Snacking for happiness

(Igor Dutina)

According to Caring.com, a caregiver resource site, certain snack choices can change your mood for the better - essentially make you happy.

Caring.com lists five snack foods because of their essential minerals, amino acids and vitamins to enhance your mood, wellbeing and brain functions to make you happy. Tryptophan, a natural way to boost serotonin levels in the brain, is in four of the five snacks.

Banana
The combination of natural sugars and fibers creates long-lasting energy to help prevent a blood sugar imbalance. "Vitamin B6 helps convert the tryptophan into mood-lifting serotonin" and the potassium and iron work to ward off fatigue by producing more energy.

Sunflower Seeds
Packed with folic acid and magnesium, both are integral in monitoring and lifting a mood. Adequate levels produce a sense of calm and relaxation whereas an imbalance can cause fatigue, nervousness, and anxiety, irritability, depression, confusion and sleeplessness. Sunflower seeds are also a rich in tryptophan and fiber to boost serotonin and stabilize hormones.

Walnuts
Walnuts contain healthy amounts of omega-3s and uridine. The combination of both is thought to be a natural antidepressant, according to Harvard Medical Study published in Biological Psychology in February 2005.

Dark Chocolate
Chocolate really can make you happy, it just has to be 70% or higher in cocoa for the added health benefits like antioxidants.  Just about all the ingredients in cholocate can life your spirits even offer a "fleeting feeling of euphoria : fat, sugar, caffeine, phenylethylamine, flavonols, theobromine, and tryptophan".

Eggs
The protein "and healthy carbs also helps stabilize blood sugar and prevent emotional highs and lows". Vitamin B12 impacts energy levels, ability to remember and other feelings associated with depression.

Get really happy with walnuts, sunflower seeds and bananas dipped in dark chocolate.

Source: http://www.caring.com/articles/super-snacks-5-best-for-mood