Could Switching Your Rice Give You Better Sleep & Less Stress?
It’s National Sleep Awareness Week, and we want to help Great Brits get a great night’s sleep. There are a variety of causes of sleep problems, including psychological problems – depression, anxiety and stress; neurological disorders, including Alzhiemer’s, dementia, delirium and Parkinson’s; lifestyle habits such as stimulants (smoking, caffeine, alcohol) and irregular sleep patterns; night trips to bathroom, and painful conditions.
Whilst some of these causes are unavoidable, there are several things that one can do to help improve the quality of their sleep –
5 Tips to Aid Sounder Sleep
1. No technology at least an hour before bed. The most simple but important reasons technology affects our sleep is cognitive stimulation, although looking at the backlit devices also plays its part.
2. Practice Meditation and yoga, or deep breathing exercises. these all help to calm the nervous system, and slow the body down. Try Child’s Pose, Cobbler, Head to Knee and Reclining Pigeon.
3. Make a worry list, or a to-do list. Many people have problems getting to sleep because they have whirring thoughts about what they have to do the next day, and your brain is worried that you might forget them if you go to sleep. Writing things down can help ease the anxiety. Keep a pen and paper by your bed if that helps.
4. No nightcaps. Whilst the name might suggest that a little tipple before bed will help you sleep, the fact is that drinking alcohol close to bedtime can cause you to go straight into a deep sleep. This means you miss out on the usual first stage of sleep, called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. In the course of a night you usually have six to seven cycles of REM sleep, which leaves you feeling refreshed. However, if you’ve been drinking you’ll typically have only one to two, meaning you can wake feeling like you’ve barely slept.
5. Eat right, eat well. Incorporate the following food groups into your diet – foods rich in B6, such as tuna, salmon, chickpeas and bananas; calcium-rich yoghurt and kale; tart cherry juice, consumption of which increases the availability of tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin; and Minvita Organic Sprouted GABA Rice, to naturally calm the nervous system.
More About Minvita GABA Rice
GABA rice is considered as a superfood, in which researchers have found that a regular intake of GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) helps improve nerve functioning, prevents the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, reduces sleeplessness, relieves constipation, lowers blood pressure and prevents various types of digestive cancers. Rice germ also contains Gamma Oryzanol – an antioxidant that help prevent cancers and wrinkles from ageing.
GABA is an amino acid and the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. It inhibits the transmissions of nerve impulses and maintains a balance in the brain between excitation and inhibition, acting as a calming agent.
GABA rice is shown to help with :
• anxiety and depression
• stress-related fatigue
• memory and cognitive function
• lowering blood pressure
• suppressing liver damage
The recommended GABA intake for most people is about 50-100 mg/day. For those who suffer from nervous-related health problems or anxiety disorders, the recommended intake is 150-250 mg/day. For the most benefit, consumption of GABA is recommended at 150 mg/day for at least 8 weeks consecutively. The nutritional values for Minvita GABA Rice are more than twice as much as other GABA rices on the market!
Available in three varieties, Jasmine, Black and Jasmine-Green Tea, this GABA rice is also known as Germinated Brown Rice (GBR). It’s made from top quality Thai jasmine and black wholegrain rice, harvested from paddy fields in Sisaket, Thailand. The rice is soaked for 24 hours, when the maximum possible nutrition level is reached, to stimulate germination, then parboiled, locking in the vitamins, nutrients and amino acids, especially gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
Minvita GABA is made from top quality certified organic rice from Northeast Thailand, where we are based, using the application of local knowledge in the production to help extend the shelf-life and nutritional values of the rice to be better than regular milled rice. Minvita use paddy or unmilled rice for the germination process, then steam and dry the germinated paddy rice before milling, as they have found from experience that this better captures the valuable nutrients in the rice grain, in spite of being a much more labour-intensive process.
GABA rice is available from Ocado, Whole Foods, Planet Organic, Revital and www.minvita.co.uk priced £5.99 for 500g.
About Minvita
Minvita strongly believe that nature provides us with fruit, vegetables and herbs that contain all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that our bodies require. They question the need to resort to artificially manufactured products when a natural, organic alternative is available. Minvita take great care to ensure that any products that carry the Minvita logo are harvested in a sustainable manner to ensure no impact on the local environment.
Minvita are a dedicated and passionate team that takes great pride in the work that they do and they believe that by choosing Minvita products, customers will get the very best that nature has to offer.
For more information or press samples contact Rebecca Goodyear PR on:
020 3651 7360
pr@rebeccagoodyear.com