Your Food and Your Mood:
The brain depends on an even supply of nutrients throughout the day. This means eating a variety of healthy foods, at regular intervals throughout the day.
Eating a diet of prepared and packaged food usually indicates a higher consumption of preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and refined sugar and carbohydrates. Many processed foods contain so much sugar that it causes a temporary high in mood and energy accompanied by a significant “crash” or decrease in mood and energy afterward. Regular intake of these stimulants creates an ongoing cycle of ups and downs. Diet soda and other products that contain the artificial sweetener aspartame have been linked to headaches, insomnia and depression. This product can block the formation of serotonin, which is needed to boost your mood. Processed food provides very little in the way of nutrients, meaning that you are starving your brain of essential vitamins it needs to function and perform.
Try to consume many fresh vegetables and fruits, to receive the benefit of natural vitamins and sugars. Avoid refined carbohydrates such as white bread, rice and pasta. There are so many healthy alternatives on the market that taste the same, if not better, than their unhealthy counterparts.
If you are overwhelmed at the thought of researching and reading labels, follow the simple colour rule while you are shopping and preparing meals. Cut out white foods (white bread, rice, pasta), and eat green and yellow (broccoli, spinach, squash, and other brightly coloured vegetables), and brown (whole grain bread, potatoes, beans, etc). Eat protein at each meal, whether it is from meat or another source.
Decreasing your sugar, sweetener, and processed food intake will improve your mood, and provide you with other added health benefits.