YOUR FOOD AFFECTS

Your Mood

Scientific research and personal experience both demonstrate that what we eat affects how we think and how we act. Still, most people don’t acknowledge the connection between their food and their mood. Stop and think for a moment about how you feel throughout the day. Do you sometimes feel fuzzy and tired after lunch? Do you feel angry and irritable between meals and energized by a great meal.

Food undoubtedly changes your mood. The most extreme examples are coffee and alcohol which change your state of mind within minutes. For this reason, I don’t even classify them as foods but as drugs. The standard American diet, high in processed carbohydrates and poor-quality animal meat while lacking in vegetables and water, leaves many people in a bad mood.

It’s hard to feel inspired and happy when you’re living on chemical, artificial junk food. Julia Ross, author of The Mood Cure and a pioneer in the field of nutritional psychology, refers to this relationship as the law of malnutrition. The current epidemic of bad moods is definitely linked to an epidemic of deteriorating food quality and quantity: junk moods come from junk foods, she writes.  Is this why poor neighborhoods have higher levels of violence?

Soda, chocolates, ice cream, potato chips and fries are all easily accessible and less expensive fuels that people turn to when they want to be lifted out of a bad mood. The irony is that these low quality fuels are a big part of the problem. Salt impacts your moods making you feel tense. Sugar gives you a high and makes you feel energized. When your blood sugar goes up, you get that woo-hoo, good feeling. But as soon as it goes down, you feel like the world is coming to an end. 

We even crave more aphrodisiac food, such as chili peppers and spice, avocado and chocolate, when we are out on a date. What we are really doing with all this food is a form of self-medicating or seeking balance. We already understand the food-mood connection; we just don’t have a language to discuss these habits with each other. 

Eating carbohydrates releases serotonin in the brain, which makes people feel more relaxed. Eating too many carbs or overly processed carbs like sugar and flour releases even more serotonin, and causes drowsiness. You've probably experienced that sleepy feeling after eating too much pasta or heavy carbohydrates. 

Eating protein produces dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain which makes people feel more alert and full of energy, when protein is eaten in the appropriate portions. On the other hand, overeating protein can lead to tension and irritability. 

Each person’s food-mood sensitivity varies. Only you can determine the right amount of proteins, carbs and fats to keep yourself in balance. Once the correlation enters your consciousness, you will be more careful with your food choices. I simply encourage you to notice, explore, experiment and determine what works for you.

Above Excerpt from Integrative Nutrition

One of the best ways to learn what us best for you is to record what you eat and how you feel afterwards. Similar to recording your workouts recording what you are eating and how you feel subsequently will assist you in learning what is right for you. Your memory is not as good as you think and it only takes a few minutes to record. The time utilized to record may save you from sitting in the doctor’s office awaiting your exam.

Is it becoming clearer that food is fuel, pure and simple, nothing more? Yet in many places where food is abundant, it is romanticized and over used or used inappropriately. When it rains steadily and consistently, water seeps into the fuel pack on my truck. The truck will still run but it rumbles and shakes noticeably whenever I press on the gas. Like my  truck your body will demonstrate to you when the fuel you provide has been compromised. You may y not rumble and shake but there will be a response.

So let’s pay attention and record what fuel does what and begin to eliminate the contaminants from our system. Once you do your engine will purr and roar as it is supposed  to do.

So Get Up Get Moving and Get the Right Fuel for You and remember……….

CHIT CHAT WON’T BURN FAT