Juicing for Depression: A Guide To Mental Health Smoothies

The common mood-related disorders experienced by most people are anxiety and depression. If you have these problems and don’t know how to handle them, these might lead to severe health problems. To address these concerns and better handle these, you can have therapy, prescription medication, or both. Aside from medical treatments, drinking natural juices from fruits and vegetables is one of the best ways of handling these conditions. This article provides information about JUICING FOR DEPRESSION A GUIDE TO MENTAL HEALTH SMOOTHIES.

WHAT’S WITH DRINKING JUICES?

Drinking juices is one of the convenient and effective ways to add more vitamins and minerals from fresh vegetables and fruits added to your diet. These natural cures help in aiding depression and anxiety. Juicing is just a simple way of getting more nutrients from various fruits and fresh vegetables and improving symptoms of anxiety and depression. Healthy dietary lifestyles with a higher intake of fruits, whole foods, and vegetables with little processed foods will result in riskless mood disorders. Not only do researchers believe, but even ordinary people experience the benefits like minerals, vitamins, and beneficial plant compounds coming from nature forming into various kinds of fruits that offer protective mental health effects. Having more vitamins like zinc, magnesium, and vitamin C keep on improving depression and anxiety symptoms because these nutrients help in stabilizing feelings of despair, mood in episodes of mania, and average heart rate. But there is no all-in-one treatment or remedy for serious mental health, but if you have to try drinking natural juices, you will surely experience their positive effects.

WHAT BENEFITS CAN YOU GET FROM DRINKING JUICE?

The beneficial nutrients you will get from drinking juice are antioxidants, B vitamins, magnesium, vitamin C, and zinc. All these nutrients are beneficial and show positive effects on depression and anxiety depression.

ANTIOXIDANTS

Brain oxidative stress is a major element of the inflammation process caused by anxiety or depression. This happens when free radicals or harmful molecules continuously build up in your body and damage cells and tissues due to an impaired antioxidant defense system. Researchers have found that most people having GAD or generalized anxiety disorder have low levels of antioxidants. An antioxidant-rich diet from natural juices helps protect against oxidative stress and remove free radicals. This can also induce brain damage which helps prevent or lessen anxiety and depression symptoms. Medical experts also believe that antioxidants offer antidepressant effects.

B VITAMINS

Low levels of B vitamins such as Vitamins B6, B9, and B12 can be linked to a higher risk of anxiety and depression. These B vitamins are associated with serotonin production, commonly known as the happiness hormone, and often lead to mood-enhancing effects. A deficiency of these vitamins stops the production of serotonin from an amino acid. This can lead to more serious homocysteine levels and worsen depression symptoms. Folate low levels are associated with antidepressants’ poor response, while having more folate supplements improve the response. Studies revealed that these positive health effects of having more folate came from natural sources like vegetables and fruits. They believed folate from fortified or commercial foods doesn’t offer the same benefits and results.

MAGNESIUM

Magnesium plays an important role in your mood and brain function; If you are on diet having low magnesium, this can be linked to anxiety and depression. Anti-anxiety and antidepressants are the 2 potential ways or health benefits of magnesium. Low magnesium deficiency normally results in stress caused by an impairment of the HPA axis. HPA, or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, has a crucial role in your emotions, mood, and reaction to stress. Damaging the HPA axis can affect how you handle stress and thus promote the development of depression and anxiety disorders. Another benefit of magnesium is it modulates your noradrenergic, serotonergic, and dopaminergic chemical systems that affect your mood, reward, and motivation. More magnesium intake will influence your brain’s chemical systems and regulate HPA axis activity. It is suggested that magnesium is an effective therapy when it is combined with anti-depressant drugs.

VITAMIN C

Researchers found the inverse relationship involves between Vitamin C and depression. If a person has a low level of vitamin C, this increases more risk of having depression, while if there are high levels, these can result in improving a person’s mood. Vitamin C is actually an antioxidant as it can combat depression, anxiety, and other stress-related disorders. This vitamin is like magnesium which participates in the noradrenergic, serotonergic, and dopaminergic chemical systems. Studies also show that supplementing your drinks with more vitamin C will improve your mood and have antidepressant effects. Having a vitamin C-rich diet may also complement those old or traditional treatments, especially for those people who are treatment resistant.

ZINC

Another antioxidant that is best for combating anxiety and depression is zinc. Zinc deficiency foods have been linked to depression behavior development, increased anxiety, and the severity of depression symptoms. Animal and human studies also reveal that zinc levels appear to be low for those people who do not respond to drugs like antidepressants. Supplementing with zinc, like from natural juices, helps in improving antidepressant drugs efficacy by more than 50%.

ITS BEST INGREDIENTS

One good thing about juicing is adding or mixing any fruits and vegetables you like to have a taste of. Go for ingredients that have more antioxidants, B vitamins, magnesium, vitamin C, and zinc if you drink juices to improve depression and anxiety symptoms. These are the best fruits and vegetables that are the major source of those nutrients.

* ANTIOXIDANTS: celery, broccoli, beets, cabbage, berries, kale
* B VITAMINS: spinach, broccoli, cabbage, low-fat milk, eggs, sunflower seed butter, and yogurt
* MAGNESIUM: cabbage, kale, and green leafy vegetables
* VITAMIN C: celery, broccoli, cabbage, bell peppers, kale, citrus fruits, and zucchini
* ZINC: beet greens and kale

You can try mixing up these ingredients if you want to prepare juice to make sure there’s a variety of nutrients.