Anti- Anxiety: Avocado Toast

No one ever woke up and thought "Wow, starting my day out with anxiety makes my day so much better!" But, if you are anything like me, your anxiety seems to peak in the morning and again at night. Well, in addition to months of thought reframing work and a modified morning diet, my morning anxiety has been greatly lessened. Here is one of my favorite morning recipes for keeping my anxiety at bay throughout the day.

Avocado Toast with Egg (plus some feta and tomato/spinach)

This is one of my FAVORITE breakfasts. For one, the healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in the avocado, protein from the egg, and slow release complex carbs from a whole grain toast keep me full until lunch. (Or about 11 am!)

But wait... if we take a deeper look- this meal offers a lot more than just healthy fats, protein, and complex carbs. Tons of vitamins, minerals, and yes- anxiolytic properties!

Avocado:

• Rich in B vitamins which have been shown to reduce anxiety and help manage stress levels. (2)

Egg Yolk

I like to make my avocado toast with an over easy egg leading to amazing gooey goodness to dip your toast in. And here's the good thing about this yummy yolk...

• Foods rich in zinc such as oysters, cashews, liver, beef, and egg yolks have been linked to lowered anxiety.(1)

Complex, whole grain Carbohydrate

• Leads to a slow increase in blood sugar, reducing the spike in energy and crash to follow. For me, a blood sugar spike can sometimes mimic an anxiety attack - So I try to avoid sugary foods or foods that mimic sugar at all cost.

Spinach

• Magnesium! (want to know more about this anti anxiety super vitamin? Click here to read about my story with magnesium!) Leafy greens high in magnesium are a great additive. Plus spinach has a mild flavor leading to a wonderful additional to almost any meal.

Recipe

To make this toast my way, you will need a 100% whole grain bread, one egg, fresh spinach, a slicer tomato, feta cheese, salt and pepper. (add in some hot sauce if you like!)

1. Cook your egg over-easy. I like to spray a small frying pan with olive oil, place my egg in the pan on medium heat, cover with a glass lid and wait until just the top of the yolk whitens over. Remove from heat and put on a plate to stop cooking.

2. Right before your egg is done, pop a piece of that bread in the toaster and toast lightly.

3. Spread some ripe avocado on the bread. *Optional* add a light layer of low fat cream cheese underneath.

4. Slice your tomato and add one slice on top of the avocado.

5. Sprinkle on some feta.

6. Lay your soft egg over the top to hold everything in.

7. Season as you would like.

Voila!

I would love to hear how you tried this recipe! If you modified it and spiced it up to your liking share a picture with me and I would love to share with the rest of the audience!

Sources

(1)https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-strategies-to-ease-anxiety-201604139441#:~:text=Foods%20rich%20in%20zinc%20such,3s%20may%20help%20reduce%20anxiety.

(2)https://www.ucihealth.org/blog/2018/11/food-anxiety#:~:text=Food%20rich%20in%20B%20vitamins,to%20reduce%20stress%20and%20anxiety.