surroundings and training your mind to redirect your thoughts. What does this have to do with mental and emotional health?

Well, disciplining your mind to be present is the essence of mental well-being. So, don’t take it lightly. Here are the potential benefits of regular meditation.

Manages Anxiety

You probably saw this one coming. Most people who try meditation are usually intrigued by its stress-relieving benefits.

During meditation, you focus on being present in the moment, blocking all the thoughts causing stress.

A 2013 study explores the effect of mindfulness meditation on treating anxiety. Researchers put patients with generalized anxiety disorder in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program.

At the end of the study, they noticed that patients experienced a notable reduction in anxiety.

Promotes Emotional Health

Establishing a sense of calmness, tranquility, and balance, meditation improves your self-image and helps you develop a positive outlook on life.

In 2014, researchers tested the efficacy of meditation on people’s mindsets. They divided the participants into two groups and showed each a series of pictures (positive, negative, and neutral).

The group that committed to mindfulness meditation experienced fewer negative thoughts in this experiment than the control group.

Improves Your Attention Span

As a focus-heavy endeavor, meditation teaches you to stay concentrated for a specific period of time, improving your attention span. Think of it as weight lifting for your brain. It’ll improve its endurance and stamina.

A 2018 study shows that people who meditate regularly have a better attention span and do their tasks more effectively than those who don’t.

3. Getting Enough Sleep

Mental health and a proper sleep schedule are like Tom and Jerry. You can’t have one without the other. A recent Gallup article shows that 57% of American adults don’t get enough sleep.

These are scary statistics because sleep is essential for your mental and physical health. In fact, a 2021 study argues that people who get 6 hours of sleep or less a day are more likely to experience mental distress.

So, you can’t depend on exercising alone to improve your sleep. You have to actively try to build healthy sleep habits. That includes:

• Cutting off caffeine 
• Creating a restful, calming environment 
• Keeping the temperature in your room around 65℉ (18.3℃)

The question is: How does a healthy sleeping routine affect your mental health and abilities?

Improves Your Cognitive Abilities

Do you know why taking a nap always gives you the energy to get back to work and dominate your tasks? Because your brain needs sleep to work effectively.

Without a healthy sleeping schedule, you’ll experience a rapid cognitive decline. That includes having difficulty recalling information and finding the right words to express yourself.

Stabilizes Your Mood

Have you ever had an awful night’s sleep and went to work the next day feeling like you wanted to punch someone in the face? Yes, sleep deprivation will do that to you.

It causes mood swings, including anger, irritability, anxiety, and depression. Why? Since your brain isn’t functioning at full capacity, it can’t control the reactivity of the emotional center (amygdala).

So, you’re more vulnerable to these mood changes. Getting proper sleep, though, will help you control these swings and potentially avoid punching someone in the face.

4. Unplugging from Social Media

At first glance, social media seems harmless. You’re just scrolling through a platform, checking what your friends and family are up to, right?

It’s not all that harmless. Have you ever checked an influencer’s Instagram account, saw them traveling around the world, and thought: “Wow! They sure are living life.”

That’s what social media does. It prompts you to compare yourself to everyone you’re following, which makes you feel unsatisfied with your own life.

You can probably tell that generates several mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety. That’s why health experts always advise people to quit social media to improve their psychological well-being.

Here’s what unplugging from social media can do.

Improves Your Focus

Social media has become one of the most prevalent sources of distraction in our modern world. How many times have you procrastinated starting a project because you wanted to watch a YouTube video or text your friend on WhatsApp?

Besides, by swiftly switching from one piece of content to another, social media can shorten your attention span. Not only does that make it harder for you to learn anything, but it also makes productivity more challenging.

Offers High-Quality Sleep 

It’s no secret that spending hours scrolling through social media can affect your sleep. After all, the blue light coming from your phone suppresses the production of melatonin, a hormone that helps you fall asleep faster.

A 2018 study shows that people who use social media before bed are more likely to have insomnia and short sleep duration.

So, cutting off social media and reducing your exposure to that blue light can help reset your internal clock. In other words, you’ll go back to a regular sleeping schedule with more quality sleep.

Final Thoughts

Now you understand how diet and lifestyle can positively affect your mental and emotional health. Most of these tips aren’t that groundbreaking. You probably already knew some of the points we covered in this post.

Ultimately, living healthy has been easier, as you have more resources to help you today than at any other time. So, start taking control of your life.

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