How to Use Food to Manage Anger

I am an Integrative Practitioner and my medical practice embraces wellness. And many first time patients (and web visitors) wonder just what in the world that means.

The simple answer is that the Iglehart Wellness Institute integrates traditional medical practice with complementary treatments; basically, I look at the whole picture before pulling out a prescription pad to ensure wellness for each and every patient.

We live in a multi-dimensional world, and the problems we experience reflect that: they’re multi-dimensional. Take anger for example. Many of my patients who struggle with anger consider it simply an emotional problem. But in fact, anger comes from many sources within us and throughout our environment. In fact, food and lifestyle can be a regular trigger for anger. And just by changing a few things in your food environment, you can help change or regulate your mood.

Avoid Food Swings

Did you know that anger and blood sugar levels are sometimes related? It’s not a coincidence that you’re at your grumpiest during a diet.

To avoid low blood sugar anger, make sure to eat once every three hours. I recommend a healthy snack after breakfast, lunch and dinner. To make snacking easy, prepare your snacks ahead of time. On Sunday, make and bag the week’s snacks in advance. A piece of fruit, a handful of nuts or a few cubes of cheese is ideal for each of the days’ three snacks.

Avoid snacks composed of sugar or refined flour. It plays tricks with your blood sugar levels: You’ll feel better after you eat it but it will put you in an even worse mood after it’s digested. 

Comfort Food

You know that warm, pleasant feeling you get after Thanksgiving? That’s tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid that your body uses to create serotonin -- the compound responsible for happiness.

A diet high in tryptophan may help your brain combat anger by producing more “happy” compounds. Try incorporating at least one of these foods in your daily diet:

•         Bananas
•         Almonds
•         Cheese
•         Soy Beans, Tofu, Soy Sauce
•         Spinach
•         Egg Whites
•         Halibut, Tuna, Salmon, Cod
•         Shrimp, Crab, Crayfish or Clams
•         Chicken, Turkey
•         Venison
•         Lamb

Omega Fatty 3 Acids

In 2001, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a senior clinical investigator at the National Institutes of Health conducted an experiment. He fed prison inmates two distinct diets: one high in omega fatty 3 acids and vitamins and one low in omega fatty 3 acids and vitamins.

Turns out, the prisoners with the diet high in omega fatty 3 acids were less violent toward their fellow prisoners. And you don’t have to be in prison to see similar results.

Dr. Hibbelin and I recommend a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids for anyone struggling with anger and impulse control. Incorporate the following foods in your diet to make it easier stay calm:

•         Flax Seeds
•         Walnuts
•         Salmon, Sardines, Halibut, Tuna
•         Scallops, Shrimp
•         Soy Beans, Tofu

Work It Out

Whenever I tell my patients that “exercise is the key”, they roll their eyes. And for those patients who have trouble with inevitable truths, I impart this story:

I once had a patient whose bouts of rage had alienated his wife and his children and caused him to grind his teeth so aggressively he needed oral surgery. He had seen a physician before me and wanted to be prescribed an SSRI to increase his serotonin levels. But the medicine he was after would tax his already damaged liver.

So instead of pulling out the prescription pad, I made him commit to 15 minutes of exercise in the morning followed by 15 minutes in the evening -- just on a trial basis. After four months, he found that his mood lifted and he had a new way to bond with his son through afternoons at the gym.

He, like many other researches, learned that exercise can decrease depression, help relieve anxiety and decrease anger. Since my experience with that patient, I’ve been telling anyone who will listen: give exercise a try. It can change lives.

Dr. Sharon Iglehart

The four diet and lifestyle changes I recommend above have been tried and tested with my personal patients. And each patient who has put the faith and the effort in has enjoyed benefits that they never thought possible.

However, while I wholeheartedly support these treatments, I never make them to a patient without seeing them in my office. If you are struggling with your anger, a mood disorders or an eating disorder, please see your primary care physician. They will help you get to the root cause of your struggle and offer you treatment to complement your dietary changes.