Eating the right foods can help you quickly get rid of a bad mood
Good mood, strong memory, and concentrated attention... all of these can help you work efficiently. And you can achieve all of this by eating brain-healthy foods. Today, the editor will share some dietary tips. Eating these foods can not only nourish your brain but also help you regulate your emotions.
Concentrate
Many people struggle with an inability to concentrate.
Scientists explain that to concentrate, information must flow smoothly between brain cells. Brain cells need oxygen to send information, which is obtained from blood sugar.
Therefore, the simplest and most basic way to maintain concentration and a clear mind is to ensure adequate and stable daily calorie intake.
However, this doesn't solve all problems. Because after information is generated, it still needs to be transmitted from one cell to another, which requires the involvement of nerve fibers.
Nerve fibers are like wires; they must be insulated for information to flow. To give nerve fibers an "insulating sleeve" (myelin), the brain needs a fatty substance called myelin. Omega-3 fatty acids (mainly found in fish oil, and also in walnuts, pumpkin, and flaxseeds) help build and maintain myelin. This is why fish oil supplements seem to promote children's intellectual development, but this conclusion is still controversial.
Dietary tips: Eating regularly, ensuring three meals a day on time and in appropriate amounts, can help you concentrate. You can treat walnuts and flaxseeds as snacks and eat more fish in your daily diet.
Improve your mood
Everyone has their down times. How can you quickly get rid of negative emotions and brighten your mood?
The generation of emotions involves a series of "frenetic" exchanges of brain electrical signals between brain cells. A chemical substance called a neurotransmitter is the carrier of this information, responsible for transmitting information between cells, which is the key to determining a person's mood. A crucial neurotransmitter is dopamine: increasing dopamine levels can make you more energetic and happier. If dopamine levels drop, you will feel empty, sad, irritable, and bored. Consuming high-sugar and high-fat foods causes a sharp increase in dopamine levels, but every peak is followed by a trough. Therefore, to maintain a pleasant mood all day, it's best to eat high-protein foods that allow for a slow release of dopamine.
In addition, eating more foods containing phenylalanine (a main component of dopamine) can ensure stable dopamine secretion and maintain a positive mood for a longer time. These foods include beets, soybeans, almonds, eggs, meat, and grains.
People have always thought that chocolate can improve your mood. Is this true? Experts admit that chocolate is indeed the most effective food for causing a sharp increase in dopamine levels. Why is that? Because chocolate contains anandamide—a fatty molecule similar to the active substance in marijuana.
Another neurotransmitter, serotonin, helps people feel calm, satisfied, and eliminates anxiety. A small snack containing carbohydrates can quickly increase serotonin levels in the body, but the peak can also make you drowsy, so it's better to keep levels stable. The brain needs tryptophan to produce serotonin, which is mainly found in eggs and meat. Actually, it's simple: as long as your breakfast includes bacon and eggs, you can get serotonin all day long.
Drinking a small amount of alcohol can make people feel happy, partly because alcohol increases dopamine levels, but drinking too much can lead to a hangover and worsen your mood. Long-term excessive drinking can damage brain cells, especially those related to memory.
Dietary tips: Switch your breakfast to bacon and eggs, and eat more almonds and soybeans in your daily diet.
Keep your brain alert
Have a cup of coffee. When people feel drowsy, coffee (containing caffeine) is often the first thing they think of, but it must be used correctly, otherwise it may have the opposite effect.
A substance can shut down brain electrical activity, making people drowsy, and caffeine can bind certain nerve endings in the brain together, thus preventing this substance from acting, making brain cells more active and re-energizing you.
However, it should be noted that excessive intake of caffeine can have the opposite effect. Because the pituitary gland will regard the transient abnormal state caused by excessive caffeine as an alarm signal of an emergency, leading to the secretion of insulin, making you even drowsier.
Dietary tips: A shot of espresso can make you alert, but if you drink two more, it will make you anxious and confused.
Enhance memory
Can't remember what you read, or the key points the teacher taught? What should you do?
Memory ability mainly depends on the ability of brain cells to establish new connections. When brain cells are very excited, they can establish better connections, which is why we always remember things that move us or inspire us. There is a substance in the brain called acetylcholine that keeps brain cells in an excited state (a drug with a similar effect to acetylcholine has been used to treat Alzheimer's disease). Acetylcholine is derived from choline, and choline is found in eggs, liver, and soybeans.
In addition, some vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower, can also help strengthen memory. Researchers have found that people who often eat these foods have better memory test scores than others.
Dietary tips: Eggs are very helpful for enhancing memory, so be sure to eat them every day.