Written By Margaret Floyd, NTP HHC CHFS
My first panic attack.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was 16 years old, sitting in a movie theatre watching the latest Hollywood hit with my boyfriend. My pulse started racing. At first I thought it was from the film, but as the action in the movie slowed down, my pulse didn’t. I could hardly breathe. I felt a terror to my core about … well … I wasn’t sure what I was so scared of. I felt like I’d been running a race, but I was just sitting still. My heart was tight. Was I having a heart attack? I sat there, palms and temples sweating, hoping no one would notice the drama happening inside of me. “Just breathe…. Just breathe….”
I didn’t tell anyone about it. I was embarrassed and felt like both a drama queen and total wimp. I had no idea what had happened. All I knew was that it felt horrible and I prayed it wouldn’t happen again.
I was lucky. I only experienced a handful of panic attacks over the course of my life. Once I knew what they were, it took off some of the edge, but they were still awful. Many folks are not so lucky.
Deep anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and major mood swings plague them on a daily basis. Maybe you’re one of these people?
Last fall I was lucky enough to meet Trudy Scott, a nutritionist and author of the book The Antianxiety Food Solution: How The Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings. She had me at the title alone.
If you’ve been reading my stuff for a while, you know that I believe firmly in the power of food as the ultimate foundation to health and healing. Sometimes this is more easily grasped on the topic of physical ailments – headaches, energy levels, body weight, digestive challenges – it’s easy to see how these issues are directly related to the foods we eat. But mood? Panic? Anxiety? Yup, our diet has a profound impact on these as well.
In her wonderfully accessible and user-friendly book, Trudy outlines a simple program that includes a nutrient-rich real foods diet and the elimination of some mood-affecting culprits that many of us consume on a daily basis.
She explains how hidden food sensitivities can exacerbate anxiety and how to identify those sensitivities in an easy way you can do at home without fancy testing.
She looks at the all-important role of digestion in making sure you’re getting mood-balancing nutrients from your diet and then finishes off with some more advanced concepts such as amino acid therapy, nutrient imbalances, the impact of medications, and lifestyle changes.
It’s a straightforward handbook on how to improve your mood, reduce anxiety, and eliminate those panic attacks once and for all through simple diet and lifestyle changes.
If you or someone you love struggles with any of these issues, I highly recommend this book. Implementing the strategies Trudy outlines will set you on the path to feeling balanced, calm, and happy.
Hi Margaret
I’m sorry to hear you had panic attacks. I can totally relate as I also had terrible anxiety and panic attacks in my late 30s – which is why I’m so passionate about sharing this topic.
I’m so pleased we met last fall and thanks for the great review of my book!
Here’s to real whole food, removing the junk and food intolerances, possibly removing coffee too (!) and some pretty incredible nutrients SO everyone can feel on top of the world always!
Trudy
This was very helpful. Thank you! – Bella
I have always struggled with anxiety and used to take fluoxetine and other anti depressants. Even when I came off them I still never came close to getting rid of the dark thoughts. Then I became interested in fish oils and started taking high strength/high grade fish oil out of desperation. I’m not sure if it was placebo but I felt a lift in my outlook. Then my interest in eating to improve moods peaked and I found another book detailing what food needed to be eaten to improve anxiety. Luckily my husband wanted to go on a diet as well as me wanting to try this out. I will never go back now to eating processed rubbish. I still take fish oil and berocca for the vitamin b complex. We both have poached eggs on whole grain bread every morning and white meats, complex carbs, plenty of veggies and salads and also plenty of whole grain wraps and lots of fish. We still drink caffeine but not coffee but tea. My husband has lost 6 pounds in about 2 weeks and I feel I have lost those bad feelings and thoughts. The trick is never to feel hungry as then you do make bad choices but I feel great and so happy. Thank you so much to these people that research and write about this
How I wish I’d known about the food-mood solutions while my mother was living. She was always a healthy eater, but as she grew older she had panic attacks any time she got on a freeway. No wonder. She lived in California’s Bay Area, and traffic there can be panic fodder for anyone. She eventually moved up near me, in Washington State, and she would never let me take her on the freeway anywhere. This made it hard to shop for clothes, because our local stores were much more limited at that time and the perfect suit for her size 8 figure had skirts above her 90-year-old knees. This didn’t work. She would have been open to dietary changes, and, in fact, had introduced me to nutrition studies in the 1960s with Adelle Davis’ books. Unfortunately, I didn’t meet Julia Ross or read her books about food and mood until a few years too late.