Quote:
Originally Posted by blueoval
I found cutting out as much processed sugar as I can from my day to day life is helping me a lot. Not necessarily from a weight point of view, but also, less inflammation and for some reason, I don't feel anywhere near as mentally unstable as I used to be. It's a strange feeling but one I welcome.
Going cold turkey from sugar is not a good idea unless you also know of the side effects of doing that for the first few weeks. I recommend just removing sugar from hot beverages for a start will help. Then reducing alcoholic drinks or ones with a high sugar content is then next step. Again, not going cold turkey, but monitoring your consumption to perhaps a couple of low carb beers on a weekend or limiting myself to 1 or 2 shots of quality whiskey per weekend for me has helped no end. I used to drink nightly to cope, just so you know the changes I have made.
I have also changed my snacks from a large packet of Smiths chips in 1 hit to a bowl of grapes and a big glass of water to fill the stomach.
Just little changes like that I have noticed a positive reaction.
Occasionally I will splurge on something decedent but not anywhere near as much as before when I was eating my feelings.
Anyway, take as much or none of that as you will. But I think small incremental changes in diet do play a part in your mental stability.
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Awesome, that's really good to hear its had a positive impact. I went off sugar about 8 years ago when I had a health scare. Nothing related to mental health though. I had a dizzy spell whilst walking home from work, doc ran a few tests, and was found to be on border line of diabetic. I then cut sugar out, pretty much cold turkey, got re-tested a couple of months later and levels were back to normal. I also drank a shed loads of green tea at the time to reverse the effect. That was also around the time when I had severe work anxiety, so I can't say it really did much for me mentally. Watch out for fruits though, I think people underestimate how much sugar they contain.
By junk I don't mean just the sugary stuff too. I put fast food into that category e.g. maccas, kfc, fish and chips etc. There are suggestions that some people turn to these "comfort food" when they start to feel down.
Same question with pot, other substances, alcohol, gambling etc...do these things cause mental health or do people use / abuse these things because they had mental health issues to begin with? The million dollar question.