The One-Day Anti-Anxiety Diet This Doctor Prescribes To His Patients

"You’ve got a pacer in your office," my medical assistant told me. I took a deep breath and entered the room to feel a palpable tension where I found my 29-year-old patient Thom pacing restlessly as he gulped from a giant coffee cup.

I get patients like Thom more often these days. They’re overworked, underslept, sometimes feeling spiritually empty, and oftentimes wanting to discuss tapering off pharmaceutical drugs (like Xanax or Prozac) their conventional doctors prescribed, seaking a more holistic, natural regimen to alleviate depression or anxiety (of course, never go off prescription medicine without a doctor's guidance).

As a medical doctor who specializes in gut health, I regularly see how the gut microbiome affects these and other mental conditions. Among its roles, optimized gut health improves depression by reducing inflammation and boosting hormones like serotonin. About 95 percent of this feel-good neurotransmitter, in fact, gets manufactured by your gut.

Newer studies1 show your microbiome can also influence other emotions like anxiety, which I see far more often among patients like Thom these days.

"Anxiety has become our everyday argot, our thrumming lifeblood," writes Alex Williams in a recent New York Times article titled "Prozac Nation Is Now the United States of Xanax."

For Thom and other patients, I take a comprehensive approach to treating anxiety that focuses on a multifaceted approach, balancing sleep, stress levels, exercise, nutrition, and of course, gut health.

All of those things improve long-term anxiety, but Thom also needed fast relief. Like with most patients, I started with his diet. That’s because food significantly affects your anxiety levels, and foremost among its anxiety-inducing culprits are sugar and caffeine.

Thom’s breakfast usually entailed a muffin and several cups of cream-and-sugar-infused coffee. Working in a hectic high-stress job, he often skipped lunch and grabbed a few slices of pizza or Chinese takeout before he hopped on the subway.

The spike-and-crash feeling of even a few teaspoons of sugar in your coffee (or any other sugar-filled breakfast) can ramp up anxiety, impair your ability to cope with even the minor stressors life throws your way, and leave. you feeling lethargic and groggy.

Instead of immediately checking his smartphone and rushing to get out the door, we started with five minutes of meditation (simply slowing down and observing the breath), followed by a yoga routine for grounding and relaxation to start the day off on the right note.

Yoga means "union." In essence, when you do yoga, you connect with your body and ground the nervous system. I recommended 10 minutes of yoga stretches right after his morning meditation. This sets the tone for the day. If it means waking up a few minutes earlier, that’s OK because you don’t want to start the day in sympathetic nervous system "fight-or-flight" mode. It’s easy enough to find short yoga routines to follow online.

This anxiety-lowering blend is not only filling, but it also helps you start the day on a grounded note. Lavender, along with passion flower and valerian root, are widely used for their calming properties. Lucuma is a fruit very similar to an avocado with a yellow flesh and a maple-like taste that was known as the "Gold of the Incas."

Low on the glycemic scale, it is rich in beta-carotene (a precursor to vitamin A), minerals, protein, and niacin (vitamin B3). Kefir offers a healthy dose of the probiotic lactobacillus, which produce calming neurotransmitters like GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid).

There was endless-refilled coffee and to a lesser degree, energy drinks that fueled Thom’s overscheduled, adrenaline-fueled work days. I don’t oppose caffeine in small doses for most people, but overuse can become a crutch and impede things like solid sleep. In Thom’s case, too much caffeine exacerbated his anxiety.

One study2 looked at caffeine’s effect on brain regions implicated in social threat processing and anxiety among 14 healthy males who either used caffeine infrequently or not at all. They either got a 250-milligram amount of caffeine (about what you’d get in a tall brewed coffee) or a placebo. Among their findings, researchers found caffeine increased self-rated anxiety and the feeling of being threatened.

Another study looked at caffeine intake in secondary school children. Researchers found significant connections between total weekly caffeine intake and mental disturbances like anxiety and depression.

Living in Manhattan, I especially see the connection between increased anxiety levels and overworked, sleep-deprived folks (including high schoolers) who suck down sugar-loaded, caffeine-laden liquid desserts.

With the breakfast smoothie powering his morning, I made sure Thom wouldn’t suffer from caffeine withdrawal with a better alternative—green tea. With its smaller dose of caffeine than coffee, and anxiety-lowering l-theanine in the tea leaves, green tea offers more steady energy without the peak/trough produced by sympathetic "fight-or-flight"-accelerating coffee. I had him go for a cup of Tazo Zen Tea, which includes green tea with calming lemon verbena, spearmint, and lemongrass.

Skipping meals crashes blood sugar, leaving you feeling lethargic and anxious.

Rather than working through lunch without a break, I asked Thom to prepare a well-balanced salad that included optimal protein, healthy fats, antioxidants, and fiber. Among the superfood ingredients you may include in an anxiety-busting salad are raw Jerusalem artichoke, raw dandelion greens, and scallions, which are all excellent sources of gut-boosting, anxiety-lowering prebiotic fiber.

Thom didn’t like to cook, and made that emphatically clear. However, I’ve been able to convince even the most stubborn anti-chefs to venture into the kitchen. To make his long workday easier, I gave him a few healthier dinner options. Instead of a grab-and-go pizza, I had him visit the local hot bar, which featured several paleo options including coconut curry chicken and cauliflower rice. Cooked onions and asparagus provided more gut-boosting, calming prebiotics. To lower anxiety, slow starches like butternut squash and sweet potato are better alternatives to white rice, bread, and pasta.

Basically, dinner should focus on high-quality fat and protein like grass-fed beef, free-range poultry, or wild-caught fish along with plenty of leafy and cruciferous veggies. I’m seeing more "paleo rice" options, including broccoli and cauliflower. They add variety to your meals.

Instead of his several glasses—or more likely, bottle—of wine, I had Thom turn off overstimulating electronics (it wasn’t easy!), take a magnesium-rich Epsom salt bath, practice another 5 to 10 minutes of deep breathing in the evening, and sip chamomile or peppermint tea to unwind before bed.