Feeling a bit tired, emotional or sick? Before you take yourself to the doctor, visit your kitchen. Some niggling health symptomsmay be a sign you're lacking vitamins, minerals and other nutritional goodies. Feeling amazing may be a mini-diet makeover away.

Always tired?

Add two to three iron-rich foods a day

'Up to 90 per cent of women aren't reaching the 18mg a day of iron we need,' says Dr Amanda Patterson, from the University of Newcastle. Add iron-rich foods such as red meat, dark green vegies, dried fruit and wholegrains to your diet along with vitamin C-rich foods to help you absorb the iron.

Feeling blue?

Add a bowl of breakfast cereal

Vitamin B folate helps our brain make happy hormones such as serotonin. Eating leafy green vegies such as spinach, dried beans and sunflower seeds are great ways to get your daily 400mcg of folate. Fortified breakfast cereals are also a handy source.

Headaches and hungry?

Add a few more drinks each day

Achy heads and hunger pangs are often early signs of dehydration. It's common in winter as our thirst signals are less sensitive. For optimum hydration consume 2.1 litres a day, by drinking water regularly throughout the day, advises Greg Shaw, from Sports Dietitians Australia. You can check the bathroom for signs: 'If your urine is darker than straw it's a sign fluid levels are low,' Greg says.

Catching every bug around?

Add plenty of garlic

Only 32 per cent of people taking a daily dose of garlic caught colds during winter, compared to 89 per cent who didn't eat garlic, according to a UK trial. 'The allicin in garlic eems to help improve the ability of our immune system to recognise an infection and fight it early,' says Mark Shoring, national head of faculty at the Australian College of Natural Medicine. For best results, chop or crush garlic before you use it as this helps to release the allicin. Try to use garlic raw in salsa or other foods, as cooking reduces its levels of allicin.

Bunged-up and bloated?

Add more high-fibre foods

Low fibre levels leave you constipated and feeling bloated. Luckily, eating the recommended 25g of fibre a day is easy. Choose Weet-Bix over corn flakes and wholegrain bread over white. Nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables are also great fibre sources. 

Plagued by PMS?

Add more dairy products

Women who received 1200mg of calcium a day (that's a serving of salmon, two yogurts and a large glass of milk) cut their PMS symptoms by 48 per cent, a recent US
study found. Everything from depression to menstrual cramps were reduced within three months of this mega-dosing.  

Feeling stressed?

Add more broccoli and red capsicum

People whose diets are high in vitamin C find themselves less wound up in stressful situations and they suffer less harmful effects when the heat is on, because
their blood pressure stays lower, according to German researchers. It's believed vitamin C lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Most people turn to fruit to get their daily 45mg of vitamin C.

But broccoli and capsicum contain more vitamin C than an orange.

To really boost your levels, eat blackcurrants, kiwifruit, broccoli and capsicum as often as possible.