| Foods which Affect our Moods |
We make B12 in our stomachs but older people may not produce enough due to wasting and deteriorating stomach glands. In this case neither diet nor oral supplements will correct the problem and B12 must be injected or administered as a nasal spray.
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| People with a history of depression can also have lower folate levels than those who had never been depressed. Current studies reviewing the efficacy of treatments for depression are now exploring the use of folic acid as an adjunctive therapy. |
Foods high in vitamin B include soya or butter beans, nuts, yeast extract (Marmite), wheatgerm and brown rice.
Apart from the B vitamins, your mineral status is also important. Poor mood is associated with a low selenium intake. Many of us are not getting enough of this nutrient in our diets. Selenium rich foods include brazil nuts, kidney, liver and shellfish, particularly crab.
Iron deficiency anaemia is associated with lethargy, problems of sustaining attention and poor mood. Anaemic women experience more psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression, than women with sufficient intakes.
Mental functions are also affected by the larger macro-nutrients in our diets. Carbohydrate rich foods are reputed to be mood foods – they help you to relax, whereas protein rich foods perk you up when you're drowsy, and sugar and fat offer a quick fix when you're feeling down.
Having said that these effects can certainly be more subtle than the effects of alcohol, drugs, or caffeine!
As long as you haven't eaten in a few hours, a pure carbohydrate snack can give you that ‘mellow’ feeling. When you eat carbohydrates, your pancreas gets the signal to secrete insulin. In addition to helping process carbohydrates, insulin clears the blood of a variety of amino acids by carrying them into the tissues. For some reason, the amino acid tryptophan gets left behind, and with all its competition gone, more tryptophan is able to make its way into the brain. There it’s converted into serotonin, a brain chemical that helps regulate your mood. The more carbohydrate you eat, the more serotonin you create, and the more relaxed you feel. That’s the theory at any rate.
The problem is that you have to eat your pure carbohydrate snack on an empty stomach, without any protein or fat, and then wait half an hour for your body to process it. Fat's off limits because it slows your digestion, dampening or delaying the effect. And protein will cancel the process by introducing too many new amino acids into the bloodstream. Unfortunately even the high carbohydrate foods (potato, rice and bread), contain sufficient protein to ensure that trytophan levels do not rise all that significantly and the effects of eating carbohydrates are subtle to say the least. Then again its pasta not Prozac!
Arguably the food that has the greatest impact on mood is chocolate. Regarded by many as the surest route to food nirvana, chocolate contains a little caffeine and a similar substance called theobromine that may add a pleasant buzz to your endorphin high.
A glass of milk before bed! An amino acid called tryptophan found in meat, milk and eggs is a component of a soothing neurotransmitter called serotonin. It is needed for normal sleep and some experts think it may play a role in controlling certain types of depression.
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