Diet and cooking tips for easing stress and anxiety

(WJBK) - October is National Depression Awareness Month. Katie Kimball, a former teacher and now a kids cooking instructor, joined us on The Nine to teach us more about how our diet and cooking can reduce stress and anxiety. 

Kimball suggests three things that can help combat these symptoms in kids: 

Eat less sugar and more vegetables + healthy fats: Food really does impact mood and our brain's ability to deal with stress! 

Give children tasks that make a difference, that show them they matter in the world. Participation medals are killing our kids! They need to do authentic work, and what better, more REAL need to fill than cooking for others? 

Eat dinner together: research shows that the more kids and teens especially eat dinner as a family, the lower their risk of drugs and alcohol abuse, depression, and academic failure - all of which often lead to anxiety. And there are better and worse ways to hold a family dinner to build kids' resiliency, especially to stress - a huge cofactor in anxiety and depression. 

You can hear more from her in the video player above, and find more information and recipes from Kimball online here.