Eating more fish may reduce your anxiety!
A recent study of medical students indicates consuming more Omega 3 fatty acids may help reduce your anxiety. Omega 3 (that wonderful substance found in wild fish, leafy greens, and some oils and nuts) has long been none to reduce inflammation and protect your heart – now it seems it can help with your stress level too!
Our bodies naturally respond to stress by producing chemicals to aid in healing. However, constant stress creates too much of these chemicals in the blood and results in inflammation and damage to your heart and other vessels. Medical student who received high levels of Omega 3 supplements produced significantly less of these chemicals during stressful times.
Does this mean you should run out and load up on Fish Oil pills?
Maybe not. The researchers weren’t ready to jump to the recommendation that everyone take large doses of Omega 3 supplements. They did, however, indicate increasing the amount of Omega 3 in your diet is not only good for your heart, but for your anxiety level as well.
How do you get more Omega 3?The American Heart Association recommends eating fatty fish like sardines, albacore tuna, lake trout or salmon twice a week because they contain lots of EPA and DHA. They also recommend eating soybean foods like tofu as well as canola, flaxseed, walnut or soybean oils because they contain LNA. You can also purchase flaxseed. When you grind them in a coffee grinder, they can be sprinkled in smoothies, cereals or bread mixes to increase LNA consumption and improve heart health. Walnuts are another food that is rich in Omega-3’s.
- Here Fishy Fishy: Eating more fish – choose cold water wild fish such as salmon, trout, albacore tuna, halibut. Even scallops and shrimp are good sources of Omega 3.
- Go A Little Nutty: Toss some walnuts into your salad or oatmeal. Sprinkle ground flax seed on your cereal or look for breads with flax seed.
- Veg Out: Soybean (yes tofu), leafy greens, and winter squash are all good sources. Find ways to include them as well as olive and canola oils in your diet.
Do yourself a favor, pack in a bit more Omega 3!
Eliz Greene works busy people to improve heart health, so they can work well, feel better, and stress less.
She is a heart attack survivor and the author of the Busy Woman’s Guide to a Healthy Heart as well as 3 other books on wellness. She writes one of the top 50 health and wellness blogs and is a sought-after heart health, stress management, & wellness speaker.
If you are planning a women’s wellness program, workplace wellness program or programs for healthcare professionals check out EmbraceYourHeart.com to see if Eliz would be a good fit with your organization.
One Response to “Could Omega 3 Help with Anxiety?”
[…] general health and ward off problems like rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and even depression. Omega-3 fatty acids are concentrated in food sources like seafood and plant oils. (And research […]