FOOD AND MOOD

We have all probably experienced a time when our mood influenced our food choices. Whether you crave comfort foods when sad, or lose your appetite when stressed, we know mood can influence how we eat. But what if what we eat can also influence our mood? Research suggests that this might be the case.

WHAT IS THE CONNECTION?
What we eat can impact many of the systems in our bodies that influence mood, depression, anxiety and other aspects of our mental health. These connections are still being investigated, but according to a recent research review, three areas seem likely to play a role. Eating patterns that lead to frequent changes in blood sugar trigger hormone responses that may alter mood. Brain health has been tied to inflammation and certain foods have been associated with either increased or decreased inflammation. And finally, our gut health, which is closely tied to the way we eat may also influence our mental health.

WHICH FOODS ARE INVOLVED?
Rapid and frequent changes in blood sugar are usually connected with refined carbohydrates often found in sweet snacks, sugary drinks and grains that are not whole . Limiting high sugar, low fiber foods or pairing them with other nutrient rich foods can help avoid spikes in blood sugar. Foods that provide omega-3 fatty acids such as fish, nuts and seeds are thought to help reduce inflammation. For gut health, probiotics (yogurt with active cultures, fermented foods) and prebiotics (high fiber foods like oats, asparagus, apples) can help support.

BOTTOM LINE
Our mental and physical health are complex and can be influenced by many factors. Even if one food is found to show benefits, our overall diet as well as physical activity, sleep and stress levels will also play a role. The good news is that healthy eating has almost no side effects and many potential benefits. Healthy eating patterns, like the Mediterranean Diet, promote physical health and may also help to support our mental health.

Reference: Firth Joseph, GangwischJames E, BorisiniAlessandra, Wootton Robyn E, Mayer EmeranA. Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing? BMJ 2020; 369 :m2382

Written by Jennifer M. Roberts, MS, RDN
AUGUST 2020
weeatlivedowell.com

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Mindful and Intuitive Eating

Being a mindful eater is slowing down and enjoying your food. Being mindful also means paying attention to color, taste, and texture. It also means putting down the phone and moving away from the computer to avoid distracted eating. Distracted eating often results in eating more than intended or not even tasting the food, therefore not enjoying it as you should!

Being an intuitive eater means paying attention to feelings of hunger and fullness. Although this sounds a little simplistic, it is a fact that many people lose the sense of hunger while dieting, restricting, or from medications they are taking. If this is the case, then work on paying attention versus ignoring those sensations. Some people will say they “don’t feel hungry.” Some people may override the feeling of hunger when the stomach is rumbling, if you do this, you may still have a headache and feel grumpy or tired. Because you have gone too long without eating. You want to keep in mind that you should have something to eat (meal or snack). About every 3-4 hours is a helpful rule of thumb.  Your body will enjoy the idea of eating when you are hungry, as it can help you function well in class or during a workout. The feeling of fullness can also be ignored. It’s a good idea to check in with yourself during a meal. Slow down as it takes 20 minutes for your stomach to register with your brain that you are full. If you eat in a rush, then in about 30 minutes, you may feel over full, which can result in feeling a bit sick, tired, and sluggish.

Intuitive eating is not a diet or a new concept. “Intuitive eating is an evidenced-based, mind-body health approach, comprised of 10 principles and created by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in 1995. It is a weight-neutral model with a validated assessment scale and over 90 studies to date (Tribole 2017).” Please see below for the 10 principles of intuitive eating. As mentioned above, this is a non-diet approach that allows you to develop and maintain a healthy relationship with food. It will enable you to get back to basics and become in tune with your body’s internal cues and honoring them instead of ignoring them!

10 Principles of Intuitive Eating.

1. Reject the Diet Mentality Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating. 
2. Honor Your Hunger Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for re-building trust with yourself and food. 
3. Make Peace with Food Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing When you finally “give-in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt. 
4. Challenge the Food Police .Scream a loud “NO” to thoughts in your head that declare you’re “good” for eating minimal calories or “bad” because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The Food Police monitor the unreasonable rules that dieting has created. The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loud speaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating. 
5. Respect Your Fullness Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you’re comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what is your current fullness level? 
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living. In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence–the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes much less food to decide you’ve had “enough”. 
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food Find ways to comfort, nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, & anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won’t fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won’t solve the problem. If anything, eating for an emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You’ll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion, as well as the discomfort of overeating. 
8. Respect Your Body Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally as futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, respect your body, so you can feel better about who you are. It’s hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical about your body shape. 
9. Exercise–Feel the Difference Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm. If when you wake up, your only goal is to lose weight, it’s usually not a motivating factor in that moment of time. 
10. Honor Your Health–Gentle Nutrition Make food choices that honor your health and tastebuds while making you feel well. Remember that you don’t have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It’s what you eat consistently over time that matters, progress not perfection is what counts.

For more information on Intuitive eating check out the website listed below.
 
