If you’ve read my blogs before you’ll know I always mention the importance of eating well, getting enough sleep and exercising more. It might sound a bit glib and, as we hear it so often, it can be overlooked in the context of our wellbeing. To be more specific (and hopefully inspirational) I’ve pulled together 3 of the easiest ways to improve what you eat.
These top tips apply to absolutely everyone but will be valuable for anyone who is neurodivergent in terms of moderating mood, feeling calmer, less anxious and improving everyday wellness. You know those highs and lows we experience each day – when we’re either full of beans or thinking about taking a nana nap? Well, these suggestions will help smooth things out there too so you feel way more balanced.
What is good food? It’s anything that serves you well and includes lots of variety, colour and food groups for energy, nutrition and enjoyment. A good diet will always help you to feel the best you can.
Improving your eating should lead to better sleeping patterns, more confidence, feeling calmer, having more consistent moods, feeling less anxious and, in some cases, will reduce the feeling of frustration that often leads to anger and meltdowns. It sounds too good to be true but it’s absolutely vital to look at diet (ie our physical health) alongside mental health.
3 top tips to improve your eating habits today…
Make small changes/swaps
Don’t think you have to completely overhaul your diet. Be honest and look at where you might be able to make small changes or quick wins.
Think about the quality of your snacks as an example. Consider breadsticks, carrots, hummus, grapes, sliced banana, popcorn, slices of cheese or ham, malt loaf and a little bit of chocolate. You could create a little snack dish where the less nutritious items (eg toast) feature alongside more protein dense things (eg peanut butter).
Adding a protein buffers the impact of the sugar/carb combination and keeps you feeling more balanced and less likely to need another hit of sugar.
For children (or adults!) you could create some fridge boxes of good, appealing and colourful snacks to make healthy snacks more interesting - and choose the contents together to seal the deal!
Always think : “good, better, best”. What does ‘good’ look like and what can you add to make it better or best? An apple is good. Slices of apple with small cubes of cheese is better (sugar + protein).
This is particularly important at breakfast time. Adding protein to your child’s first meal of the day will mean they are less likely to be starving mid-morning, desperate for a sugar fix. The protein blunts the impact of the sugar spike. You could consider things like eggs, cold meats, cheese, peanut butter and nuts (if tolerant).
Reduce processed food
Processed food, ready meals and other packaged items are useful and we all turn to them from time to time. Generally speaking the more ingredients that are listed on the packet, the more processed it is. Again, it’s not about changing everything but maybe add a heap of brightly coloured vegetables to your oven ready lasagne and divide the portion between two? Make some home-made soups for a fridge-ready lunch. Batch cooking is a good option, especially for the busy weekdays when you don’t feel like cooking from scratch.
Zinc and other minerals
Zinc has superpowers! It generates gastric juices, improves the senses of smell and taste, helps with texture perception, supports the immune system and really interestingly, it counteracts that awful adrenaline rush you get when you’re in a state of anxiety. And because it’s one of the most key neurological minerals it will help with mood regulation and erratic responses.
High zinc foods include: meat, fish, dairy, nuts and seeds. You might have to be imaginative in including some of these things in your child’s diet, especially if they are specific about what they will eat. There are some taste-free drops that you can add to food and drinks but check this with your pharmacist or doctor first.
My inspiration, and some of the credit for the nutritional content, came from Fearne Cotton’s podcast ‘Happy Place’ which has lots of interesting guests. Linda Miller featured recently and talked about this very subject. Linda has ADHD and is also a family natropath and functional medicine practitioner. She manages a team of nutritional therapists across the UK with a special interest in child nutrition and neurodivergence. In the podcast she talked about the strong correlation between how we feel and what we eat, especially if we are neurodivergent and more likely to experience mood swings, difficulty focusing, disrupted sleep patterns and other characteristics of ADHD and autism. Her book ‘Brain Brilliance’ centres around how we nourish our brains and is relevant to everyone.
Disclaimer: As a clinical psychologist I’m not qualified to give individual nutritional advice so any dietary changes you are considering and are unsure of should be checked with a medical professional. This applies specifically to adding supplements or vitamins.
Reference: Happy Place podcast
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