The phrase “You are what you eat” probably makes sense to most people.

After all, how hard is it to comprehend that someone who loads up on fast food 3 meals a day is overweight?

And if you suffer from anxiety attacks, the food you consume could be one of the causes that is making things worst.

I’m not saying that it is the root of the problem that will eventually lead to anxiety disorder. But regularly putting the following substances into your body is not going to make your condition any better.

1) Caffeine

I used to wake up in the middle of the night from a racing heartbeat. I’m not kidding when I say that the force of my beating heart was actually what jolt me up from my sleeps.

It’s like how your heart is beating after an exhausting run. Only faster, harder, and you don’t feel tired at all. It’s as if your heart is trying to punch it’s way out of the body.

After which, I will sit up in bed with cold sweat in absolute fear that I’m having a cardiac arrest. The occurrences were getting more frequent. But something told me that these are not heart attacks because I felt no pain.

From the moment that I determined that these are not isolated events, I started to take note of what I did before going sleep whenever my heart woke me up again.

And I realized that coffee was part of the reason.

I love coffee and it is the main source of my caffeine fix. I used to drink up to 5 cups of it a day.

And on days when I really overdosed myself with it, I tend to suffer from these attacks at night.

A simple drinking schedule of 3 cups at most per day, and no coffee at least 3 hours before bedtime has almost totally eliminated these scary experiences.

Since then, on the few occurrences that that I woke up with the relapse of a racing heart, I can attribute it to bad or exciting dreams.

Caffeine is actually a rather harmless substance. But research have shown that it can trigger panics unexpectedly.

For those who have a low tolerance to the “legal drug”, even a cup can bring about a panic attack. A reason why this is so is because it can tense up your muscles putting you in a condition prone to attacks.

So take note of the amount of caffeine you are consuming each day. Here is a list of everyday food that contain caffeine:

• coffee
• tea
• soda
• chocolate
• energy drinks
• ice-cream

2) Alcohol

This is probably the one that you don’t want to hear. But I’ll mention it anyway.

Alcohol does an insane amount of damage to your body.

A moderate amount of alcohol can help people reduce stress by inducing a relaxed state of mind. But if you have an anxiety condition, or even worse, anxiety disorder, it can compound the predicament of an anxious body.

Studies have found that alcohol is an anxiety-causing agent. As the body starts to remove it from the system, nerves get into a more agitated state.

Remember the time when you drank a lot and went to sleep only to wake up in the middle of the night unable to doze off again? That is your agitated nerves at work.

If you can’t totally remove alcohol from your diet, which I can understand, drink earlier in the evening so that you body has time to naturally detox before you go to sleep.

3) Sugar

Many of the most alarming medical conditions are attributed to sugar and artificial sweeteners. And it is no surprise that it could be the underlying cause of your anxiety.

How these substances cause your blood sugar levels to fluctuate wildly can make you feel symptoms of anxiety… making you prone to a full-fledged attack.

Symptoms include:

• nausea
• sweating
• twitching muscles
• etc

The cure to this is simple. Manage your diet.

Have a more balanced diet comprising of complex carbohydrates and protein. You might even lose a little weight too.

4) Tobacco

Tobacco is not a food we eat for lunch or dinner. But nevertheless, it is a big stimulant of anxiety.

Youngsters will think that smoking is cool and is meant o relax an individual. But smokers will know that it usually does the opposite. I know because I was one.

The ritual of lighting can calm the mind. But the physical effects of it does no favor to anxiety.

Now I’m not demanding that you quit immediately. That might cause you to have a panic attack!

As I was a smoker, I know first hand how tough it could be to stop completely.

As people can respond differently to tobacco, I suggest that you keep track of your body’s reaction to smoking. Start taking notes about how you body feels before, during, and after dragging home a stick.

There is no fixed rule on this one. For all you know, maybe you would find that your anxiety level increase as soon as you snub out a bud.

So this is something that you have to test out and see the results.