I’ve always been the person who cringes at the sight of pickles. Whether it’s touching my food on a plate at a restaurant or it’s the jar in the refrigerator. The smell, texture and the whole thing – it just doesn’t sit right with me. So, imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon research that pickles could help reduce social anxiety. As someone who gets anxious in a room full of people where I may have to talk, it made me feel a little curious. Could this salty, vinegary and fermented food actually be key to easing my nerves?
Social anxiety is defined as “the fear of being judged and evaluated negatively by others.” You’d think we would be able to support each other. After all, we are fairly easy to spot. We’re the ones with wide eyes, looking for any way to hide behind the curtains, hoping to stay out of the spotlight.
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Research from Virginia’s College of William and Mary and the University of Maryland uncovered that eating fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut and pickles supposedly reduces social anxiety. In a survey involving about 700 college students, those who consumed more of those foods like pickles reported lower levels of social anxiety.
“It is likely that the probiotics in the fermented foods are favorably changing the environment in the gut, and changes in the gut in turn influence social anxiety,” says Matthew Hillimire, assistant professor of psychology at Virginia’s College of William and Mary.
Researchers guess that probiotics in fermented foods boost the production of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), a chemical messenger in the brain that has the same effect as anti-anxiety medications.
Previous studies in mice and other animals hinted that probiotics positively influence the human gut and that healthy gut bacteria might have some implications for the mind as well. Therefore, an article on dietcraft.com shows that taking care of your healthy gut is critical and eating fermented foods like pickles provides a significant boost.
If you aren’t a pickle fan, I am with you. But right now, the idea of pickles calming my nerves before a work meeting or class presentation sounds appealing. Who knows? I might have just found a crunchy solution to our social anxiety that we’ll cheer to later.