How Food Affects Your Moods

Can your diet really help put you in a good mood? And can what you choose to eat or drink encourage bad moods or mild depression?

While certain diets or foods may not ease depression (or put you instantly in a better mood), they may help as part of an overall treatment plan. There's more and more research indicating that, in some ways, diet may influence mood. We don't have the whole story yet, but there are some interesting clues.

Basically the science of food's effect on mood is based on this: Dietary changes can bring about changes in our brain structure (chemically and physiologically), which can lead to altered behavior.


So how should you change your diet if you want to try to improve your mood? You'll find eight suggestions below. Try to incorporate as many as possible, because regardless of their effects on mood, most of these changes offer other health benefits as well.

1. Don't Banish Carbs -- Just Choose 'Smart' Ones

The connection between carbohydrates and mood is all about tryptophan, a nonessential amino acid. As more tryptophan enters the brain, more serotonin is synthesized in the brain, and mood tends to improve. Serotonin, known as a mood regulator, is made naturally in the brain from tryptophan with some help from the B vitamins. Foods thought to increase serotonin levels in the brain include fish and vitamin D.

Here's the catch, though: While tryptophan is found in almost all protein-rich foods, other amino acids are better at passing from the bloodstream into the brain. So you can actually boost your tryptophan levels by eating more carbohydrates; they seem to help eliminate the competition for tryptophan, so more of it can enter the brain. But it's important to make smart carbohydrate choices like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, which also contribute important nutrients and fiber.

So what happens when you follow a very low carbohydrate diet? According to researchers from Arizona State University, a very low carbohydrate (ketogenic) diet was found to enhance fatigue and reduce the desire to exercise in overweight adults after just two weeks.

2. Get More Omega-3 Fatty Acids

In recent years, researchers have noted that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (found in fatty fish, flaxseed, and walnuts) may help protect against depression. This makes sense physiologically, since omega-3s appear to affect neurotransmitter pathways in the brain. Past studies have suggested there may be abnormal metabolism of omega-3s in depression, although some more recent studies have suggested there may not be a strong association between omega-3s and depression. Still, there are other health benefits to eating fish a few times a week, so it's worth a try. Shoot for two to three servings of fish per week.

3. Eat a Balanced Breakfast

Eating breakfast regularly leads to improved mood, according to some researchers -- along with better memory, more energy throughout the day, and feelings of calmness. It stands to reason that skipping breakfast would do the opposite, leading to fatigue and anxiety. And what makes up a good breakfast? Lots of fiber and nutrients, some lean protein, good fats, and whole-grain carbohydrates.

4. Keep Exercising and Lose Weight (Slowly)

After looking at data from 4,641 women ages 40-65, researchers from the Center for Health Studies in Seattle found a strong link between depression and obesity, lower physical activity levels, and a higher calorie intake. Even without obesity as a factor, depression was associated with lower amounts of moderate or vigorous physical activity. In many of these women, I would suspect that depression feeds the obesity and vice versa.

Some researchers advise that, in overweight women, slow weight loss can improve mood. Fad dieting isn't the answer, because cutting too far back on calories and carbohydrates can lead to irritability. And if you're following a low-fat diet, be sure to include plenty of foods rich in omega-3s (like fish, ground flaxseed, higher omega-3 eggs, walnuts, and canola oil.)

5. Move to a Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is a balanced, healthy eating pattern that includes plenty of fruits, nuts, vegetables, cereals, legumes, and fish -- all of which are important sources of nutrients linked to preventing depression.

A recent Spanish study, using data from 4,211 men and 5,459 women, showed that rates of depression tended to increase in men (especially smokers) as folate intake decreased. The same occurred for women (especially among those who smoked or were physically active) but with another B-vitamin: B12. This isn't the first study to discover an association between these two vitamins and depression.


Researchers wonder whether poor nutrient intake may lead to depression, or whether depression leads people to eat a poor diet. Folate is found in Mediterranean diet staples like legumes, nuts, many fruits, and particularly dark green vegetables. B-12 can be found in all lean and low-fat animal products, such as fish and low-fat dairy products.

