Sweets For Anxiety - Know The Better Food For It!

Sugar is harmful to your mental health, but there are ways to still satisfy your sweet tooth.

1. Sugar leads to highs and lows -

Consuming a large amount of processed sugar can trigger feelings of worry, irritability, and sadness — which can be a double whammy if you also deal with depression or anxiety. Here’s why: A sugar rush makes your body work hard to get back to normal levels. This roller coaster of ups and downs can leave you feeling nervous, foggy, irritable, jittery, and drained.If you have anxiety or depression, those symptoms are likely ones you already deal with on a daily basis. Sugar will exacerbate them.

2. If it doesn’t cause anxiety, it sure makes it worse -

If you deal with anxiety, then you know how disastrous it can be to binge on sugar. The powerful high and subsequent crash can make you feel irritable, shaky, and tense — all side effects that can worsen your anxiety.

3. Sugar can increase your risk of developing depression -

It’s hard to avoid reaching for the sweets, especially after a difficult day. And when you’re dealing with depression, sometimes food can serve as a form of self-medication. But this vicious cycle of consuming sugar to numb your emotions will only make your symptoms of sadness, fatigue, and hopelessness worse.

Overconsumption of sugar triggers imbalances in certain brain chemicals. These imbalances can lead to depression and may even increase the long-term risk of developing a mental health disorder in some people.

4. Withdrawing from sweets can feel like a panic attack -

Withdrawing from sugar isn’t pleasant. It can cause serious side effects, such as anxiety, irritability, confusion, and fatigue. This has led experts to look at how the withdrawal symptoms from sugar can resemble those of certain drugs. That’s why going cold turkey from sugar may not be the best solution for someone who also has anxiety.

If you’re craving sweets, here’s what to eat instead

Just because you’re ditching processed sugar doesn’t mean you have to deny yourself the pleasure of sweet-tasting food. 

Here are a few low- or no-sugar recipes.

Tea smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 serving vanilla protein powder of your choice

• 1/4 avocado

• 1 tbsp. almond butter

• 1 cup almond milk

• 1/8 tsp. each of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and cardamom spice

• 1/4 tsp. organic vanilla essence

• ice

• a small bit of organic honey to sweeten, if needed

Directions -

1. Add all ingredients to your blender. Blend until smooth.

2. Enjoy.

• If you don’t have the spices, brew a cup of chai tea using tea bags or whole leaf tea. Use it instead of the almond milk.

• For a thinner smoothie, add almond milk for creaminess.

• Avocado adds creaminess and is a healthy fat to boot!

•  chocolate dipped strawberries

Ingredients -

• 2 16-oz. containers of strawberries with the stems on

• 1 10-oz. bag of dark chocolate chips

• 1 10-oz. bag of milk chocolate chips

Directions -

1. Wash the two containers of strawberries, then air-dry.

2. Use a double-boiler method to heat the chocolate.

3. Remove from heat.

4. Gently stir the chocolate to a smooth consistency.

5. Quickly dip strawberries in melted chocolate. Dry on sheet pan.

6. Set in fridge for 5 to 10 minutes.

• Always air-dry or towel-dry the strawberries before dipping them in the melted chocolate. Water will damage the chocolate.

• If the chocolates form a thick mixture, you may need to add 1/2 cup more of milk chocolate chips to help create a smooth consistency for dipping.

• The flavanols, methylxanthines, and polyphenols found in dark chocolate help boost mood, lower anxiety, and fight inflammation.

KEEP TRYING THE ALTERNATIVES FOR YOUR SWEET TOOTH.