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Food to Balance Your Mood

Some moods trigger food cravings -- and vice versa. The challenge is to keep both in check.

MSN Health: It starts off with a great analagy of the body as a car. Put in gas and oil (a balanced diet), and you're good to go. Put in nicotine; alcohol; caffeine; weird, manufactured fats; gummy, washed-out flour; and sugar, and it's like pouring sugar into the gas tank. You'll sputter, run on, stop and start, or stall.

Recommendations for Managing Moods:

  • Maintain a stable blood sugar, no big swings. This means frequent small meals and snacks, every four hours or so.

  • Drink a lot of water.

  • Exercise 20 minutes a day for mood -- and an hour for fat-burning.
  • Do not follow an extremely low-fat diet. Fat is needed for anti-depression. Stick with polyunsaturated and monounstaurated fats and fatty fish or flaxseeds, which are full of healthy omega-3 fats.

  • Take in tryptophan, an amino acid that makes blood sugar accessible to the neurotransmitters. This means milk or turkey. Eat a carb alongside your tryptophan source for better absorption.

  • Have breakfast.

  • Spend time in the produce department when you shop (try to eat a lot of bright colors, which means fruits and veggies).

  • Pass on food items that come wrapped in crackly cellophane.

  • Limit coffee (even nutritionist Kimball drinks some).

  • Don't eliminate any one food group, such as carbs.
  • Written By J. Foster
    MORE: Psychology,
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    1 Comments

    Vikki

    I found this information really helpful and information. Thanks.

    Reply

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    Last Modified: September 16, 2005

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