Does Food Affect Mood?

Are you grumpy, moody, perhaps even depressed? It could be due to the foods you are eating.

Yes! Your food choices can affect how you feel in a number of different ways. Probably the area that has the most impact is in neurotransmitter production. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals involved in brain and other nervous system functions. Also called brain hormones, many of these chemicals are made up of amino acids, the building blocks of protein. If you limit the amount and types of protein in your diet, or overdo eating concentrated sweets and other simple carbohydrates, the balance of neurotransmitters in your body may be affected.

Chocolate: A Health Food After All

Ever since the Atkins Diet revival made sugar public enemy No. 1, confectionery manufacturers have had their work cut out to sweeten up their image. It hasn't been easy: sugar doesn't just make you fat, and thus can contribute to the development of adult-onset diabetes, it also rots your teeth. Willy Wonka would be weeping into his top hat. But recently, chocolate has been undergoing something of a rehabilitation, and the current thinking is that it may actually be good for you. So, what's going on? In fact, the idea of chocolate as a health tonic goes back centuries. Long before goji berries, broccoli and tomatoes were hailed as "superfoods", cocoa and chocolate were celebrated as natural remedies. Cocoa and its derivatives have, historically, been prescribed for a range of ailments, including liver disease and kidney disorders, and by the 1600s, chocolate was identified as a mood enhancer.