If you’ve ever stood in the middle of a meadow, gone for a hike, or spent the day on the ocean, you may have found a sense of peace, calm, or connectedness overcome you. There is something about being in nature that melts the stress away. It turns out, that research would agree with you! Nature has been shown to have significant positive impacts on stress reduction and overall mental health, encouraging more people to get outside for the sake of their health.

At this point we’ve all heard the saying, “You are what you eat," right? Typically this refers to the impact our food choices have on our physical well-being. Donuts, cookies, potato chips, and fruit punch every day can’t be good for our health, and we all seem to agree with that. But what about our mental health? Can the food we consume have any profound effects on our cognitive abilities and mood?

The short answer is, yes, it can! Research, to date, has continued to show major correlations between what we eat and how we feel.