What we eat, the quality of our sleep, and how much we exercise can have a huge impact on our mental health and wellbeing.
Good lifestyle habits can help reduce physiological stress and improve your body’s ability to maintain good mental health.
Good nutrition and healthy eating habits are important for the body’s ability to maintain positive mental health and wellbeing, while coping with the stressors of emergency services and shift work.
The importance of a healthy lifestyle
How we live has a major influence on our mental health. Paying attention to the basic lifestyle factors of nutrition and physical activity lays the foundations for better mental health.
More and more research has found that the food and drink we put into our bodies can affect our moods, symptoms of mental ill-health, and the medications we take. Though it can feel hard to do at times for a number of reasons, a balanced diet, which includes more water, and less caffeine and alcohol, can have positive effects on our overall wellbeing.
What should I eat?
Our bodies function best when fuelled by fresh, whole foods. Overconsumption of processed foods, which are often saturated with sugar, food additives and chemicals, restricts the intake of nutrients that are essential for good brain functioning.
Current Australian nutritional guidelines advocate the best way to achieve a healthy and balanced diet is to ‘eat a rainbow’ – a variety of colourful fruit and vegetables with their own set of unique disease-fighting properties, lean meats, grains, fats, and legumes.
Other foods found to improve mental health:
- Eggs - support greater brain function, development, memory and learning
- Avocados - increase brain health and healthy blood flow
- Blueberries - improve thinking and prevent age-related memory loss
Further reading here: Food, drink & mental health
When you’re feeling stressed or working irregular hours, takeaway food can be an easy go-to. Even when choosing takeaway foods, you can still control how often this happens and what food you put in your body. There are usually healthier fast-food options on takeaway menus these days.
The Healthy Food Guide explores a range of fast food and provides a useful guide to a variety of healthy takeaway options available.
Nutrition Australia is also a great place to visit for healthy eating guides, nutritious recipe ideas on a budget, and how to stay healthy when you’re eating on the go.
Eating and shiftwork
Working irregular hours and shift work can upset your natural body clock. This can lead to changes in your appetite and create physical issues such as weight loss and weight gain, as well as digestive problems. There are a few simple things you can do to keep your health on track.
More information and resources
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