Choose Your Food, Choose Your Mood

Food can change your mood. Avocado’s Vitamin B-6 and folic acid stimulate production of the mood-enhancing neurotransmitter serotonin. Barley’s Vitamin B-1 calms and relieves tension. Chocolate’s magic ingredients boost production of serotonin and endorphins, improving mood and dulling pain. Cold-water fish, such as salmon and mackerel, contain omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins B-6, B-12 and folic acid. These substances help fight depression.

And then there’s chicken soup, which brightens mood, calms nerves and induces restful sleep, although just how this legendary cure-all works remains a mystery. But make no mistake, today scientists are discovering what our grandmothers’ grandmothers knew all along: foods can alter your brain chemistry.

Imagine choosing one type of food to alleviate anxiety, another to bolster brainpower, and yet another to curb your urge to splurge on that donut. A new field of pioneering nutrition research, often referred to as the study of food and mood, is confirming what many of us have always suspected: what and when we eat can affect our mind and mood, the tendency to pile on pounds, and even the quality of our lives. For example, to curb the urge to splurge on that donut, you could choose instead a lower fat, sweet-fat food combination, such as graham crackers, fig newtons, or hot chocolate made with skim milk.

Here then, are some nutritional prescriptions, recommended by leading food researchers, that will help you to be the director of your emotional drama rather than merely an actor in it. And happily, they won’t pack on the pounds.

Eating carbohydrate-rich foods (breads, cereals, pasta, fruits and starchy vegetables such as potatoes, winter squash or corn) elevates serotonin levels, helping you to feel more relaxed and calm. High protein foods (nonfat dairy products such as cottage cheese, yogurt or milk; or beans, peas and nuts) have the opposite effect: They release other substances that let you think and react more quickly, or feel more alert and energetic.

“Women may be more sensitive to changes in serotonin than men,” explains Catherine Christie, Ph.D., R.D., a food-and-mood specialist in Jacksonville, Florida. “When estrogen levels fall and progesterone levels are high, serotonin levels may drop.”

Elizabeth Somer, in The Food and Mood Cookbook, provides three rules for an energizing, non-fattening breakfast.

Rule 1: Combine high-quality carbohydrates with a little protein.
Rule 2: Avoid high-sugar and high-fat breakfasts.
Rule 3: Be time savvy. Time is no excuse to skip breakfast.

Lunch, says Somer, should “supply a balance of quality carbohydrates (whole grains, starchy vegetables, or legumes) and protein-rich foods (lean meat, chicken breasts, fish, legumes or non-fat milk products).”

Choose your food, choose your mood. Now you can select foods that will power your brain, modify your moods, and in the process make you a more effective, more motivated and more contented person.

1/07/08: taken from the Dr Clark Store and Self Health Resource Center email newsletter.