Want to Lower Your Stress? It May Just Take 4 Weeks of Eating These Kinds of Food

When it comes to dealing with stress, we are often told the best thing to do is exercise, make time for our favorite activities, or meditate.

The types of foods we eat may be an effective way of dealing with stress, according to research published by me and other members of the group.

Our most recent study shows that eating more ferment foods and fiber daily for just four weeks lowers perceived stress levels.

A growing body of research shows that diet can affect our mental health. A good diet can reduce the risk of mental illnesses.

The effects of diet on mental health are not fully understood. There is a link between our brain and our gut.

The brain and gut can be in constant communication, allowing essential body functions such as digestion and appetite to occur. It means that our brain is connected to our gut.

While previous research has shown stress and behavior are linked to our microbiome, it has been unclear if changing diet could have a different effect on stress levels.

Our study wanted to do this. 45 healthy people with low-fiber diet were recruited. Women made up more than half of the people.

The participants were divided into two groups and assigned a diet to follow for four weeks.

Half of the people were assigned a diet that would increase the amount of ferment and prebiotic foods they ate. The diet includes foods that have been linked to better mental health.

At the start and halfway through the study, this group was given a one-on-one education session with a Dietitian.

They were told to include fruits and vegetables with high levels of prebiotic fibers in their diet.

They were also told to eat a lot of ferment foods. The control diet only gave participants general advice on how to eat.

Less stress

The people who followed the psychobiotic diet reported feeling less stressed than those who followed the control diet.

People who ate more psychobiotic foods during the four week period reported the greatest reduction in stress levels.

The psychobiotic diet group reported more improvements in sleep than the other group.

Gut microbes are implicated in sleep processes according to other studies.

The composition and function of the gut were changed by the psychobiotic diet.

Significant changes in the level of certain chemicals were observed by us.

The chemicals linked to mental health could explain why people on the diet feel less stressed.

Specific diet can be used to reduce stress. The diet may help to protect mental health in the long run by targeting the microbes in the gut.

Our study is not without its limitations. The sample size is small because of the swine flu.

The short duration of the study may have limited the changes we observed. Long-term studies will need to be done.

While participants recorded their daily diet, this form of measurement can be prone to error and bias.

We did our best to make sure participants didn't know what group they were assigned to, but they might have been able to guess based on the nutrition advice they were given. The responses they gave may have been affected by this.

Our study only looked at people who were in good health. We don't know what effect this diet will have on someone who isn't as healthy.

Our study shows that an effective way to reduce stress is through diet. It will be interesting to see if the results can be replicated in people who suffer from stress related disorders. Evidence of an association between diet and our mental health has been added to this field of research.

If you feel stressed the next time, you might want to think about what you eat. It is possible to feel less stressed out by including more fiber and ferment foods for a few weeks.

John Cryan is the vice president for research and innovation.

Under a Creative Commons license, this article is re-posted. The original article is worth a read.