"I am the Allower of my own Wellbeing"

A monthly newsletter written by Sherry Dell, PhD, CN

Volume 2, Issue 1
July, 2008

Food-based Mood Elevators 

Amino Acids: you can take these in supplement form with guidance from a nutritionally savy health practitioner; but

remember, amino acids are the component parts of protein.  Eat some protein (chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, legumes such as pintos, lentils, garbanzos or any other kind you can think of) at every meal and snack and you will be making a good start at covering this base.

Minerals:  again you can take these in supplement form with guidance but here are the foods high in minerals: kelp, peas, molasses, brown rice, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, watercress, pumpkin seeds, green leafy veggies, brussels sprouts, squash, tomatoes, parsley, carrots, cantaloupe.

Good Fat: this is a very good place to take a supplement, especially if you don't eat fish everyday.  On the food front, do eat fish regularly.  Other good fat sources include avocado, eggs, organic dairy, chicken, turkey, flax oil, borage oil, pumpkin seed oil, cod liver oil.

Of course, it isn't news that many foods in the standard American diet effect mood negatively.  Remove these from your diet first and foremost in order to see your mood stabilize:

Caffeine: coffee, tea, chocolate

Artificial Sweeteners:  Especially artifical sweeteners. Yep. All of them.  Sucralose (Splenda), Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), Saccharin (Sweet & Low), Cyclamate (Sucaryl, Sugar Twin).  

Processed Foods that you didn't process yourself: if it doesn't look the way it did when it was growing, odds are pretty good that additives are now in the mix. Watch out especially for hydrogenated oils, trans fatty acids, preservatives, artificial colors.

Sugar: it's everywhere! In addition to the obvious, remember it is in cereals, breads and baked goods of all kinds, ketchup, salad dressings, mayonnaise.

Alcohol: Of course this is generally consumed specifically for its mood altering qualities; but over time, its effects on mood expand beyond the period of intake.

Every food or beverage that we consume breaks down into its chemical constituents inside the body.  In this way, foods are not different from drugs (prescription or otherwise) -- they effect your body according to the dose and frequency that you take them.  And just like drugs, they can have side effects.  One of the most common side effects of the way food intake influences our fluctuating biochemistry is its impact on mood.

The subject of mood is a common topic in daily life.  Perhaps you know someone you think of as "moody," meaning he changes his mood frequently.  Or perhaps you yourself struggle with depression or anxiety or panic attacks.  Mood is a broad topic and could include every topic from irritability, anger, and violence to sadness, depression, and addictive behaviors.  And in fact, researchers have been studying the connection between diet and mood for a long while.  

During World War II, researchers at the University of Minnesota tried to recreate the conditions of GIs incarcerated in POW camps in Japan (1).  They used healthy young male conscientious objectors for their study and deprived them of more than half their normal food intake.  Over the course of 6 months, these men changed from highly sociable young men into loners who avoided group activities.  Their moods included generalized irritability, anger outbursts, tears, uncontrollable rage, deep depression, and talk of suicide that finally resulted in some being hospitalized in a psychiatric ward.  Sadly, after the study ended, the emotional symptoms continued. Researchers were only beginning to discover vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, etc. and so did not yet understand how to treat the subjects of their study.

Of course this kind of study could not be conducted today.  But much more sophisticated studies now find the link between crime, violence and high calorie malnutrition (2), as well as all manner of links between various nutrient malnutrition and mood states such as depression, panic, hyperexcitability, etc. (3).  And much more.  In fact, today, research has given us detailed nutrient protocols that can be very, very helpful in treating almost any mood related imbalance.

But before looking at those details, let's remember how important it is to cover the basics of macro nutrition.  One of biggest impacts on mood is blood sugar fluctuation, which cannot be remedied without the basics of a healthy diet consumed at regular intervals.  If you ever experience shakiness or tremors if you skip a meal, headaches in the afternoon that persist, light headedness, the inability to focus, or raging irritability when you're hungry, this will be an especially important step for you.  Click here to read more about the basics of a healthy diet in my Vibrant Longevity Diet.  Or click here to read more about the concepts of a low carbohydrate diet which will be especially helpful if you're already experiencing the low blood sugar symptoms mentioned above.

Equally important in balancing daily moods is avoiding the harmful foods and pseudo foods (see sidebar).  No matter the volume of supplements and healthy foods you ingest if you continue  consuming the "imbalancers" on a daily basis.

Today there are a number of overview texts that summarize the research on links between food and mood (4).  My favorite is by Joan Matthews Larsen, Seven Weeks to Emotional Healing (5).  Once you've stabilized blood sugar and established a diet balanced in macro nutrients, and eliminated the nasty habits, you may find that optimizing particular nutrients can be very powerful in helping you to shift old mood patterns.

For example, supplements that are particularly helpful for lifting depression include: omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids, B complex vitamins, Magnesium and a balancing of all minerals, amino acids such as tryptophan, tyrosine, or l-phenylalanine (use these only with guidance from an experienced practitioner), inositol, vitamin C.  Supplements helpful for anger and irritability also include the essential fatty acids, magnesium and vitamin c, but might also include amino acids GABA and L-theanine, glycine, taurine, and herbs such as chamomile, passionflower, skullcap, or kava.  Supplements for anxiety and panic might include any of the above-mentioned nutrients with an emphasis on the B vitamins and the addition of pyruvate.  Just remember that nutritional supplements are safest, most economical,  and best functioning when monitored by an experienced practitioner.

If you haven't thought about the connection between food and mood before, you just might begin to think a bit differently about your grumpy old neighbor or the next driver that waves his fist at you in traffic....

(1) Keys, Ancel, et. al, The Biology of Human Starvation, University of Minnesota Press, 1950.

(2) Lonsdale, Derrick, Crime and Violence: A Hypothetical Explanation of its Relationship with High Calorie Nutrition, Journal of the Advancement of Medicine, Fall 1994.

(3) For example:  Hoogendjik, W. et. al, Depression is associated with decreased 25-hydroxyvitamin D and increased parathyroid hormone levels in older adults, Archives of  General Psychiatry. 2008 May.; Mousain-Bose, M. et al, Magnesium Vit B6 intake reduces central nervous system hyperexcitability in children, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2004.; Palatnik, A. et al, Double-blind, controlled crossover trial of inositol versus fluvoxamine for the treatment of panic disorder, Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2001.

(4) For example: Challem, J., The Food-Mood Solution, 2007.; Somer E. and Snyderman N., Food and Mood: The Complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling your Best, 1999.; Thayer, R., Calm Energy: How People Regulate Mood with Food and Exercise, 2003.

(5) Mathews Larson, J., Seven Weeks to Emotional Healing, 1999.