Rachel Kelly - The Happy Kitchen Good Mood Food: Joyful recipes to keep you calm, boost your energy and help you sleep

I used to think of food as being physical fuel, or a way to celebrate special occasions. Now, I am learning about the power of food, and its role in boosting our mental health. In recent years it has become widely accepted that we need to look after our minds in the same way that we look after our bodies. What is exhilarating is that changing what we eat is something we can do for ourselves.

In the field of nutrition, new research and evidence is emerging all the time, and I have done my best to report what experts are discovering. The Happy Kitchen also reflects my personal experience and how I have become calmer and more content by changing my diet. It is intended to be a gentle guide. I dont want any rules to weigh you down. Anxiety and depression are individual experiences; and this means that the way that we respond to treatment differs, too.

Some of what I share in this book reflects basic biology that I wish Id learnt at school: for example, how fluctuating blood sugar affects our adrenal glands, which can trigger bouts of anxiety. Other advice addresses the effect of particular foods on our nerves, brain and digestion, which in turn affect our moods.

There is a degree of truth to Hippocrates claim two millennia ago that all disease begins in the gut. Recently, scientists have advanced our understanding of the gut and its relationship with the rest of our body in fascinating ways. It is responsible for producing a large proportion of our neurotransmitters, the chemicals that communicate information throughout the body and brain. There are eight main neurotransmitters that affect our happiness, including serotonin and dopamine, sleep-inducing melatonin, and oxytocin, which is sometimes referred to as the love hormone. In fact, as much as 90 per cent of serotonin is made in our gut, and around 50 per cent of dopamine. The enteric nervous system, which is the part of the nervous system embedded in our gut, contains as many neurotransmitters as our brain.

Much of the research on the links between anxiety and the health of our gut bacteria or gut microbiota has been done on mice. Indeed there are quite a few animal studies that find strong links between gut microbiota and anxiety-related behaviours. So cultivating a healthy gut may prove an important way to cheer us up. As well as supporting our immune system, a healthy gut digests vital minerals and nutrients. Without this basic function, you could eat all the Good Mood Food in the world, but still be unable to enjoy its full benefits.

Our poor, tired brains need nourishing too. I was amazed when I learnt that our brain uses about one quarter of our daily energy supply, consuming around 300 calories during the day and roughly the same number at night. No other animal has quite such a hungry brain. An ape would have to eat for around 20 hours a day to feed a brain of a relative size.

I have summarised what I have learnt about eating for happiness in my ten Golden Rules at the beginning of this book. These rules underpin the following chapters, in which I explain how to become more energised, more contented, less anxious, clearer thinking, more balanced and a better sleeper by following a happy diet, and I include the recipes which put the theory into practice. For me, this has led to a very happy kitchen. I hope it will make your kitchen happy too.

I have always been something of a worrier, and there have been times in the past when my anxiety has tipped me into depression. Trying to combine my working life in the newsroom of a national newspaper with the demands of a young family triggered my first major depressive episode in my thirties, which I wrote about in my memoir Black Rainbow.

My first breakdown was in 1997, the second in 2003. On both occasions, I was treated mainly with drugs and therapy. This book is not intended as a substitute for either medication or other strategies. Antidepressants, for example, can be a crucial recourse for those suffering from mood disorders, as indeed they were for me many years ago when I was depressed. But ideally our use of them should be short term as they can have adverse side effects, including, ironically, suicidal feelings and weight gain.

Because I was always hungry when taking antidepressants, I ballooned in size, which didnt help my morale. My tongue also became furred and my lips cracked. Although the side effects did lessen over time and drugs now cause fewer adverse reactions than they used to, I remember feeling desperately passive, like a powerless insect trapped in amber, unable to take any initiative to improve my own physical and mental wellbeing. At the time, I determined that I would find other ways to stay calm.

Gradually, I managed to recover from depression, and have continued to get better over the years. I have been able to stop focusing on the heavy stuff and get on with the inevitable ups and downs of daily life. Using small, sanity-saving tools like those featured in my book Walking on Sunshine: 52 Small Steps to Happiness has enabled me to feel much happier, and live more consciously.

Walking on Sunshine reflected the fact that I had already become interested in nutrition, and included a few dietary tips. Some of them were thanks to my GP. At a routine check-up to see how I was dealing with my anxiety, she told me that there was compelling evidence about the links between mood and food, before proceeding to write down a list of happy foods that might keep me calm, including green leafy vegetables, dark chocolate and oily fish.

Walking on Sunshine also has tips on meditation, a common-sense tactic that has helped to defeat my anxiety. Unsurprisingly, I had worked out the importance of regular exercise, something that many doctors agree may be at least as effective as antidepressants in treating some forms of depression. For years, poetry, too, has been a constant and helpful companion, hence the lines of poetry opening each of our chapters. For me the healing power of words complements the healing power of food. I now rely on all these approaches to staying calm and well. And following a happy diet, in particular, has become a powerful new tool in my toolbox.

I wasnt an unhealthy eater. At heart, I was a meat-and-two-veg sort of girl, not unfamiliar with more exotic ingredients like quinoa, though I didnt know how to pronounce it (keen-wa). I wasnt averse to the odd avocado, spinach and almond milk smoothie, but was an unadventurous cook, with a few tried-and-tested recipes under my belt. As my friends know, my favourite dish was fish pie and sometimes, whisper it, it was shop-bought and microwaveable. If anyone came for supper, it was my default: I knew that it wouldnt go wrong. Other than that, I cooked fairly basically for my family, including our dog Sammy, who never complains when I fry a spare bit of meat or fish for him.

I had begun to change my approach to food and was struck by the difference it was making to how I felt. As I moved to a more mindful approach to cooking and eating, friends remarked that I looked well and seemed jollier. I became convinced that it was time to wind back the harm of too much medicine and prescribe a little more food, and I was eager to learn more. What else should I be eating? Were there foods I could eat for particular symptoms? What were scientists researching in the world of nutrition? Does how you cook and even how you eat make a difference to your mood? In my quest, I got chatting to doctors, therapists, cooks, psychologists, academics, dieticians and people I have worked with when doing happiness workshops and talks for charities: I am an ambassador for Sane, Rethink and Young Minds. Colleagues and friends shared their nutritional tips, I tried them out, and I continued to feel better.