Eat yourself happy

With the autumn now upon us, so too comes the temptation to switch from salads to carbs, and from fruits to fatty comfort foods. But did you know that what you put in your mouth not only impacts on your body, but on your mind too? We can literally eat ourselves happier!

We need food to fuel our bodies, but more often than not food is much more than that. It acts as a reflection of our mood. Feeling stressed or down? We might crave carbohydrates. Feeling happy or in need of celebration? There’s cake and chocolate for that! But have you noticed that the food items we choose when rewarding ourselves, are not actually what we need to boost our bodies?

Much like any other stimulant, the food items we choose when emotional, only provide a fleeting feeling of wellbeing. Chocolate or carbs – though fine for the body in moderation – are actually just a short term rush. They may make us feel good at the time, but this is often followed by a slump – and sometimes accompanying feelings of guilt or frustration too.

The reason we choose these sugar, fatty foods is no secret. These foods contain opioids – the same active ingredients that you’ll find in cocaine, heroin and many other narcotics! Is it any wonder that these emotional eating habits are so hard to break? We’re addicted to the feel-good high and put off by the feelings we experience when we try to stop.

But rather than seeking the quick fix route to make us fleetingly happy, we should actually be focussing on what we need to include in our daily diet to maximise our feelings of contentment and wellbeing. Indeed, it is a consistent, balanced diet that makes us happier because it makes us healthier and healthy body = healthy mind.

There are certain food types that we absolutely need within our diet. To ease the irritability and dissatisfaction that comes with constipation, we need fibrous foods. To ease depression, foods that are rich in Vitamin B12 – such as green vegetables – are a must.

Our five golden rules for choosing food that will heighten your happiness are:

1. Eat regularly – this helps us avoid peaks and troughs in blood sugar, which can significantly impact on our outlook and mood. 
2. Eat more carbohydrates – carbohydrates help your body produce serotonin which makes you feel ‘happy and healthy’. But make sure they are 'complex' carbohydrates from wholemeal foods rather than carbohydrates from refined foods, which will result in peaks and troughs in blood sugar (see point 1).
3. Eat plenty of fish – this makes sure your levels of omega oils are topped up. A deficiency in these oils has been linked to low mood. 
4. Eat plenty of iron – this makes sure our energy levels are up, which makes us feel positive. A lack of iron leads to fatigue and a preoccupied mind, that’s unable to focus properly. 
5. Eat less fat – it quite literally weighs us down and leaves us feeling sluggish. 

According to mental health charity Mind, improvements in diet can lead to greater positivity, more energy, clearer thinking and calmer moods. They outline eight tips on how to improve your mood through food – including drinking more water and making healthy choices

Their suggestion to keep a food diary is a really useful tool for tracking particular food items and assessing the impact they have on your body – and your happiness levels.

They also advocate the practice of planning ahead and preparing foods in advance to freeze. This helps us make healthy food choices – it's easier to eat emotionally when you’re short on time and feeling under stress.

For more information about food and mood, you can access their information poster, here: https://www.mind.org.uk/media/2106853/foodandmood_web.pdf

Remember, there is no one rule fits all when it comes to ‘happy’ eating. We’re all different and as such, we will each react differently when we consume certain food and beverages. Get to know your own body, so you can make the right choices, for you and your happiness.

Can reading make you happier?

Finding it hard to fit reading into your day? Well as difficult as it may seem to find the time to read during the course of a busy day, a recent large-scale study shows that reading really is good for us – increasing self-esteem and reducing stress.

So, apart from the obvious educational benefits, what is it about reading that makes it so beneficial and how can we carve time out of our busy schedules to pick up a book or two?

An aid to anxiety

No matter how stressed out you feel, the act of reading will help you relax, regulate your breathing and reduce any tension in your muscles. And they’re just the physical benefits. Mentally, reading helps to focus our thinking, reduce the 'noise' and promote mindfulness. You have to be ‘present’ to read and often the very fact that you’ve removed yourself away from the source of your stress or anxiety through doing something else is enough to calm you down.

A way to expand your empathy for others

Reading fiction is a great way of escaping the everyday routine. It transports us to different situations and scenarios that we would not normally experience otherwise and in doing so, it helps us to appreciate things from a different viewpoint. Well-written fiction is designed to challenge our preconceived ideas, test our ideologies and encourage us to empathise with the situations and life-choices of others.

To pick you up when you are feeling down

Depending on the type of books you choose to read, books have the ability to make you feel happy. They help you put our own issues into perspective and, by reading about people in similar situations and facing the same challenges, they can help you feel less alone. Reading about people who have come out the other side can provide hope and make your own problems seem easier to manage. Books make us braver and help us believe that anything is possible.

To send you to sleep

Reading before bed can act as a signal to the brain that it’s time to wind down and go to sleep. Rather than busying your brain, reading actually helps to distract your train of thought. Reading helps to move your focus away from whatever has been happening during the day and onto the fictional story you’re reading. The faster you can switch off your mind, the quicker you can go to sleep. It’s as simple as that.


OK, so now we’re convinced about the benefits of reading, but how do we carve time out of our day to do it? Here are a couple of simple suggestions:

Buy the books

Rather than make a list of the books you want to read, actually buy the books instead. It’s a lot easier to find the time to do something when it’s physically there. Not just the one book either – buy a few – charity shops are full of them. If you're target driven, you can turn it into a reading challenge.

Before bed

As we’ve already mentioned, reading is a positive addition to any bedtime routine. So make yourself a promise to turn off the tv and devices twenty minutes before you retire to bed and pick up a book to read instead.

Digital reading during downtime

There are plenty of apps available that allow you to read through your digital devices. This makes it much easier to cram in a few chapters during your lunchbreak, when you’re in a queue or when you’re on the journey to/from work. However they are not so good for bedtime reading as the light they emit actually impacts on the quality of sleep you subsequently get, so remember to keep the devices for daytime reading only.

Schedule it in

If there's a particular time of the day when you get stressed or experience an energy slump, put some time in your diary then to have a read – you should feel the benefits in as little as 10-15 minutes. And once you have started to make reading part of your daily / weekly routine you soon won’t have to schedule it in at all, it will become second nature.

Read what you enjoy

This one sounds like common sense – and it is – but often we set aside the titles we really want to read, in favour of what we think we should be reading. Harry Potter, Stephen King, Jackie Collins – it really doesn’t matter what genre you’re into, the benefits will be the same and you’re more likely to make time for something that you really want to do.

For more reading inspiration and ideas on how to get started on your reading journey, why not have a look at www.goodreads.com .