Wellness Wednesday: Nutrition and Mental Health
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) – News 13 brings you a segment focused on health and fitness on News 13 Midday every Wednesday called 'Wellness Wednesday'.
This week, Personal Trainer Traycee Green from Pure Platinum was in the studio with News 13's Chris Marchand on how nutrition improves mental health.
Green said a balanced and nutritious diet significantly impacts your mood and cognitive function.
Here are some forms of nutrients that improve mental health.
Green mentioned fruits and vegetables as forms of nutrients.
'Your fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants,' said Green. 'They support brain health and they reduce inflammation.'
Green has mentioned whole grains to help improve mental health, because they are complexed carbs that help regulate blood sugar. She suggests to eat more whole grains if you have trouble regulating blood sugar. Whole grains also prevent mood swings and fatigue.
Healthy fats are other nutrients to improve mental health, like nuts, seeds, and fish.
'It helps improve the cognitive function of the brain,' said Green.
Green suggests eating regularly, staying hydrated, and including protein in every meal.
For more information, watch the interview above.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scientific American
5 days ago
- Scientific American
Inside the Collapse of the America's Overdose Prevention Program
At an addiction conference in Nashville, Tenn., in late April, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., spoke about his own experience with drug use. 'Addiction is a source of misery. It's also a symptom of misery,' he said. Kennedy's very personal speech, however, ignored recent federal budget cuts and staffing reductions that could undo national drug programs' recent progress in reversing overdoses and treating substance use. Several experts in the crowd, including Caleb Banta-Green, a research professor at the University of Washington, who studies addiction, furiously spoke up during Kennedy's speech. Banta-Green interrupted, shouting 'Believe science!' before being removed from the venue. (The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment for this article.) 'I had to stand up and say something,' says Banta-Green, who has spent his career working with people who use drugs and was a senior science adviser at the Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Obama administration. 'The general public needs to understand what is being dismantled and the very real impact it's going to have on them and their loved ones.' On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The Trump administration has defunded public health programs and made plans to consolidate or eliminate the systems that track their outcomes, making it difficult to monitor the deadly consequences of substance use, Banta-Green says. For instance, staff cuts to the Overdose Data to Action program and the Opioid Overdose Prevention and Surveillance program will hamper former tracking efforts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at local and state health departments' prevention programs. A recently fired policy analyst at the overdose prevention division at the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control— who wishes to remain anonymous, citing fear of retaliation—tells Scientific American that she used to provide policy support to teams at health departments in 49 states and shared public overdose data and information to Congress. She is a veteran who should have had protected employment status, but she lost her job during federal cuts in February. 'No one else is doing surveillance and data collection and prevention like the CDC was,' she says. 'There's so much that's been cut.' (When approached for an interview by Scientific American, a CDC spokesperson said, 'Honestly, the new administration has changed how things normally work' and did not make anyone available for questions.) What Gets Measured Gets Managed Provisional data suggest that deaths from drug use declined by almost 25 percent in 2024, though overdoses remain the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 44. Cuts to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health will make it difficult to measure similar statistics in the future. Because substance use is highly stigmatized, Banta-Green says it's important to have diverse, localized and timely data from multiple agencies to accurately capture the need for services—and the ways they're actually used. 'You can't design public health or policy responses if you don't know the scale of the need,' he says. Overdose trends vary by region—for example, usage of the synthetic opioid fentanyl appeared earlier on the East Coast than the West—so national averages can obscure critical local patterns. These regional differences can offer important insights into which interventions might be working, Banta-Green says. For instance, important medications such as naloxone rapidly reverse opioid overdoses in emergency situations. But getting people onto long-term medications, including methadone and buprenorphine, which reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms, can more effectively prevent mortality in both the short and long term. Declining deaths may also mask tragic underlying dynamics. Successful interventions may not be the only cause of a drop in overdoses; it could also be that the people who are most vulnerable to overdose have recently perished and that there are simply fewer remaining at risk. 'It's like a forest fire burning itself out,' Banta-Green says. This underscores the need for the large-scale data collection threatened by the proposed budget and staff cuts at the CDC and National Institutes of Health, says Regina LaBelle, an addiction policy expert at Georgetown University. 'What [the administration is] doing is shortsighted' and doesn't appear to be based 'on the effectiveness or the outcomes of the programs that [it's] cutting,' she says. For example, despite promising to expand naloxone access, the Trump administration's latest budget proposal cuts funding for a critical program that distributes the lifesaving medication to first aid responders. 'A Chance at Redemption' When LaBelle was acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Biden administration, she led efforts to expand evidence-based programs that provided clean syringes and tested users' drugs for harmful substances. These strategies are often referred to as 'harm reduction,' which LaBelle describes as 'a way you can meet people where they are and give them the services they need to keep them from dying.' José Martínez, a substance use counselor based in Buffalo, N.Y., says harm-reduction practices helped save his life. When Martínez got his first job as a peer advocate for people using drugs, he was still in a chaotic part of his own addiction and had been sleeping on the street and the subway—and regularly getting into fights—for a decade. The day after he was hired to help provide counseling on hepatitis C, he got into a New York City shelter. As his bruises healed, he learned life skills he was never taught at home. 'For a lot of people, drug use is a coping tool,' he says. 'The drug is rarely the problem. Drug use is really a symptom.' Working with others who understood that many people need help minimizing risks gave Martínez a chance to make progress toward recovery in a way that he says abstinence-only treatment programs couldn't. 'I don't agree that somebody should be sober in order for them to do things different,' he says. Over the past six years working for the National Harm Reduction Coalition, Martínez started a national support network for other peer program workers and community members—people who share their experiences and are a trusted source of education and support for others using drugs. 'There's never no time limit,' he says. 'Everybody works on their own pace.' Though Martínez's program doesn't take federal funding, the Trump administration is cutting similar kinds of peer programs. Martínez says doing this peer work gives many users a sense of purpose and stability—and helps them avoid previous behaviors. The proposed 2026 federal budget will slash the CDC's opioid surveillance programs by $30 million. It also creates a new subdivision called the Administration for a Healthy America that will consolidate the agency's prevention work, along with existing programs at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA), which often coordinates grants for treatment programs. The programs formerly conducted through SAMHSA are also facing cuts of more than $1 billion. Advocates fear this will include a shift toward funding abstinence-only priorities, which, Martínez says, 'will definitely mean that we're going to have more overdoses.' (Some research suggests abstinence-based treatment actually puts people at a higher risk of fatal overdose than those who receive no treatment at all.) 'The general public needs to understand what is being dismantled and the very real impact it's going to have on them and their loved ones.' —Caleb Banta-Green, addiction research professor These cuts could disproportionately affect communities already facing higher overdose rates: Martínez, who is Puerto Rican, notes that U.S. Black, Latino and Indigenous communities have experienced drug overdose death increases in recent years. In many states, overdose deaths in Black and brown communities remain high while white overdose death rates are declining. Looming cuts to Medicaid programs, LaBelle warns, are likely to worsen inequalities in health care access, which tends to make communities of color more vulnerable. In Kentucky, where Governor Andy Beshear recently celebrated a 30 percent decline in overdose deaths, Shreeta Waldon, executive director of the Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition, says the reality is more nuanced. While national overdose deaths declined in white populations from 2021 to 2023, for example, they continued to rise among people of color. Black and Latino communities often face barriers when accessing health services, many of which have been shaped by predominantly white institutions. Waldon says it's essential for people from diverse backgrounds to participate in policy decisions and necessary to ensure that opioid abatement funds —legal funds used toward treatment and prevention—are distributed fairly. Without adequate federal funding, Waldon predicts treatment programs in Kentucky will become backlogged—potentially pushing more people into crisis situations that lead to emergency services or incarceration rather than to recovery. These financial and political pressures are not only making it harder to find support for people in crisis; they also reduce opportunities to discuss community needs. Waldon says she knows some social workers who now avoid terms such as 'Black woman' or 'marginalized' in grants and public talks out of fear of losing funding. But people currently needing treatment for substance-use disorder are not necessarily aware of the federal funding news—or 'what's about to hit them when they try to go get treatment and they're hit with barriers,' Waldon says. 'That's way more important to me than trying to tailor the way I talk.' Funding and staffing cuts don't just limit resources for the people most in need. They limit the ability to understand where someone is coming from, which undermines efforts to provide meaningful care, Martínez says. Harm reduction is more than the services and physical tools given to community members, he says. It's about the approach. 'When you look at a whole person, you plant the seed of health and dignity,' he says. 'If everybody deserves a chance at redemption, then we've got to rethink how we're approaching things.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Wellness Wednesday: 'Berry Good' Frozen Yogurt
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) – News 13 brings you a segment focused on health and fitness on News 13 Midday every Wednesday called 'Wellness Wednesday'. This week, Personal Trainer Traycee Green from Pure Platinum was in the studio with News 13's Chris Marchand and Amelia Henderson on how to make a 'berry good' frozen yogurt. Green said this recipe can be eaten as frozen yogurt popsicles, or can be eaten in a bowl. She also said it can be mixed in a bowl or it can be mixed in a blender. Here are the ingredients: 2 cups of yogurt (personal choice) 2 tbs honey or agave 1/2 tbs fresh lemon juice 1 cup of add-ins or toppings of choice Here is the recipe: Mix or blend all ingredients together until it is smooth, creamy, and lump free. Then, transfer the mix to an air-tight freezable container and freeze for a minimum of 4 hours. Watch the video above to see the demonstration. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Update on bringing together four council payroll systems
STAFF at Cumberland Council were all paid through the same payroll system for the first time since the unitary authority was formed last month, councillors have heard. Members of the council's business and resources overview and scrutiny committee met at Allerdale House in Workington on get an update on staff sickness absences on Tuesday (June 3). Before she started her update Jacqui Green, assistant director of human resources and organisational development, told members of the progress made in unifying the authority's payroll system. The work is required because when it was formed as a new unitary authority it inherited four different payroll systems from the former Carlisle City, Allerdale, Copeland and Cumbria County councils. Relating to sickness absences Ms Green said there was a big focus on early intervention and staff wellbeing and the aim was to identify issues early on. According to her report there are still four separate sickness absence policies which managers must apply. The report states: 'The human resources and organisational development (HROD) team have engaged with managers and are currently working with the council's recognised trade unions to develop one policy to manage absences. 'It is expected that a new policy will be finalised in June 2025. This new approach will have a focus on prevention and wellbeing. 'This will support a reduction in the council sickness absence rate. The introduction of the policy will be facilitated by a mandatory programme of dedicated upskilling for managers to support them in their line management duties. Trade union colleagues will also be invited to attend the training.' When councillor David Moore (Gosforth, Conservative) asked if there was a timeline for bringing the policies together Ms Green assured him she was hopeful that it should be completed by the end of the month. It was recommended that the next report, which details further progress, is presented to the committee in six months' time which was agreed.
