Nutrition - Food and Your Mood

Ø      Fuel for Healing?

Ø      Why Moods Tempt..

Ø      Craving Sweets..

Ø      Diet and Depression

Fuel for Healing

Recognizing the powerful link between what we eat and our health is nothing new.  Nearly 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates, the celebrated Greek physician and father of medicine, used food as an essential part of his formulary to treat what ailed his patients.  During the 20th Century, sophistictated scientific research has proved the validity of Hippocrates' ancient abservations.  What we eat can indeed make or break our personal health prognosis.

Early in the century nutrition discoveries centered on preventing disease such as scurvy adn rickets, rampant conditions casued by vitamin deficiencies.  A few decades ago, researchers began to investigate how consuming too much of some nutrients such as fat and sodium contributes to chronic conditions such as heart disease and cancer.

As this century ends and the next begins, the focus has shifted again.  Now, nutrition scientists are working rapidly to enhance our knowledge about eating to optimize our health today, stave off disease tomorrow, and stay vital for years longer than our ancestors.  Eating well is not an "alternative" route to wellness, but an integral part of everyone's picture of good health.

Why moods can tempt you to indulge -- and what to do about it

WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Exclusive Feature

Reviewed by Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD

It's one of those days. Deadlines looming. Meetings all morning. The boss on a rampage. Your assistant out sick. Your inbox overflowing. And it's only Monday afternoon!  You're overwhelmed and exhausted, and all you can think about is that candy bar stashed in your desk drawer. You reach for it, your mouth watering in anticipation. You're sure it's just the thing to boost your energy and calm your nerves.

But is it really? Not according to Robert Thayer, PhD, professor of psychology at California State University in Long Beach and author of Calm Energy: How People Regulate Mood with Food and Exercise. Thayer's research has shown that the boost in mood people get from sweet snacks like your candy bar is short lived at best.

"In fact, in one study, we found that people were more tense and tired an hour after they had eaten a candy bar than before it," says Thayer.

So why do we crave sweet snacks at times of stress?

For one, they taste great. OK, that's a no-brainer, but a megadose of sugar does more than tickle your taste buds.

• It actually stimulates your brain's pleasure center while temporarily lowering your body's sensitivity to pain. Healthcare professionals who work with newborns often take advantage of this by putting sugar drops on an infant's tongue to ease the distress caused by medical procedures.
• The high-fat content in food also creates pleasurable sensations and lessens pain. In a 1997 study in Britain, volunteers who ate high-fat pancakes an hour and a half before dunking their hands into ice-cold water reported less discomfort than others who had eaten equally caloric, but low-fat, pancakes.
• It provides fuel. "When people are experiencing negative moods, and also when they are experiencing stress, they need energy," says Thayer. "And food is a very elemental form of energy."

Of course, most of us don't settle for any old food when we feel run down. We go for the gold: sugary, energy-dense treats such as ice cream, cookies, and chocolate. These foods are crammed with easily digested carbohydrates, which the body converts into glucose -- the simple sugar that circulates in the blood to fuel our cells.

Unfortunately, the quick fix that sweet snacks provide is all too fleeting. People often end up eating still more carbohydrates in an attempt to revive their energy levels after the rush wears off.

Why do it, then? Thayer says it is because people are more or less hardwired to respond to instant gratification.  "You may know that you will be feeling bad in 10 minutes or 15 minutes or an hour, but it is the immediate effect that controls your behavior," he says.

Diet and Depression

There's still more bad news about sugary foods. Larry Christensen, PhD, chairman of the department of psychology at the University of South Alabama, believes that eating sucrose-containing (sugar-containing) foods may actually cause depression in some people. In his studies, he eliminated sugar from the diets of depressed people and found that about 25% saw a significant improvement in mood.

"For some people, taking sugar out of the diet and adding it back in can turn their depression off and on like a faucet," says Christensen. "It can take a week or two weeks to have an effect, but most people will feel better in a week." It's not clear why sugar has such a profound effect on mood, but it may be linked to exhaustion. "Sugar boosts energy initially, but then it has the paradoxical effect of inducing fatigue," explains Christensen. "And if an individual is constantly fatigued, things are hard to do, and it's easy to become very pessimistic."

See Additional Articles:

• Top 10 Ways to De-Stress and Eat Less
• Do You Listen to Your Body's Cries for Water
• What Comes Out of Your Tap Water
• Contaminated Public Water Supplies in 42 U.S. States
• A Place for Comfort Foods
• Importance of Diet During Recovery from Depression
• Nutrition and Herbal Resources for Stress & Insomnia