Source:  By Elaine Magee, MPH, RD

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/how-food-affects-your-moods#1

Why Happiness Leads to Weight Loss

It’s no secret that feeling sad can drive our impulsive choices — usually in the wrong direction. Hence the stereotypical pairing of articles about heartbreak + photos of empty Ben & Jerry’s cartons.

But does happiness lead to weight loss? Do you think that happiness can drive our choices in the right direction? Researchers at the University of Utah think so.

According to their study, people may be less likely to choose impulsively if they have higher brain levels of serotonin, the “happiness chemical.”

They tested this in two experiments, where some participants were given a tryptophan-rich meal (tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin). In both experiments, the tryptophan group was less susceptible to subsequent “gut” reactions and temptations than the non-tryptophan group.

The study showed that tryptophan/serotonin had a moderating effect on both “impulsive choice” (the immediate need to acquire something without thought for the consequences) and “impulsive response” (being unable to resist, even if one is aware of the consequences).

What This Means for Our Waistlines

Heaven knows, impulsive choice and impulsive response are BOTH at play in some of our unhealthy food choices. Raise your hand if you’ve ever thrust your fist into a bag of cookies faster than you could blink an eye — let alone turn that eye toward the nutrition label.

And raise your hand again if you did stop, consider the ingredients, and proceed like Cookie Monster to eat half the bag.

Many IdealShapers over the years have commented that they sometimes feel “out of control” when it comes to food. So consuming foods that alter serotonin levels might help us to better regulate our behavior.

It might be especially beneficial if you have an impulsive personality (I definitely do), which makes a person more susceptible to a food addiction. Impulsive people are more responsive to serotonin’s moderating effects, the study authors say. There is hope!

Happiness Might Even Help Combat Sabotage

Beyond impulsive personality traits, there are countless factors that dampen our ability to make healthy food choices.

Take restaurant environmental cues (e.g., huge plates and portions combined with freeeezing temperatures). Or our tendency to pig out when the TV is on.

And then there’s “smellvertising” (yes, burger joints actually pump artificial scents into the air to tease your nostrils). A serotonin boost could be our antidote against these silent saboteurs.

It’s not just food choices that are affected by willpower: the University of Utah study tested impulsive response in general, and found improved ability to “stick to your guns” with increased serotonin levels. So if you’re happier, you might be more likely to stick to your gym plans despite an invite from friends, or to forgo a late-night Netflix marathon in favor of a good night’s rest.

More Slimming Benefits of a Positive Mood

Before you rush out and gobble turkey at every meal, there is some controversy around this theory. In a comprehensive article about serotonin published in the Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, the author asserts that foods containing serotonin don’t cross the blood-brain barrier.

“Although purified tryptophan increases brain serotonin, foods containing tryptophan do not,” he says. “The idea, common in popular culture, that a high-protein food such as turkey will raise brain tryptophan and serotonin is, unfortunately, false.”


Nonetheless, serotonin could still be a boon for weight loss. Even if tryptophan-rich foods don’t alter our serotonin levels in the brain, other things might — the neuroscientists doing the study listed several, including exercise.

What’s more, regardless of whether any of this affects our impulsiveness, there’s a clear connection between feeling happy and making healthy choices.

When we feel happy, we tend to have higher self-regard and a drive toward self-preservation (as opposed to self-sabotage). We’re also less likely to hunt down high fat or high sugar for a quick mood fix.

Finally, a longer-term feeling of well-being often helps us to see ourselves as people who make good choices — it becomes part of our identity.

Not All Impulses are Bad, Either

When healthy behavior is our M.O., it’s ingrained in our minds to the point that, if we do react impulsively, those impulses are likely to be good ones. So whether you load up on tryptophan-rich foods, boost serotonin with exercise or get to work on your identity, all can help increase your feeling of happiness — which, in turn, should be great for keeping your hand out of the cookie jar. 


Source:  Chelsea Ratcliffe
http://www.idealshape.com/why-happiness-leads-to-weight-loss/

About Chelsea Ratcliff
Chelsea has been a writer on the IdealShape team since 2009. She has also written for U.S. News' health blog, and is currently studying health behavior and communication in grad school. She loves getting to the heart of what helps us stay healthy! Follow her on Twitter.