What should you eat to reduce stress?

12/07/2018

In the modern life, people are increasingly exposed to stressful situations from the outside such as work pressure, exams, or from internal problems such as trauma or medical disorders, which causes physical or mental stress.

People are increasingly exposed to stressful situations in modern life

To reduce stress, our body must increase the secretion of hormones such as cortisol, catecholamines, and prolactin. In addition, increasing levels of these hormones causes some negative changes for the body. Therefore, the purpose of a stress-reducing diet is to reduce the levels of these hormones in the blood, or to prevent or reduce the damage caused by stress.

A stress-reducing diet is to reduce the levels of hormones like cortisol, catecholamines and prolactin

Nutrients proven to reduce stress	Functions	Food sources
Vitamin C (acid ascorbic)	An antioxidant that helps prevent or reduce cell damage caused by stress, relieve anxiety and lower blood pressure when stressed	Kiwi, guava, orange, acerola, bell peppers, green vegetables
Vitamin E	An antioxidant that helps prevent or reduce cell damage caused by stress	Vegetable oil (sunflower oil, canola oil, olive oil) Oil seeds: sunflower seeds
Tryptophan	An essential amino acid that the body cannot synthesize itself, which reduces stress and depression in older people	Soybeans, egg white, seaweed, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese