2. Lift Your Mood With Food

"If I eat the wrong foods my moods get out of balance and I get tired, depressed and irritable."
– Quote taken from Mind Week Survey Mind Meal

Wheat-free Pasta with Pesto and Oil-rich Fish
Avocado Salad & Seeds
Fruit & Oatcake Dessert
(see below for full menu)

At the start of Mind Week , a Mind Meal has been created to help improve mood and contribute to the maintenance of good mental health.

The recipe has been specially created by nutritionist Amanda Geary, and has also been endorsed by the celebrity Nigella Lawson .

"I believe in the premise that what you eat affects how you feel. The Mind Meal is an excellent idea – good, simple food that can help make you feel different about life."

I have found that eating regularly enough to keep my sugar level from dropping, and choosing food that isn’t enormously processed does seem to keep me on a more even keel." Nigella Lawson

"I have no doubt that what we eat and drink has an important part to play in how we feel – mentally and emotionally as well as physically"
Amanda Geary - Nutritionist

The Mind Meal supplies the essential fats, minerals and vitamins that are beneficial for mental health and well being.

• 50% of women who attended a Mind funded Food and Mood Project reported a positive change in their mental health as a result of dietary changes.

• 19% of people (diagnosed with mental health problems) from the just published Mind Week Survey diagnosed with mental health problems found that sweet and sugary foods had a negative effect on their mental health.

• 88% of people (diagnosed with mental health problems) from the just published Mind Week Survey believed that there was a link between their physical and mental health.

***ENDS***

Mind Meal
Wheat-free Pasta with Pesto and Oil-rich Fish
Avocado Salad & Seeds
Fruit & Oatcake Dessert

This recipe supplies the essential fats, minerals and vitamins good for mental health and well-being.

Serves two hungry people or four not-so-hungry people.

Cost: £5 approx
Preparation time: 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Wheat-free Pasta with Pesto and Oil-rich Fish
  250g packet of wheat-free pasta (shells or twists)
  100g jar pesto sauce
  180g tin of salmon in brine, oil or water (or other oil-rich fish e.g. sardines, mackerel, tuna)
  

• Avocado Salad & Seeds
  250g mixed lettuce bag or 80g watercress
  1 ripe avocado
  25g sunflower seeds
  25g pumpkin seeds
  

• Fruit & Oatcake Dessert
  2 apples
  2 bananas
  8 dried apricots
  40g broken walnuts
  8-12 oatcakes

These ingredients are available from most supermarkets or health food shops.

This recipe has been created for Mind Week by Amanda Geary, (member of the British Association of Nutritional Therapists) and founder of The Food & Mood Project.

• Wheat-free Pasta with Pesto and Oil-rich Fish

1. Cook the pasta in boiling water as per packet instructions.

2. When ready, drain pasta and transfer to a warmed serving dish. Add approx. one tablespoon of pesto sauce per person and mix with pasta.

3. Open tin of fish, drain liquid, remove any large bones and flake with a fork. Add to serving dish and mix together with pasta and pesto.

• Avocado Salad & Seeds

1. Open packet of mixed salad and place in serving dish.

2. Remove skin and stone from avocado. Cut avocado into small pieces and add to mixed salad.

3. Sprinkle seeds onto mixed salad. Seeds taste even better if toasted under the grill and delicious if sprinkled with some tamari sauce (or soy sauce but this is not wheat-free) whilst still hot.

4. Serve plain, or with either olive oil or the salad dressing of your choice.

   • Fruit & Oatcakes Dessert

   1. Peel banana, peel apple and remove core, and rinse dried apricots.

   2. Cut fruit into small pieces and place all together in a small saucepan.

   3. Add 3 tablespoons of water and simmer gently for approx. 10 minutes or until fruit is soft, adding more water if needed to prevent sticking.(This tastes great as it is, but you could add a dash of lemon juice and/or half a teaspoon of chopped ginger according to your taste).

   4. Arrange oatcakes in the bottom of individual bowls.

   5. When fruit mixture is soft, pour into bowls to cover oatcakes. If the fruit mixture contains enough liquid the juices will soak into, and soften, the oatcakes.

   6. Serve with a sprinkling of broken walnuts.

      This meal is:

      Low sugar
      Low caffeine
      Low additives
      Wheat-free
      Low Glycaemic Index

      and contains nutrients for mental health:
      (omega 3 oils, B-vitamins, zinc, magnesium and tryptophan)