Eat more of....Eat less of....

Thank you to the lovely ladies who welcomed me this morning at The Guildford Cedar House Support Group.  (Cedar House Support Group website)

We chatted about how small changes to eating habits can help you travel the journey of recovery from Post Natal Depression.  Here is a summary of the info I shared:

What's Important

• Good Hydration
• Stable Blood Sugar through the day and overnight
• Enough Building Blocks for Brain function
• B Vitamins
• Omega 3 Oils
• Minerals eg Zinc, Magnesium, Manganese, Copper Iron
• Amino Acids eg Tryptophan

What to Eat More of

• Oily Fish 
• Chicken and Turkey
• Eggs 
• Fresh fruit and veg 
• More than 5 a day if you can 
• As much uncooked as you can 
• Easy on the potatoes 
• Nuts and seeds 
• unsalted, unadulterated. 
• Oats and wholegrain pulses 
• Honey for sweetening 
• Low Fat Dairy

What to Eat less of

• Refined Sugar 
• sweets, chocolate, biscuits cakes, breakfast cereals 
• watch out for hidden sugars in processed foods..even bread 
• Refined/heavily processed foods 
• sweets, chocolate, biscuits cakes, ready meals, pre-prepared foods 
• Tea/Coffee/Caffeine containing drinks 
• including ‘health’ drinks, energy drinks

Easy Salmon Parcels

This is a favourite of mine - keep it simple for weekday supper or jazz it up asian style for a dinner party.  Packed with Omega 3.  

Thank you to my mother-in-law for the original recipe.

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 Salmon Fillets  
1 large Courgette
1 large Carrot
2-3 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
Fresh ground black pepper
2 spring onions finely chopped (optional)
1 inch cube fresh garlic finely chopped (optional)
1 red chilli finely chopped (optional)

Method

• Pre-heat the oven 180 degrees/ gas mark 4.
• Chop or grate the carrot and courgette into matchstick sized strips.
• Arrange each salmon fillet skin side down on it's own square of tin foil.
• Top each fillet with carrot and courgette and onion, ginger and chilli if using.
• Sprinkle each with half tablespoon of soy sauce and half tablespoon water and season with pepper (no slat, plenty in the soy sauce).
• Wrap loosely into pasty shapes with the tin foil making sure you leave a gap above the fish and veg and you have a tight seal so the steam cannot escape.

• Place on a baking tray in the oven for 20 minutes.
• Take care when opening - steam will escape and burn!
• Serve with wholegrain rice and or pulses. 

I serve with The Food Doctor Easy Grains Organic Cereals, Pulses and Beans that come in a microwavable pouch - 2 mins and they're ready to serve. Product details on The Food Doctor web site

Why is it Good Mood Food?
Very low GI especially when served with whole grains
Packed with Omega 3 from the fish and kidney beans if you use Food Doctor Easy Grains.  Omega 3 is essential for brain health. Deficiency in Omega 3 (common in most of us) has been linked with depression, particularly Post Natal Depression.

Breakfast - start the day right and the rest will follow

Since January I've been eating a slow release energy boosting breakfast each day...it's made eating healthy the rest of the day easy...


Before: I used to eat a normal breakfast usually highly processed and/or sweetened.
Most cereals, breads (wholemeal included) and sweetened muesli fall into this category even the ones marketed as healthy.  As a result I rode the emotional roller coaster of sugar highs and lows all day.  It made eating healthy and happy near impossible.


Does this sound familiar?:
Mid morning:  " I'm hungry and craving biscuits and coffee" I resist - new healthy me.  
Lunchtime: "Oh dear I'm starving and these kids are really annoying me"  
I grab my my healthy lunch: "Oh still hungry, I've been good all morning I can have a sweet treat"
After Lunch:  "Why do I feel so sleepy? I could curl up in the cot while my little one naps couldn't I?" 
Mid Afternoon:  Grab a snack for the kids "It won't hurt if I have just one choccie biccie...oh dear I had three....mmmm tastes gooood".  "Oh I'm still snapping at the kids".  
Tea time:  "..Oh what the heck - all my healthy eating plans went out the window earlier, I'll  cook a few extra chips to keep me going till supper"  
.....you get the picture.

After:  Eat a Low GI Breakfast

-  Jumbo Oat Porridge and fresh fruit sweetened with honey

-  Poached Eggs on wholemeal seedy bread with grilled tomatoes

-  Whole grain unsweetened muesli with natural yoghurt and fresh fruit

-  Kippers on wholemeal seedy bread

-  Scrambled eggs on wholemeal seedy bread

  

I no longer get a sugar low mid morning so can last until lunch without feeling stressed and starving.

I no longer need to supplement my healthy lunch with treats as I'm not so hungry.
I no longer get a sugar low mid afternoon because my lunch is still keeping me going.
Tea time is still a danger point but I stay on track by grabbing a slow energy release snack like my flapjacks - see previous entry - or handful of nuts and cranberries.

Yippee I made it to supper time!   (ok so the kids still got me stressed a bit).

Good Mood Flapjacks

We've eaten lots of Oats this half term holidays.   They're an excellent mood food, rich in B-Vitamins, a good source of Magnesium and Low GI.  

