You Are What You Eat

"The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will Cure and prevent disease with nutrition."

- Thomas Edison

It is proven that food can effect mood for up to two or three hours after eating. Eat the right foods and your mood improves. Eat the wrong foods and you can appear to have a psychiatric disorder.

Numerous studies have found that Omega-3 is important in reducing depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADD/ADHD, as well as, dementia. A common factor in up to 31% of people with major depression is a deficiency of folate. Simply reducing or cutting out substances such as salt and sugar, from the diet can eliminate irritability experienced by some people. Carbohydrate consumption has been shown to increase seretonin levels in the brain.

I have celiac disease (gluten intolerance) and with it comes lactose intolerance. I have not been officially diagnosed with either one, but I am pretty sure on this and since I have now cut out gluten from my diet, they cannot make an official diagnosis. Whenever I eat something that my body cannot tolerate, one of the first things impacted is my mood. I notice the impact within 15 minutes of consuming something I should not have.

It has long been documented that chocolate has a positive impact on mood. Much research has been done to determine why. Chocolate contains more than 500 natural chemical compounds, some of which have been categorized as mood-elevating and pleasure-inducing. More information on the health benefits of chocolate can be found at http://www.allchocolate.com/health/basics/ I try to ensure that I have a little bit of dark chocolate every day. The sacrifices I have to make in order to stay happy.

Lucky for me, because of my afflictions, I am generally careful about what I eat and don't suffer the negative mood altering impacts of food very often. For more information on food and mood and some strategies to try checkout: http://www.foodandmood.org/

Eat right and be happy
Bright Star Dreams