The Food Mood Connection!

Did you know that there is a dramatic connection between your diet and your emotions? Foods you eat can influence your mood, by affecting the body’s metabolism, hormones and neurotransmitters (mood chemicals that are produced in the brain), and these in turn influence your emotions and energy. Here are some examples:

Consuming strawberries and magnesium rich foods such as pumpkin seeds, bananas, leafy greens and almonds can keep you calm and relaxed when you feel stressed. Also drinking a glass of wine can help reduce the fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline and results in a more relaxed mood and an improved memory.

On the other hand, eating complex carbohydrates, fruits,  foods rich in folic acid (asparagus, beans, peas, egg yolks, spinach and liver), foods rich in vitamin B6 (green leafy vegetables and seeds), foods rich in vitamin B12 (fish, poultry and meat), and foods rich in Omega 3 (fish, flaxseeds and oils) can make you happier and relieve depression by keeping homocysteine levels low and adrenaline levels high.

In addition to that, eating chocolate can also stimulate the release of serotonin into the body which produces a relaxed and happy feeling. This may explain why some people crave chocolate when they feel depressed!

In contrast, consuming too much sugar, white bread and pasta, alcohol and caffeine can cause low moods and make you feel sad by bringing on an inflammatory response in the nervous system.

Finally, a cup of warm milk or chamomile tea with cinnamon before bedtime can help you feel relaxed and sleep well.

To stay healthy and happy choose foods that keep you in a good mood.

Dietitian Dina Moghraby

Read it before you eat it!

Low fat, light and diet foods may be very attractive for weight loss seekers, although these foods are made for weight management purposes but actually they may not be safe and good for our health.

Low fat foods contain less fat than full fat foods which seems a good reason to choose these foods. The truth is that the amount of fat is not the only difference between low fat and full fat foods.

When reducing the fat content the taste is always affected (that’s why when we eat these foods, we need more to get satisfied), and food manufacturers become obligated to add other substances to compensate for the loss of taste so they usually add very large amounts of sugar, salt or chemical substances like artificial sweeteners. The addition of these substances make the calorie content of low fat and full fat foods nearly the same, the fact that may depress the efficacy of eating low fat foods to lose weight. For example, replacing a regular cookie by a low fat one means saving less than 10 calories only!

In addition to the surprising calorie content of low fat foods, they may be harmful for our health. Where the high sugar content may raise the blood sugar levels, the high salt and sodium content may raise the blood pressure, the chemical and artificial substances may cause severe health problems and cancer, and the fat used in low fat foods may be saturated or Trans fat which increase the risk of heart diseases.

So we just have to know when and how to consume low fat, light and diet foods. The most important points are to consume these foods in moderation and to read carefully the nutritional facts. Be aware of the calorie content, the type of fat used, the amount of sugar and salt, and the presence of harmful chemical substances.

In some cases, low fat is recommended, as the skimmed milk that is a healthy choice for all adults and kids above 2 years old. But in some other cases, low fat and diet may be harmful, as diet coke which is a very bad choice for kids, pregnant women, and people with phenylketonuria disease.

Dietitian Dina Moghraby