What is your ideal comfort food: custard, mashed potatoes, steamed pudding, bacon sandwiches? Maybe your perfect night involves curling up on the sofa with a favourite movie and a bar of chocolate? Or do you get in your favourite tipple and bowls of salty snacks to watch the match? But is this all in our minds? Are we really coming up with an excuse to overindulge and comforting ourselves with memories of mum’s home cooking or can we really make ourselves feel better with food? We usually think of diet in terms of physical developement and preventing physical illness and disease but is there really a link with our moods?
Does a little bit of comfort eating really make you feel good? Is it just in our minds? Can we really make ourselves feel better by eating what and when we like? Diets are usually taken up for physical wellbeing but could they really affect your moods?
We haven’t really changed much from the baby stage where a full stomach brings full contentment and a hungry one, a dissatisfied person, but we’ve learnt to be polite. It’s known that schoolchildren study much better when they’ve had a solid breakfast and that omega 3 oils improve concentration skills. Low blood sugar levels cause clumsiness so having a good breakfast in the morning means, statistically, less accidents.
It seems obvious that food will have some affect on your mental wellbeing, as all through history people have eaten and drunk to affect moods, alcohol being most popular for this occassion. The link is clear, as one studies deeper into serious health problems, between good mental health and a good diet.
As we understand the distinction between the body and mind, we also begin to realise that we really are what we eat and so what we eat does affect how we look and feel.
It has been established that the brain operates by sending out signals that will result in a different mood depending on which ones are sent. Eating certain foods will result in a particular set of signals being sent. However, because foods are complex structures it’s hard to determine exactly what effect they will have on you. However fairly accurate generalisations can be made.
Perk Yourself Up With Protein:
An amino acid called tyrosine is known to make us more alert and energetic. High protein foods have high levels of this and so, to increase physical and mental energy, make sure you are eating lots of meat, fish, and eggs. For vegetarians; tofu, pulses, cheese and milk are good high protein foods, though these also contain significant levels of carbohydrate.
Calm Yourself With Carbohydrate:
Foods high in carbohydrates increase serotonin production in the brain. This will produce a calm and full feeling, alike to how you feel after a leisurely lunch, but too much serotonin will make you feel sleepy. This explains why people who eat less carbohydrate for a slimming diet sometimes feel depressed in the second week as their serotonin levels have dropped.
It is said that eating carbohydrate and protein separately will increase their effects on the mood. So if you want to be mentally alert eat a good portion of a high protein food first and a small amount of carbohydrate afterwards to keep up your energy.
Manage Mood With Minerals And Vitamins:
There are concerns that our food is not fresh enough to contain enough trace elements for optimum health though you may have a good diet yourself. Studies show that deficiency in folic acid is higher in those suffering from depression than in the general population. Though no-one yet knows how it works, selenium deficiency also makes people feel bad tempered and irritable, but with selenium, enough is enough. A deficiency can cause irritability which will disappear with correction, but taking extra selenium doesn’t make you feel happier!
Concerns about Cholesterol has meant that some people decrease their intake of eggs that contain high levels of choline, also found in liver. Choline is a B complex vitamin and has an effect on memory and concentration. People who have been given drugs that block intake of choline tend to have a poor memory and difficulty concentrating.
Chrissie Wildwood’s book Mood Enhancing Plants takes a detailed look at the food and herbs that can affect mood and shows you how to use these to enhance positive feelings. She covers medicinal herbs and food plants, like oats and watercress, but does not neglect to mention the more obvious stimulants such as caffeine and alcohol. Alcohol affects how you feel by changing how the brain operates. All the substances that make up our food eventually enter our brains through the bloodstream and effect the brain’s functioning in some way.
Take chocolate for example. Some people feel they crave this food. Anandamide is a chemical componant of chocolate which acts on the brain in a similar way to the active ingredient in cannabis. The effect is not quite the same because anandamide is not present in very high levels but it might explain chocolate’s lasting popularity.
Another aspect of the link between food and mood is food intolerance. This has recently begun to be accepted by medical practitioners as a cause of physical illness but it can also be a cause of mental distress. Panic attacks, anxiety, depression and lack of energy that has no apparent physical cause may be a result of reactions against food. Pre-menstrual syndrome can often be treated with a change in diet. The most common foods untolerated are wheat, dairy products and caffeine. If you are concerned that this might be a problem for you then careful diet management with advice from a qualified medical practitioner will certainly help.
Despite attempts to test the safety of preservative or processive substances in food, we all know that some people react badly to additives and children particularly are at risk. With many of these chemicals, we don’t know the long term effects either. Colouring agents, artificial sweeteners and preservatives are all known to provoke reactions in susceptible people and this is as likely to be a mood change as a rash or a headache; children often become hyperactive in reaction to colouring agents. Avoiding processed food and eating organically is a sensible way to manage your diet.
Caffeine is a substance that will lift your mood. We tend to reach for caffeine when we want to be energetic or to dampen the affects of alcohol. But people vary widely in their tolerance of caffeine. Most people can tolerate two cups of coffee or three of tea a day without problems but other people find caffeine can make them feel anxious and irritable in even small quantities. It should be noted that caffeine is an addictive substance and while you might seek its reviving effects, abstinence would imminently bring on nasty withdrawal symptons.
So what can you do with this new scientific evidence? It may be a new idea to connect food with moods, but the healthy living message will be familiar:
- Make sure you eat enough fats; too little could make you feel depressed.
- Avoid eating too much sugar – mood swings can result from taking in a lot of sugar at once.
- Eat plenty of slow release carbohydrates, like whole grains, to avoid mood swings and energy gaps.
- Eat enough protein to keep yourself mentally alert. You should be aiming for a 1.5 to 1.0, carbohydrate to protein ratio.
- Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables and be sure you get enough vitamins and minerals, particularly the B vitamins, zinc, selenium and folic acid.
- Moderate amounts of alcohol and caffeine may be beneficial.
- Exercise also promotes mental well being as well as being good for your heart.
So go ahead: eat, drink and be merry!
Lizzie Kroon © Goodness Direct
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