This is a current curiosity of mine. Can what we eat determine how we feel? “Determine” might be too strong of a world but it makes sense that food can influence mood. In my brief recent readings I’ve read some interesting things and some on the verge of sounding a bit “new-age” – holism? what is the opinion on holism? One thing I read was that there’s apossible link between low levels of vitamins, and minerals etc. and certain mental health conditions e.g. low levels of certain B-vitamins and schizophrena, low levels of Omega-3 oils and depression.
Basically, I’ve read a few threads around here and there are a few posters who seem to know a bit about these kind of things. Is this just aload of baloney or is there something worthwhile here?
Certain kinds of foods and eating patterns do affect seratonin and endorphin levels, hence the phrase, eating for comfort. I learned a while back that I had to cut out all junk foods and snacking from my diet. Luckily, I don’t need to eat for comfort.
There is unquestionably a link. Try eating a well rounded schedule of different balanced foods for a week and then eating say…just crisps for a week. You’ll notice the difference!
True but that’s a double edged sword because you’d want to raise seratonin and edorphin levels but to do so in healthier fashion unlike eating fast food, fast food is comfort food yet also poisonous food . But I’m in a somewhat similar position of removing bad eating habits i.e. snacks and sugary foods. One feels the crave for these due to simply not eating right throughout the day, it’s interesting when one notices it oneself but it takes a bit of discipline to keep up with it. Having said that, now I’m eating in a more purposeful way I simply do not crave the junk food. Still had a delicious pizza though the other day…mmm…
True, I guess it’s common sense to say the balanced food diet is going to make you feel better but I’m curious if there’s an extra level of refinement to the balanced food diet.
I think that at least one extra level of refinement comes from learning to really pay attention to your own body and its needs. There is no one size fits all diet. I’m a huge fan of the TCM (traditional chinese medicine) approach, whether or not some of the specifics are always good advice or not. In TCM, proper diet is about balance with respect to one’s own body, rather than the application of some abstract ideal. So low cholesterol, low fat food is not necessarily healthy - it can be quite unhealthy. Modern western medicine may recognize that fact, but it is a mere footnote, and not a central tenet as I think it should be.
Of course, exercise is also very important with respect to health and mood. And last but not least - a healthy attitude helps a great deal. I think basic meditation practice (learning to relax into the present moment, without avoiding it by seeking entertainment) is very helpful. I also think practices that train people to lessen overt ego-clinging help tremendously. To be able to truly relax and open up to others may result from being in a good mood, but it is also, as an adoptable attitude (there are meditation practices which help practitioners to develop this ability), also a cause of good moods.
Having said that, there are universally recognised foods to be good for the human body and ones that are not. For example there are plenty of vitamins/proteins/sugars that are essential for the body whilst other things can be solely toxins.
I guess there would be some room for negotiation on this (eg I eat lots of high carb foods as my metabolism is crazy) but not much.
How does your TCM work for you? How do you find out which foods are best for you? I have gradually learnt a lot about food and stuff that is good for you, it’s a slow enumeration.
Experimentation. When something doesn’t work you try new things. I’ve learned over the course of many years to eat certain foods that are conventionally seen as unhealthy and to avoid other foods that are conventionally seen as healthy. For instance, I eat fried food (homemade and natural) regularly, but I avoid raw fruits and vegetables. TCM puts these kinds of decisions into a graspable philosophy (warming and cooling foods, etc.) which makes it simpler to understand why certain foods work for me and certain foods don’t. It streamlines the process of experimentation, so I don’t have to always start at the very beginning without a roadmap of sorts. There are various introductions to TCM - I have found Paul Pitchford’s to be very useful, though I do think it has a bias towards a certain kind of diet. A nice balance to this book, based on western traditions (not TCM), is Sally Fallon’s which of course has it’s own bias. Her book similarly questions the one size fits all dietary approach that gets pounded into our skulls every day by the media.
Wow man, that seems like pretty bad advice. I mean I don’t see my body as a ‘temple’ or anything like that, I’m prone to eating lots of fried stuff and probably don’t get enough fruuit and veg, but to actively do the reverse of what you are told by nutritionists seems counter-intuitive.
I had very low levels of cholesterol and body fat. I was told by my doctor to change my diet. He recommended some specific changes. I think you’ll find that nutritionists actually agree, in general, that the idea of a one size fits all diet has huge problems. Governmental guidelines, school nutrition programs, etc. are based on the idea of recommending what is best for the majority of the population. So if the majority of the population eats lots of red meat for example, they will recommend, across the board, reduced salt consumption. But people who don’t eat packaged foods (loaded with sodium), and radically reduce or eliminate their salt intake (the amount of salt they cook homemade food with) would then probably not get enough sodium in their diet.
Hmm yeah I sure do agree that ‘one size fits all’ can be a dangerous attitude. You can kind of justify frying foods for extra fat (although you could still se healthier methods to attain fat, eg avacados) but I can think of literally no positive justification for not eating fruit and veg.
@anon: This might sound like a daft question but by “raw fruit” do you mean to say you don’t eat apples, bananas, oranges, etc. as they are found in the grocery but you cook them?
I don’t eat tons of them, but I do eat them some. I mostly eat them cooked. For instance, apple sauce (a very thick version, it’s more like stewed apples with raisons, cinnamon, etc.) and baked bananas (surprisingly delicious). I do eat raw citrus during the winter months.
Also, don’t get me wrong. I had some specific health issues that I’ve learned to balance, in part through eating well. I eat more “cooling” foods now than I used to. So yogurt in the morning with banana slices and nuts added are a staple for me now, where they weren’t for me at one time. For a while I was eating hot soup for breakfast.
. But I’m in a somewhat similar position of removing bad eating habits i.e. snacks and sugary foods. One feels the crave for these due to simply not eating right throughout the day, it’s interesting when one notices it oneself but it takes a bit of discipline to keep up with it. Having said that, now I’m eating in a more purposeful way I simply do not crave the junk food. Still had a delicious pizza though the other day…mmm…