These flapjacks are pretty healthy because they're made with honey, not syrup BUT not low fat so don't eat too many if you're on a diet!  Great for the kids and the grownups.


Prep Time: 5-10 mins
Cooking Time: 30-40 mins
Makes 12-15 squares

Ingredients
100g Butter
3tbsp Honey
200g Large Rolled Oats
40g Walnuts roughly chopped
40g Dried Apricots chopped into small pieces

Method

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4

2.  Melt the butter in a heavy based pan then stir in the honey until dissolved.

3.  Stir in the oats, nuts and apricots and combine thoroughly.

4.  Squash firmly into a brownie tin and bake for 30mins approx. until golden brown.

5.  Leave to cool in the tin then cut into squares. 

Tip
If some squares break up crumble them on top of yoghurt for a yummy breakfast or on stewed fruit to make a healthier fruit crumble for pud.

Why are they Good Mood Food?
Low GI - Jumbo Oats are whole grain and rich in soluble fibre so release energy slowly and these flapjacks are made with Honey which is lower GI than syrup so your blood sugar will not shoot up when you eat them.  They will keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Good for neurotransmitters - Oats are a good source of B-Vitamins and Magnesium.
B-Vitamins and the minerals Iron, Copper, Magnesium, Manganese and Zinc are needed when the body makes and uses neurotransmitters in the brain.  It seems that by eating certain foods, the available amounts of some neurotransmitters can be changed. This in turn can affect mood.  (In fact most antidepressant medicines work by increasing abnormally low levels of neurotransmitters thought to be associated with depression).

Word of Warning - NOT LOW FAT!
These are made with butter so are not low calorie.
.....although I did see a report recently suggesting saturated dairy fats like butter are not as bad as we have been led to believe: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2274747/At-truth-Butter-GOOD--margarine-chemical-gunk.html#ixzz2KISbO042

References
The Food and Mood Handbook, Amanda Geary: http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Food_and_Mood_Handbook.html?id=gE8t226wXhwC

Eat More Oats: http://eatmoreoats.com/health.html

Breaded Chicken Fingers

Someone asked me today "How do you eat healthy without making separate meals for yourself, your kids and your husband?"  Here's one of my favourites: 

Breaded Chicken Fingers
I love this supper because it's so easy to give the kids breaded chicken with their favourite veg. (or homemade chunky chips for a treat) 

The kids version is healthy enough for us...BUT...to make it a super good mood meal I make a nutrient packed chefs salad. My hubby and I usually end up each with a slightly different combination so it suits us both.  It's pretty filling too.

Ingredients
Breaded Chicken
Salad Leaves
Your favourite salad trimmings (cucumber, red pepper, tomatoes, beetroot etc)
Roasted Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash (recipe for this coming soon)
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds


A word about the breaded chicken
I've looked at the ingredients and think supermarket Breaded Mini Fillets are pretty OK - but only the whole chicken ones.  When I have time I make a batch of Annabel Karmels recipe (and freeze uncooked): http://www.annabelkarmel.com/member-recipes/cheesy-chicken-dippers.  My kids are happy with seedy wholemeal bread so I use that instead of white for the breadcrumbs.


Why is it Good Mood Food?
Low Glycemic Index - The salad contains protein and slow release carbs from the sweet potato.  The addition of the seeds further helps keep energy release from this supper slow.

Chicken - most meats including chicken provide a good helping of the essential amino acid Tryptophan.  It's used by the body to make Seratonin - a brain chemical essential for good mood and brain function.

Seeds - great for essential minerals such as zinc, iron, magnesium, manganese and contain some protein too.

I am not a morning person..or so I used to think.

THEN...I made 2 key diet changes

1.  Drink little and often during the day

2.  Eat low Glycemic Index foods, especially in the evening.  

The result - I wake refreshed and bright and ready for the day!

Hydration

I read all over the place that most of us are on the verg of dehydration a lot of the time. It can result in lethargy, poor concentration, poor sleep and poor health and mood.

So for the past 3 weeks I’ve kept topped up with water, diluted juice (4:1 water to juice - took a bit of getting used to) and herbal tea - cammomile my fave at the moment.  I’ve also avoided tea, coffee (including decaff for both) as these are mild diuretics and tried to stay off the wine.

It's worked - I feel fresh and alert when I wake in the morning...and bonus - I don’t feel fuzzy the morning after a wine or two.

Slow Burn Energy

I’ve believed in using Glycemic Index for managing mood for a long time - eating foods that slowly release energy into the bloodstream so blood sugar doesn’t peak and crash throughout the day.  Now I’ve realised that how I do this in the evening is really important for quality of sleep.   

I recently learnt that a heightened blood sugar at bedtime can interfere with the way the brain establishes sleep and how it regenerates and rejuvenates.  In a nutshell sleep will be lighter and less restful and the brain less inclined to use up all those good mood nutrients I work hard to eat every day.

So - I’ve been careful to eat protein and low GI carbs at supper but not too much too late. If I eat early with the kids, I do top up with small low GI snack around 9pm but again not too much too late.  I’ve cut out all puddings and don’t reach for the biscuits with my evening cuppa and Bingo! 

I sleep really well, night sweats have almost gone and I wake up refreshed and ready to go!

All of my recipes aim to be low GI.  I'll share more about low Glycemic Index foods later...