Have you ever heard the saying, you are what you eat? What you eat can have a great impact on how you feel and your overall health. Certain foods can help reduce stress in several ways. Oatmeal, known as a comfort food, helps produce serotonin. Serotonin is a chemical produced in the brain that has a calming effect in our bodies. Eating healthy can help decrease the severity of your stress, by keeping the immune system strong and lowering your blood pressure.

Eating foods containing carbohydrates sends a message to your brain to produce more serotonin. Serotonin is a chemical that makes us feel good and in order to keep feeling good, it's best to consume complex carbohydrates. Complex Carbohydrates include breads, pastas, whole-grain foods like cereal and oatmeal. Complex carbohydrates can also help keep your blood sugar within a normal range.

It is recommended not to eat foods that contain simple carbohydrates, which include sugary foods like cake, donuts ,cookies, soda pop or any type of desserts. Sometimes we crave these foods because they taste good to us. If you consume food containing simple sugars, they are digested fast leading serotonin levels to increase. This increase in serotonin doesn't last long though. Don't make this a habit to relieve stress by consuming foods with a lot of sugar. We should eat less of these foods.

Studies suggest that fruits containing vitamin C reduce levels of stress hormones. Oranges are known for their wealth of vitamin C. Cortisol is a stress hormone and the level returned to normal more quickly when people consumed foods containing vitamin C before a stressful situation. People with high blood pressure, also who consumed foods containing vitamin C before a stressful situation caused their blood pressure to decrease.

Black tea is also known to help you get over stressful events more quickly. One study compared people who drank four cups of tea daily for six weeks with people who drank a different beverage other than tea. The people who drank tea, reported feeling calmer and experienced less stress. They also had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol after a stressful situation. Coffee on the other hand,contains caffeine which can boost stress hormones and raise your blood pressure.

There are also herbal supplements that may help fight stress. One of the best is St. John's wort, which has shown to help people with mild-to moderate depression. This herb also helps to reduce symptoms of anxiety and PMS. We can help reduce our stress by choosing the right foods to eat. As we know, we need to limit our sugar intake and eat the right kind of carbohydrates which are complex carbohydrates.