We can live a better and healthy life by taking care of how diet affecting mood. In this article, we will explore the relationship between what we eat and how we feel. So tighten your seat belt and read carefully.
A healthy balanced diet along with regular exercise can bring about changes in your brain chemistry thereby altering the hormones responsible for controlling our mood. This is apparent not only in the short duration after you have eaten but also over time, as your diet helps to shape your mental health from the inside out.
Foods that naturally boosts the levels of hormone serotonin, such as bananas, can lift your mood. Conversely, foods that interfere with its production, such as junk food and alcohol, can increase levels of anxiety and depression.
If your blood sugar drops you might feel tired, irritable and depressed. It happens when you don’t eat enough, your blood sugar levels get really low, triggering the release of hormones such as adrenaline, which frees glucose from stores in your muscles and liver to provide an emergency energy supply, but also has the unwanted side effect of making you feel anxious and stressed.
On other hand, Sugary foods are absorbed quickly into the bloodstream. This may cause an initial ‘high’ or surge of energy that soon wears off as the body increases its insulin production, leaving you feeling tired and low. Avoid foods which make your blood sugar rise and fall rapidly, such as sugary snacks, sugary drinks, and alcohol.
You need to eat regularly to keep your sugar level steady, and choose to eat fewer high sugar foods and more slow-release energy foods such as wholegrain cereals, nuts, beans, lentils, fruit and vegetables.
There is a growing body of literature showing the effects of a change in water intake on mood and physiological sensations in adults. The results showed that a switch toward an increase in water intake has especially beneficial effects on sleep/wake moods of habitual low-volume drinkers. The switch toward a decrease in water intake has detrimental effects on mood rating of habitual high-volume drinkers, including reduced feelings of calmness, satisfaction and positive emotions.
So drink enough water to keep yourself hydrated and active.
References and Further reading:
- PLoS One. 2014; 9(4): e94754. Effects of Changes in Water Intake on Mood of High and Low Drinkers
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3984246/ - BMC med. 2015 Sep 17;13:197. A longitudinal analysis of diet quality scores and the risk of incident depression in the SUN Project. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26377327
- https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/d/diet-and-mental-health
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