Category: Brain Health

It can either improve your mood or send your mood spiraling into the abyss.

What is it?

Food.

And the human gut, and its microbiome, or environment.

A recent Harvard HEALTHbeat issue said,

“Researchers agree that a person’s unique microbiome is created within the first 1,000 days of life, but there are things you can do to alter your gut environment throughout your life.”

Clearly, the research also shows that what we eat can negatively or positively affect our gut environment and increase or decrease our risk of diseases.

The effects of ultra-processed foods and your tummy health—

When you consume processed foods, you’re ingesting a chemistry lab full of substances extracted from food, like sugar and starch along with food constituents like hydrogenated fats, or food actually designed and made in a laboratory. Flavor enhancers and food colorings not sourced from real food like beets are examples of chemistry lab foods.

And those are the ingredients that make your fast food so extra tasty. They’re designed that way so you’ll keep coming back for more. One former chemist that worked for a large food company realized that the load of additives the company wanted put in the cookies and treats actually contained addictive flavor enhancers that made people eat and crave more of the food! He was promptly fired when he made a stink about it. Then he was blackballed from ever working in another food company.

Unfortunately, these enhancers and additives also make the food cheap, which is appealing to the consumer.

Some “tasty” examples:

• canned foods, like soups with monosodium glutamate and other natural flavorings
• sugar-coated dried fruits (dried fruits are sweet enough without adding any sugar)
• salted and nitrated meat products, like deli meats
• sodas
• sugar or savory packaged snack foods
• packaged breads, many of which contained dough enhancers
• buns
• pastries
• fried fish or those ultra-tasty chicken nuggets (made with little real chicken)
• instant noodle soups (can any poor college student yell “Ramen!”)

While they may be cheaper to cook and prepare with, those flavor enhancers and unwholesome ingredients do come with a price. And that price is your health, and mood.

The food-gut-mood connection—

The first thing you need to know is that 90% of your serotonin receptors are located in the gut. If you need a chemistry refresher, serotonin is a chemical that sends signals to your nerve cells. Low levels of it have been linked to depression, digestion issues, sleep problems, decreased libido, mood, behavior and appetite issues.

That ultra-processed food you’re consuming—especially this time of year with the ubiquitous plates of cookies scattered around the workplace and within easy reach at parties—can throw your gut microbiome way out of whack. It can disrupt the good bacteria that helps you digest your food properly, the immune system in your gut that fights disease and make you more vulnerable to nasty diseases, like:

• asthma
• obesity
• metabolic syndrome
• diabetes
• cognitive and mood problems
• irritable bowel syndrome
• depression

The famous Mediterranean diet and depression—

The Mediterranean diet has been touted for years as the go-to diet to improve health and decrease depression. And now scientists are suggesting that its anti-inflammatory properties can also protect against depression.

My November 28 blog post provided a list of good, anti-inflammatory foods to consume, especially this time of year when stress and fatigue run high and poor food choices usually prevail.

And if you’d like a good science-based list, the World Journal of Psychiatry recently published a study, “Antidepressant foods: An evidence-based nutrient profiling system for depression” (September 20, 2018). In it they give a chart listing how both animal meat, fish and vegetable and fruits rank on their antidepressant scale.

They also listed food categories and their mean antidepressant food scores (AFS). Their results were, in highest to lowest:

Vegetables     48%

Organ meats  25%

Fruits              20%

Seafood          16%

Legumes         8%

Meats              8%

Grains             5%

Nuts/Seeds    5%

Dairy               3%

One comment they made in the “Discussion” section of the study is telling:

“Interestingly, many foods with a high AFS are not commonly eaten as part of the Western dietary pattern. Specifically, the majority of the United States adult population does not meet daily recommendations for vegetables.”

Does that statement surprise anyone? How does your own daily vegetable consumption measure up?

Maybe that’s one of the reasons depression seems to be reaching epidemic proportions, or so it would seem based on the number of anti-depressants prescribed and consumed. With depressive disorders ranking as the leading cause of disability worldwide among people ages 15-44, maybe adding food and diet to the prescription is warranted.

Maybe all of our moods would improve if we could discard the fast and convenience foods for whole, fresh, anti-inflammatory foods.

This holiday season, help keep your mood high and your depression low by choosing wisely.

Your gut and brain will thank you!

Until next week,

keep the veggies fresh and flowing.

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Edgar Castrejon on unsplash