Depression

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Chocolate

          While some drugs are prescribed to elevate feel good hormones by blocking or inactivation of these hormones, chocolate also causes the release of same feel-good hormones like serotonin, endorphin and dopamine. So you can treat yourself to 3-4 pieces of dark chocolate (containing 50-70% cocoa) a day if you are feeling low. However, because of the mood-boosting effect of chocolate, people start craving the good feeling and can become addicted, much in the same way people can become addicted to caffeine and nicotine. 

Food And Drinks To Be Avoided

          The diet of persons suffering from depression should completely exclude tobacco, deep-fried foods, transfats including margarine, fizzy drinks like colas; artificial sweeteners, stale and packaged foods, strong spices, black/white grams, white rice, sugar, all refined white flour products, food colourings, chemical additives, alcohol and caffeine. Alcohol is a depressant. It is the last thing you need if you are depressed. Alcohol interferes with the proper absorption of nutrients from food and adversely affects the mood and motivation of a patient. Drinks (tea, coffee) and foods containing caffeine may uplift the mood to an extent but cause disturbance to many people in late hours. So avoid alcohol, caffeine and drugs as these reduce sleep quality.

Avoid Emotional Eating

          Often in times of stress, people’s good intentions about healthy food go out of the window and they snack on whatever comes to hand, skip meals, and generally don’t pay much attention to what they are eating. So before you take that bite, have you thought about why you are eating? There are a whole host of reasons, aside from hunger, that prompt people to eat – boredom, sadness, nervousness, anxiety, stress, even happiness. But if you look at what these things have in common, it is that they are emotions and not hunger signals of your body’s need for nourishment.