Copyright 2007-2017. IntuitiveEating.org. All rights reserved.
Information from https://www.intuitiveeating.org/ Accessed January 10, 2020

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Calories on the menu

You may have noticed that restaurant menus have a new look. Along with price and description, you’ll now see calories listed on menus at restaurants, coffee shops, movie theaters and bakeries, among others.

Why put calories on menus?
Most of us eat about a third of our meals away from home. With that in mind, legislation was passed as part of the Affordable Care Act requiring calorie-posting on restaurant menus. The goal of the legislation was to make it easier for us to make informed choices about what and how much we eat while we are out.

Where you will and won’t see calories:
In general, we can expect to see calories on food and drinks that are served regularly at 20 or more locations under the same brand. This includes just about anywhere that serves food ready to eat, such as sports stadiums, coffee shops and restaurants. Chefs’ specials, seasonal dishes or items offered only for a limited time, however, will not be required to have calories listed. Independent restaurants with one or only a few locations and those that move from place to place (trains, planes and food trucks) will not be required to post calories for any of their menu items.

How to use calories on a menu:
Understanding how many calories we take in compared to how many we burn can be valuable in maintaining a healthy weight and an active lifestyle. For example, if your day will be very physically active, you will need more calories to keep your energy levels where you need them. On the other hand, if you are going to be sitting most of the day or are trying to lose weight, you will want to eat fewer calories. Comparing calorie levels for foods and drinks can help you make choices that most closely match your needs.

RESOURCES: 1. https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm515020.html

Written by Jennifer M. Roberts, MS, RD.
June 2017

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Calories On the Menu

You may have noticed that restaurant menus have a new look. Along with price and description, you’ll now see calories listed on menus at restaurants, coffee shops, movie theaters and bakeries, among others.

Why put calories on menus?
Most of us eat about a third of our meals away from home. With that in mind, legislation was passed as part of the Affordable Care Act requiring calorie-posting on restaurant menus. The goal of the legislation was to make it easier for us to make informed choices about what and how much we eat while we are out.

Where you will and won’t see calories:
In general, we can expect to see calories on food and drinks that are served regularly at 20 or more locations under the same brand. This includes just about anywhere that serves food ready to eat, such as sports stadiums, coffee shops and restaurants. Chefs’ specials, seasonal dishes or items offered only for a limited time, however, will not be required to have calories listed. Independent restaurants with one or only a few locations and those that move from place to place (trains, planes and food trucks) will not be required to post calories for any of their menu items.

How to use calories on a menu:
Understanding how many calories we take in compared to how many we burn can be valuable in maintaining a healthy weight and an active lifestyle. For example, if your day will be very physically active, you will need more calories to keep your energy levels where you need them. On the other hand, if you are going to be sitting most of the day or are trying to lose weight, you will want to eat fewer calories. Comparing calorie levels for foods and drinks can help you make choices that most closely match your needs.

RESOURCES: 1. https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm515020.html

Written by Jennifer M. Roberts, MS, RD.
June 2017

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Mindful Eating: Be in the moment!

Mindfulness is about paying attention. Mindfulness promotes balance, choice, wisdom and acceptance.1 Mindful eating has benefits that will enhance health and well-being. Mindful eating also allows you to be more aware of physical hunger and fullness (satiety) cues to help determine when to begin and when to stop eating. 

Although the trend these days is to eat while working, watching TV, playing video games, or even texting. This type of behavior may result in eating carelessly and more often you may not be aware of feelings fullness, which could result in taking in extra calories that may contribute to future weight gain. Health and proper nutrition may be forgotten while this type of convenience is practiced. 

Some tips to help guide you to more mindful eating:

1. Prepare meals or at the very least think about meals ahead of time. Take time to think about and/or prepare the following day’s meals. When you are busy this can take extra time, but it is worth it.  
2. Allow 15-20 minutes or even longer for meal times.  Eat while sitting down and start to concentrate on the flavor, texture, chewing, and finally swallowing of foods. This might sound like a lot to do, but it will help you become more aware and result in enjoying your food- as food should be enjoyed! 
3. Avoid reading, watching T.V., or driving while eating. These activities while eating will distract you from being mindful at a meal or snack.
4. Try taking a deep breath before and after meals, this can help you to focus on the meal in front of you.
5. Choose portions/serving sizes adequate for your individual needs. Wait about 10-20 minutes for food to begin to digest and the feeling of fullness to set in, before going for seconds or reaching for something else.

Mindfulness begins with focusing on one task at a time such as eating a meal. The best way to stay mindful is to focus on the current task (eating a meal).  Mindfulness can have a direct positive effect on your overall health and well-being!

Check out this handout from the Center of Mindfulness to learn other strategies. http://thecenterformindfuleating.org/resources/Documents/FFTHandout2017Winter_Starting.pdf 

Resources:

1. Principles of Mindful Eating. Retrieved March 7, 2017 from: http://thecenterformindfuleating.org/Principles-Mindful-Eating

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