Reduce Lockdown stress and anxiety with a vegan diet
With another lockdown looming many people from all walks of life across the UK will be feeling stress and anxiety after the government’s recent announcement of a full national lockdown.
Evidence shows eating a vegan diet can reduce stress and naturally boost your serotonin the ‘happy hormone’. What you eat influences every area of your body, including your brain. When you feed yourself nutritious, plant-based foods filled with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, you are protecting your brain from oxidative stress and free radicals. 95% of serotonin is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, the digestive system not only breaks down food but also may trigger your emotions. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays many different roles. If you have low levels of serotonin in the body, you are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, or have trouble sleeping.
There have been many studies to find out if a plant-based diet rather than that of omnivores significantly reduces stress and anxiety levels. One carried out at The Department of Nutrition, Benedictine University found that consuming a vegan diet (even those going from vegetarian to vegan) is associated with improved mood.
Sharon Hemmings from the fastest growing vegan online marketplace quoted “we understand the reality of anxiety people across the country are feeling right now, by encouraging more people to look at going vegan, even for a short time can help with depression and anxiety”
With the announcement by Boris Johnson telling us all to stay indoors, many with young children unsure how to cope once again with home schooling, or simply functioning day to day without family support now taken away once more, the older generation self-isolating and feeling alone, the worry and sleepless nights of thousands concerned with increasing living expenses and uncertain when they will reopen their place of business closed by this lockdown.
We need to help and support each other to find ways of getting through this, by keeping yourself stronger from within will improve day to day mood so improving your coping mechanism.
“cooking at home makes it easier to eat a plant-based diet, plan your meals in advance and include nuts, seeds, soybeans, bananas, oats, peas, beans, spinach and other leafy greens to name just a few, there are hundreds of recipes and blogs online to help. Also, take a good walk out in the fresh air every day” advised Sharon
There are so many reasons to change to a vegan diet, your health and wellbeing is the most important. Give it a go, joining thousands of others taking part in Veganuary and improve your mood, aiding restful sleep and more productive day.
Sharon Hemmings