Beat the winter blues with food

If you’re feeling low now the darker nights are drawing in, we’ve got your sorted, read on to discover how you can beat the winter blues with food.

There’s no doubt that as the clocks change for winter, life can feel a bit dismal. Going to and from work in the dark is horrible, Christmas seems a long way off and the memories of your summer holiday, like your tan, have faded. No wonder so many of us feel depressed in winter.

However, if you’re feeling down in the dumps right now, the cause could be more than psychological. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a recognised medical condition that lowers your mood. In some cases, the symptoms are so severe that sufferers become clinically depressed, unable to get out of bed and are prescribed anti-depressants.

Still, you can have mild SAD without even knowing it. In winter, you feel below par, emotionally, tired, lethargic and you crave comfort foods – big bowls of pasta, shepherd’s pie and toad in the hole. The extra dress size you go up in winter may not simply be accidental. You could be self-medicating for SAD.

So, what causes SAD and what can you do about it? There are two factors in SAD, and a lack of sunlight links them both.

The first is disruption of your normal wake/sleep cycle called the circadian rhythm. This is mediated by push and pull hormones serotonin and melatonin. When night falls, the darkness triggers the release of the sleep hormone melatonin. In the morning, as the sun rises, this is replaced by serotonin. Both hormones are made from the same amino acid tryptophan. However, in winter, there is less sunlight about to trigger the body switch manufacture from sleepy melatonin to wide awake serotonin, so you stay feeling groggy for longer during the day.

Sunlight also helps us make vitamin D ‘endogenously’, that is, in the skin. Vitamin D has many functions, including boosting the immune system and helping to fix calcium into the bones. But, it also appears to have an antidepressant effect. This is why SAD may lower mood; less sunlight, means less vitamin D, which means less get up and go.

Treatments for SAD include the use of special sun lamps to simulate real sunlight and SSRI anti-de pressants. However, if your symptoms are mild, you can do a lot to improve them by changing your diet to include more vitamin D and tryptophan-rich foods. If you think you may have SAD try to eat more of these foods:

Tryptophan foods:

Turkey and chicken

Eggs

Low-fat dairy

Sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Avocado

Vitamin D foods:

Eggs

Oily fish such as salmon, trout, sardines and mackerel

Liver

The Vitamin D foods in particular don’t add up to a very long list and vegans may struggle as the highest concentration of vitamin D is found in meat, particularly offal, fish and eggs. Vegan margarines and milks are often fortified with vitamin D for this reason.

You can also take a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D is actually a complex of fat-soluble vitamins. The important one for SAD is vitamin D3, so if you’re going to take a pill make sure it’s D3.

Lastly, get outside, even in winter. Doing your morning run or cycle in the open air has more benefits than simply cardiovascular. It can boost your D3.

Lowri Turner is a nutritionist and clinical hypnotherapist. You can now see her at The Hale Clnic, 7 Park Crescent, London W1B 1PF. To make an appointment, please email lowri@lowriturner.com or go to lowriturner.com.