JJ Virgin breaks the stress-eating cycle with ten foods that lower cortisol. Dark chocolate provides polyphenols, green tea offers L-theanine to boost GABA, berries supply vitamin C for adrenal health, fatty fish delivers omega-3s, and nuts and seeds provide magnesium and zinc to calm your nervous system.
Ever eaten because you were stressed? But it turns out there are foods that can help naturally decrease your stress hormones so you can break the cycle and have some calm in your life. I'm talking the top 10 foods to decrease cortisol. So let's start with a favorite— dark chocolate. So dark chocolate contains polyphenols and flavonols. Now the other thing that I do every day is green tea. Green tea is rich in something called L-theanine. This is an amino acid that increases GABA, which is the calming neurotransmitter. Transmitter in your brain. The other thing that I eat every day are berries. So berries are high in vitamin C. Vitamin C is super important for your adrenal glands. It is the number one vitamin used by your adrenal gland. Next up is fatty fish. So there are omega-3 fatty acids in fatty fish, and these directly lower cortisol levels because they reduce inflammation. Another fat that's really important is avocados. Avocados have so much goodness in them because not only do they have these healthy fats— next up, nuts and seeds. So nuts and seeds can help lower cortisol levels because they're rich in magnesium, zinc, omega-3s, and B vitamins, which I've talked about a couple of these already. Magnesium found in almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds. I talked about this earlier, this can calm your nervous system. And of course, omega-3 fatty acids are fantastic. You're going to get some of these here in your nuts and seeds, especially walnuts, flaxseeds, and chia seeds. And these are anti-inflammatory, so these can help lower cortisol. And then we haven't talked yet about zinc. So zinc cashews and pumpkin seeds, and it's great for proper adrenal function and helps regulate cortisol production.
