Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

7 comfort foods to heal a broken heart

Last updated on: December 09, 2015 18:28 IST

The best way to mend a broken heart is by finding solace in the right foods that will lift up your spirits.

Life is filled with the ups and downs of break ups and new relationships.

Break-ups are hard to overcome and leaves you a bit depressed.

The way that most people show their anger is by venting out on food, either by not eating or by eating too much.

Instead of doing that, the best way to mend a damaged heart is by turning to food in a prudent manner.

Several food items are known to have an amazing healing effect on a broken heart, here are a few such foods:

Dark Chocolate

The presence of a chemical known as Andamines, in dark chocolate, does wonders to improve one's mood.

The other wonderful effect that chocolate has on one's system is that it imitates a chemical called phenylethylamine that is created within our bodies when we fall in love and this is a great relaxer.

With so many health benefits, you can confidently indulge in dark chocolate to overcome depression.

Vitamin B

Another amazing food that overcomes the mood swings is the Vitamin B.

Although it is available in the form of supplements sold over the counter, it is also seen to be naturally occurring in foods like bananas, green leafy vegetables, cereals, milk, chicken, orange juice and nuts like peanuts, hazelnuts, cashew nuts and almonds.

Further, it has been proven that the happy hormone, serotonin is found in bananas.

Tea

Most of us lose a lot of sleep over a break up, the cure for that is tea, especially the green tea, which is known to calm one's nerves and also to help one get a peaceful sleep.

The only difference is that this tea takes a little more than 10 minutes to make.

Turkey

Turkey has a relaxing effect due to the presence of the 'happiness hormone' Serotonin present in the form of large quantities of Tryptophan.

This particular chemical is seen in other food items such as peanuts, chicken, egg, milk and soy products, as well.

Ice Cream

Comfort food is the key to get out of that depressed state.

The best kind of comfort food out there is ice cream, although it is best to choose a low fat ice-cream, it is seen that the presence of milk in ice-cream is the main reason for ice-cream being the ideal comfort food.

Chilli

The spicy little chilli is an amazing wonder worker for boosting one's mood, improving one's cardiovascular health, boosting the immune system and acting as a pain killer.

All this is accomplished with the help of endorphins present in chillies.

Strawberries

When added to dessert or had in any other form, strawberries are known to calm one's nerves, as a result of the high level of Antioxidants and Vitamin C in the fruit.

A combination of one or all these foods is highly beneficial to aid in the healing of a broken heart.

Lead image used for representational purposes only. Image: Sucheta Das/Reuters

MakeMeOk