11 foods that make anxiety worse

Medications, therapy, mindfulness, and exercise can all be good options for treating anxiety disorders or coping with everyday anxiety (there’s plenty of coronavirus-related anxiety). However, there’s another remedy that’s closer to home: what you eat.

“We have all felt high or low after eating or drinking,” says Sharon Zarabi, RD. “Behaviour and mood can be controlled by the ingredients we put in our bodies.” Stress can affect your eating but eating can also affect your stress levels. Here are the foods that can cause anxiety – avoid them to keep anxiety levels down.

The connection between coffee and anxiety may not seem that surprising, but it bears repeating, especially because so many other foods and drinks contain caffeine. You may be piling on this anxiety-provoking compound without realising it, says Su-Nui Escobar, PhD and RDN. You may be drinking “only” two cups of coffee a day but if you add an energy drink, some soft drink and a slab of chocolate, your intake is sky-high.

Caffeine affects your body in much the same way as a scary event would – by churning out adrenaline, says Escobar. It can also release the stress hormone cortisol which spikes heart rate and blood pressure. Those hormones promote anxiety and also make it harder to sleep, which just worsens the anxiety. Some non-caffeinated but perky alternatives: herbal (not black) tea, decaf coffee, or sparkling water with a lime or fruit undertone. “That gives you the sensation of a bubbly drink with flavour and zero caffeine,” Escobar says.

Speaking of caffeine and energy drinks, these popular products can contain pure, concentrated caffeine. Published in the Journal of Caffeine Research, a 2016 review of studies looking at energy drinks noted that most of the research found associations between consuming energy drinks and symptoms of mental health problems such as anxiety, stress and depression.

And energy drinks may do more than make you feel jittery. They’ve been linked with increased heart rate and blood pressure as well as changes in the electrical activity of the heart, even strokes and seizures, not to mention anxiety and even psychosis, according to the American College of Cardiology.

Or white rice or white pasta. All these items are processed and contain refined sugars which, in general, are a no-no for a healthy diet and can affect your mood. “The sugar spikes blood sugar followed by a quick drop-off of sugar which is associated with anxiety,” says Escobar. Sugar is known to also tickle the same pleasure centres as cocaine, an addictive stimulant drug, which may feel good for a moment but when you crash you won’t feel nearly as good.

Go for complex carbohydrates in whole grains like oats, brown rice and sweet potatoes. Whole grains are one of the pillars of healthy eating plans, such as the Mediterranean diet and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet.

Here are 10 things that happen to your body when you stop eating sugar. 

Sodas give you a double whammy of caffeine and sugar, hence why it’s one of the top foods to avoid if you have anxiety. Caffeine can leave you shaking while sugar, says Zarabi, “is like a drug and hijacks our brain. It elevates our mood at first but in the long term, it worsens our emotional wellbeing, and causes inflammation and excess body fat.” Much of the added sugars in our diets come from beverages like soda and fruit drinks.

Here are 12 things that happen to your body if you stop drinking fizzy drinks. 

Oddly enough, though chocolate has been hailed as a stress buster (in moderation), it may also have a darker side because it, also, contains sugar and caffeine. When you have that drop off, you can get anxious, says Escobar.

“If you really want to have something sweet, pair it with protein and a little bit of fat,” says Escobar. Suggestions include Greek yoghurt with a little sugar and blueberries or peanut butter and fruit. “This will give you physiological satisfaction that will prevent you from having cravings,” she explains. (Dark chocolate, btw, has fewer added sugars than light chocolate.)

Fried foods (think hot chips, fried chicken, fried onion rings, and doughnuts) may lead not just to anxiety, but also depression.

And this should be anxiety-provoking: fried foods are also linked with heart disease. Many studies over the decades have confirmed the link, with a 2015 review study, published in the journal Nutrients, finding that eating fried foods four or more times a week is linked with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, heart failure, obesity and hypertension. Obesity, diabetes, and hypertension or high blood pressure are all major risk factors for heart disease. This is likely because foods are often fried in oils high in saturated fatty acids and partially hydrogenated oils, both of which can clog your arteries. Better choices are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. The authors of the review article recommended cutting fried foods completely from your diet.

Nutritionists won’t touch these foods – and you shouldn’t either. 

Many of the fruit juices that you buy in the supermarket are 10 percent fruit and 90 percent sugar, points out Escobar. Things aren’t much better even if you squeeze the juice yourself, she says. Think about it: when you eat a piece of fruit, let’s say an orange, you only eat one or two at a time. Not only does it have less sugar than juice, but it’s also packed with fibre, which is digested more slowly, keeps your blood sugar stable, and makes you feel full longer. If you make fresh-squeezed juice, you’re going to need, easily, five or six oranges. That’s pretty much all sugar and no fibre, setting you up for a spike in blood sugar and the jitters.

Dried fruit, with such concentrated sugar, poses much the same problem.

Drink too much alcohol and you may feel relaxed for a while, but it can backfire, causing you to lose sleep which is a sure recipe for anxiety, says Escobar. And not unlike ice cream and other high-sugar foods, alcohol leads to the highs and lows of blood sugar that lead to anxiety and depression. It can also result in dehydration, yet another reason you may feel edgy.

If you do drink alcohol, you can minimise dehydration by drinking plenty of water.

Many of these so-called “lite” products make up for reduced fat with high levels of hidden sugars, says Escobar, making them one of the foods you should avoid. Light salad dressings are a major culprit. When Harvard University researchers looked at one ready-made tomato basil sauce in the supermarket, they found that half a cup (less than most people would eat) contained three teaspoons of sugar. A cup and a half for dinner, which seems more realistic, would be nine teaspoons.

The FDA recently reformed the Nutrition Facts Label to reflect, among other things, the amount of added sugars in certain products. This, in turn, reflected the fact that we are consuming more – and too much – sugar. The latest Dietary Guidelines recommend that added sugar make up no more than 10 percent of kilojoules consumed.

Here are 23 lazy ways to burn more kilojoules each day.