Feeling stressed? Try eating these “psychobiotic” gut-friendly foods
QUICK SUMMARY: A new study has found sticking to a specific “psychobiotic” diet that includes such foods as onions, leeks, cabbage, apples, bananas, oats, grains and legumes as well as sauerkraut, kombucha and kefir helps reduce stress and depressive symptoms. And it’s all to do with the gut microbiome.
A new study from APC Microbiome Ireland and University College Cork (UCC) has found eating certain “psychobiotic” foods for four weeks can change your mood.
The scientists were looking to see if eating specific “gut-friendly” prebiotic and fermented foods for four weeks could influence the gut microbiome, and in turn, reduce perception of stress and other markers of health via a microbiota-gut-brain connection.
The scientists found that compared to eating a “normal diet”, those people that stuck to a “psychobiotic” diet which included eating onions, leeks, cabbage, apples, bananas, oats, grains and legumes as well as sauerkraut, kombucha and kefir had reduced levels of stress and depressive symptoms.
This study is one of the first to provide evidence that changing a person’s diet can help alleviate stress.
To me, it makes total sense.
