Good Mood Foods
Ready to feel calm, capable and HAPPIER? Focus on Good Mood Foods!
For fastest progress toward better mood and digestion, stick largely to the foods on these lists for awhile. When you suddenly realize how seriously food is affecting your mood and life, it’s totally overwhelming to try to figure out a new way! It’s always WAY easier to focus on what you CAN have.
You can have a lot!
What makes a ‘Good Mood’ Food?
~ They Nourish Important Systems ~
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~ Anti-inflammatory; They Don’t Aggravate ~
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~ Easy to Digest, & Very Low Allergen ~
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~ Essential Nutrients ~
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~ Blood Sugar Friendly ~
Foods to include to reboot your Happiness:
High quality protein in regular doses throughout the day. You can easily get your full requirement of protein from plants, beans, and a few specific gut and brain-friendly grains. No animals required!
Why?
The biggest ways:
Protein helps stabilize blood sugar- low blood sugar is a main physiological cause of overwhelm, sadness, anxiety, and stress feelings. In simple terms, protein supports the ability of your body to create and regulate “happiness hormones”. 
To be proactive and avoid tons of imaginary stress completely, eat small protein snacks all day long. I like to call it a “slow drip”. Combining this with some “good fats” and veggie fiber is ideal.
If you have kidney problems, find a nutritionist that is willing to work with your doctor. Kidney problems can be aggravated by too much of the wrong types of protein.
The Proper Amount of Protein
The Daily recommended intake is 46 grams per day for the “average” sedentary 127 pound woman (ehem!), and 56 grams for the “average” sedentary 156 pound man. That’s .36 grams per pound of body weight.
Food for Thought:
There is reasonable controversy over this number, since recommendations to repeatedly raise protein requirements come from “Protein Summits” in Washington that are sponsored by organizations such as the Beef Checkoff Program and the National Dairy Council. These groups sell protein for a living! No wonder they keep wanting to raise the requirements!
Stick close to these numbers, unless you have a trustworthy expert telling you otherwise.
Lots and lots of veggies have plenty of protein to get you through the day!
“The Best“ Veggie Protein Sources
Most vegetables have protein in them! Here are some of the ones with the highest protein content.
Mushrooms
Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Potato Skins
Sprouts
Brussel Sprouts
Broccoli
All leafy greens like spinach, collard, beet greens, cabbage, kale, etc
Superpower your veggie intake by getting at least one serving of probiotic fermented veggies per day, preferably 3. Fermented veggies help heal the gut lining, improving digestion (and mood) over time!
Many grains and legumes can promote happiness. Many grains will actually negatively affect your digestion and your mood. Stick to the ones on this list for the most part, and avoid others as much as possible.
Protein Sources
Quinoa
Adzuki Beans
Mung Beans
Buckwheat
Brown Rice
Chickpes/Garbanzo Beans
Lentils
Black Beans
Seeds
Seeds: Especially chia, hemp, sunflower, walnuts, cashews, flax
Fiber is super important for your digestion and mood stabilizing.
There are 2 types, and both are important. Fiber pushes everything else through and helps it assimilate, to put it simply. This keeps your insides clean, so that old food is not fermenting or rotting in your guts.
That fermenting process that occurs with lack of fiber can turn to toxins that affect your health and emotions! Fiber helps you stay feeling full longer, and keeps blood sugar more steady.
Vegetables are your best bet for fiber! Fast snack varieties like carrots and celery, or even a salad are great on the go!
that food is not fermenting or rotting in your guts. It also helps regulate your blood sugar, which is directly related to your emotional ups and downs.
This is what people commonly call “roughage”. This type of fiber doesn’t get broken down by water or absorb into your bloodstream. It actually creates the bulk for your bowel movements, and pushes waste through your digestive tract to keep you healthy.
pretty important now, doesn’t it?
Insoluble Fiber
Peas
Brussell Sprouts
Artichokes
Parsnips
Greens/Broccoli
Sweet Potato
Squash
Nuts and Seeds
Soluble Fiber
Peas
Brussell Sprouts
Apples
Lentils
Beans
Nuts and Seeds
Pears
Avocado
Figs
Yep, fats! We have all heard about these “good fats”.
