Low Stress/Anxiety Dietary Guidelines

The strategies and skills gained through relaxation, exercise, and nutrition constitute a necessary foundation

The following dietary guidelines are intended to be suggestive rather than prescriptive.  Implement them gradually, perhaps one guideline a week, or every two weeks.

• Eliminate, as far as possible, the stimulants and stress-reducing substances: caffeine, nicotine, other stimulants, salt (down to one gram or teaspoon per day), and preservatives.
• Eliminate, or reduce to a minimum, consumption of refined sugar, brown sugar, honey, sucrose, dextrose, corn syrup, corn sweeteners, and high fructose.  Replace desserts, sugary beverages, and sweet snacks with fresh fruit and sugar-free beverages. Moderate alcohol consumption, since the body converts alcohol to sugar.
• Reduce or eliminate refined and processed foods from the diet as much as possible.  Replace with whole and fresh foods (preferably organic).
• Eliminate or reduce to a minimum any food that you establish as an allergen.  Notice particularly how you feel if you eliminate wheat and/or dairy products from your diet.
• Reduce red meat as well as poultry contained steroid hormones and other chemicals.  Replace with organic poultry / seafood (fish such as halibut, salmon, snapper, sole, trout and turbot are recommended).  Avoid large sea fish – swordfish, marline, tuna – contain excessive levels of mercury.
• Increase intake of dietary fibre by eating whole grains, brans, and raw vegetables.
• Drink the equivalent of at least eight eight-ounce glassess of spring water or purified water per day.
• Increase intake of raw, fresh vegetables.  A mixed-vegetable salad every day is an excellent
• Reduce animal fat and cholesterol-containing foods such as red meat, organ meats, gravy, cheeses, butter, eggs, whole milk, and shellfish to no more than 30 percent of daily calories.  Avoid poly-unsaturated vegetable-based fats contained in cooking and salad oils.  Monounsaturated oils such as unrefined, extra virgin oil are prefered.
• Increase consumption of omega-3 fats in the diet; these have an anti-inflammatory and anti-depressant effect.  Omega-3 fats can be found in flax oil, walnuts, fresh salmon and sardines.
• Avoid foods containing trans-fatty acids altogether (contained in deep fried foods, chips, mayonnaise, margarine, and all processed foods that contain partially hydrogenated oils).
•  Select foods from the four major groups: 1) vegetables (4-5 servings per day) and fruits (2 servings per day), 2) whole grains including whole-grain rice, cereals, and whole-grain breads (1-3 servings daily), 3) animal proteins emphasizing organic poultry, seafood, eggs (1-2 servings per day) or legume equivalents (2-3 servings per day), and 4) dairy products emphasizing low-fat or non-fat dairy products (1 serving per day).  Diet should emphasize first two categories and moderate amounts of latter two.  

The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook : Edmund J. Bourne