Using Nutrition To Optimise Sleep
How do you optimize your sleep through nutrition?
Guest blog by nutritionist Ashley Baker.
These are Ashley Baker's (@wholefoodsimple) tips to ensure your diet is supporting healthy sleep:
🌛 Ensuring you're getting enough 𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐜 containing foods. Zinc deficiency is correlated to to symptoms of insomnia, including difficulty falling and staying asleep. This is due to zincs modulatory effect on neurotransmitters, including serotonin- the precursor to melatonin (the sleep hormone).
Zinc-containing foods: seafood like shrimp and oysters, nuts, seeds like pumpkin seeds and legumes like chickpeas, mungbeans and lentils.
🌛 Look at your intake of 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐮𝐦 containing foods. Adequate dietary intake of magnesium has been linked to improved sleep time, decreased early morning waking and reduced anxiety around sleep.
Dietary sources of magnesium:
Green leafy vegetables, whole grains, cacao, legumes, soy products like tofu and tempeh and nuts and seeds.
🌛 Reduce Alcohol consumption.
Alcohol consumption districts sleep homeostasis and can lead to periods of wakefulness during the night. This is due to the fact that consumption of alcohol leads to an increase of wake promotion neurons in the brain.
Cacao and berry smoothie bowl 🍫 🍓
This smoothie is loaded with nutrients to support a restful night’s sleep 🌙
See the recipe video here
If you’re new to the green smoothie game, swap the cauli for frozen banana for extra sweetness.
Ingredients:
1/2 heaped cup mixed frozen berries
1/2 cup of cooked and frozen cauliflower or zucchini
1 cup of baby spinach
1 tbsp cacao
1 heaps tsp of LSA
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk of choice
1 scoop of protein powder of choice
Method:
In a high-speed blender or nutribullet, combine all ingredients and blend until thick and creamy.
Serve in a big glass or bowl and top with toasted buckwheat, your choice of nuts and seeds and Peanut butter.
Ashley is a Sydney based Nutritionist, working in the practitioner only brand space, passionate about healing through whole-food. Ashley is a weight neutral practitioner who promotes evidence based healthcare and a safe non-judgemental space for all body sizes.