How Nutrition Affects Your Mood

 

I was recently asked to write about how nutrition affects your mood (by the way, yes, I take requests on topics to write about. So what do you want to read about?). So let’s cover that today.

It’s really quite simple. If you feel upset or depressed or angry, just have some chocolate. And I’m not talking about that bitter, good-for-you dark chocolate, either. I’m talking about delicious, sweet, mouth-watering milk chocolate. It’s the solution to all your problems.

Just kidding (but don’t you wish I wasn’t?). I’m sorry, that was a cruel joke. But I can’t promise that it won’t happen again.

Original source: here.

But anyways, the truth is that there are several things that influence your mood, like:

• The most obvious, which is your environment and social interactions
• Brain chemicals, called “neurotransmitters”
• Blood sugar

Let’s focus on your neurotransmitters for a second. This gets a little technical, but read on. The payoff is worth it. If nothing else, you’ll learn a bunch of fancy words that will impress other people.

According to Julia Ross’s excellent book, The Mood Cure, there are 4 primary neurotransmitters that are responsible for emotions:

1. Serotonin. This is responsible for feeling positive and confident.
2. Catecholamines. These make you alert, energetic and upbeat.
3. GABA (stands for gamma amino butyric acid): responsible for relaxation
4. Endorphins: responsible for comfort, pleasure and euphoria.

Funny enough, you can raise the serotonin levels in your body by simply eating sugars and starches. Is it a healthy way to do it? Probably not, but it sure does explain why you might crave sugar when you’re under stress: serotonin deficiency. How can you healthily bring up your serotonin levels? Simply eat foods like turkey, beef, eggs, cheese, etc. They all contain a substance called “tryptophan” which gets converted to serotonin in the body.

If you are lacking in the catecholamines (these include adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine), you’ll be down, lethargic, and lacking in energy. The catecholamines are made from a substance called “tyrosine.” You may be low in the catecholamines if you are a vegetarian/vegan, eat high levels of soy and don’t exercise. To rebalance it, get tyrosine from your local health food store. This will help you replenish your catecholamines quickly, and then you can maintain it with a generally healthy diet.

If you feel tense all the time, you may be lacking in GABA. You can fix this in 2 ways. You can eat foods that boost GABA. These include things like tea (all types of tea), as well as fermented foods. Although initially, it would be wise to take GABA in supplement form, until you’ve replenished your stores, and then drop it, and use food to maintain it.

If you get no pleasure out of activities that used to be pleasurable, an endorphin deficiency may be your issue (notice that I said “MAY” be. Not “is.” It’s important to get professional attention for any of these issues). Unlike the other catecholamines, which are made from just a single amino acid, the catecholamines are made of 15 different amino acids. The only foods that contain all 15 are meat, fish and seafood. Eating these will raise your catecholamine levels, as will taking a supplement called “DLPA” (which stands for DL phenylalanine).

The food mood connection is certainly an interesting topic, and we’ve only began to scratch the surface in this newsletter. If you’d like some more information on the topic, I strongly recommend Julia Ross’s book The Mood Cure (which is selling on Amazon for only $12.69).

Short Summary

• Mood is influenced by:
  • Your environment and social interactions
  • Your brain chemicals, called “neurotransmitters”
  • Your blood sugar
  • And more
• 4 major neurotransmitters determine your moods:
  • Serotonin. This is responsible for feeling positive and confident.
  • Catecholamines. These make you alert, energetic and upbeat.
  • GABA (stands for gamma amino butyric acid): responsible for relaxation
  • Endorphins: responsible for comfort, pleasure and euphoria.

Additional Resources

The Mood Cure

How Does the Mind Influence the Body?