Good fats help sooth and heal the stomach lining, helping nutrients get into the bloodstream to feed your body. They are integral to the health of the central nervous system, which processes emotions. Omega fats also play a big role in restoring brain cells’ structural integrity. All of this leads to mood, anxiety, and outlook improvement.
Use organic varieties of the oils mentioned, with the words “cold-pressed” on the bottle to avoid unlisted chemical exposure. And with nuts also, organic is preferred. Non-organic nuts and seeds get gassed for a variety of “reasons”, and oils are often processed with chemicals.
Best Fats Sources
Flax seed and oil
Coconut oil
Coconut Milk
Hemp Seeds
Chia Seeds
Walnuts
Olive Oil
Fish
Egg Yolks
And high quality fish oils.
Best fish options are mackerel, salmon, herring, and cod liver oil.
Yep, fats! We have all heard about these good fats. But what do they do for your mood? And how do you get them?
reorganize itself and form new thinking patterns and neural pathways throughout life. This is very important when you’re trying to get over a past event, create a better outlook, or form a new habit!Choose your oils wisely.
preferred.
Cold Water Fish
Salmon
Sardines
Mackerel
Greens
Gut-Friendly Grains
Flax Seeds
Walnuts
Spirulina
Pumpkin Seeds
Brazil Nuts
Omega-6 Sources
Greens
Gut-Friendly Grains
Cold-Press Oil
Hemp Seeds
Sesame Seeds
Pistachio Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
Chia Seeds
Finding truly humane meat is tricky. Be super aware of the way the animals are treated on the farm you choose, if you choose to eat meat, eggs, and dairy.
But you can also ease into another happy switch today, right now! I am an advocate of the plant-based diet. BUT… I can still help you eat more ethically, even if you are not going vegan anytime soon.
If you choose to eat meat and dairy, please make highly informed decisions and purchases. Find local farmers that you trust- ones that you can talk to face to face, and that allow you to tour their property and animal areas. Get your meat exclusively from them. This will take you several steps in the right direction.
It’s usually less expensive to buy meat from a local farmer anyways- you just have to buy in bulk.
Most animal meat available in stores has been terribly mistreated, tortured and abused for it’s whole life. How can you expect to increase your happiness when you are literally eating animal torture? You Can’t. “Food, Inc” is a great movie to watch to get a bigger understanding of this. You will be directly supporting this industry of torture and neglect if you buy commercial meats.
According to the documentary “Cowspiracy“, 70 billion land animals are killed every year so that people can eat them. That’s over 6 million animals dying per hour for human consumption, or 100,000 animal deaths PER MINUTE! And trillions of fish and other marine life.
Besides this, we are using way too much of our land and water resources to grow the grains that feed these animals. This land could be used to grow more sustainable food, that would actually feed a lot more people, with a lower carbon footprint.
70% of grains grown in the US are grown to feed animals on feedlots, according to “Plants, Genes, and Agriculture” by Jones and Bartlet. That’s a lot of land and a lot of grains! Cow’s stomachs aren’t even made to digest corn, which is the main grain used to feed cows.
Often, cows have to have special treatments and painful, traumatizing ongoing procedures done to them to even keep them healthy while eating corn and other grain. They are also pumped full of antibiotic because of this. Also check out the movie called “Food, Inc.” to get up to date on what really happens on factory farms and feedlots.
Lower your meat intake until you are only eating meat for 1-3 meals per week. You WILL be healthier and happier.
**** Only support farms that pasture their animals for their whole lives! Buy meat from a humane, local source you trust, ONLY! Choose a farm where you can talk to the farmers about the processes directly, face to face. And one that allows you to tour their farms. THANKS! ****
Fish- as local as possible, not farm raised. Find someone who likes to fish, and
barter or trade, em for some fish! The commercial fishing industry is devastating for marine life, and endangers certain species. Besides this, our waters are grossly over-fished, which bring about even more ecological imbalances.
Wild game in small amounts- Also consider switching to wild caught game, specifically deer, that was not raised on a farm. Why deer? There actually are substantial over-populations of deer in many areas of the United States, so this is a highly sustainable meat source. And while killing deer is sad, helping maintain ecological balance is good. like everything else, we MUST learn to keep our consumption in check!
If you know someone who hunts for food not for trophy, ask them what they know about this or if they might be willing to do a trade with you for some of the game they get. Do either of these things only if it’s legal where you live.