Mood-Altering Foods

How food influences your mood.

To be your best, increase your intake of these “best” edibles.

For better or worse, food influences your mood. “People have more control than they think,” says John La Puma, M.D., author of ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine (Crown, 2008). Here are his culinary picks for staying in good spirits.

Best
1 Foods enriched with vitamin D: milk, soy milk, yogurt and kefir. “The brain has a very wide distribu- tion of vitamin D receptors,” La Puma explains, and a lack of this vitamin is associated with sadness and other mood disorders.

2 Omega-3-rich foods: wild salmon, trout, herring, crab, sardines, shrimp, canned light tuna (which is lower in mercury than albacore), omega-3-enriched eggs, flaxseed, flax meal and walnuts. The healthy fats in these improve blood flow to the brain and fluidity of brain-cell membranes.

3 Dark chocolate with 70% cocoa and less than 5 gm of sugar per ounce. Let it melt in your mouth, advises La Puma, and eat only about 30 calories of the treat a day. 

Worst
1 Sugar and starch, which cause energy and serotonin levels to spike and then crash, leaving you down in the dumps.

2 Artificial sweeteners, which may aggravate depression and are best avoided.

3 Caffeine, which can leave you feeling down. If you need your a.m. coffee fix, transition gradually to tea, which has only 1⁄10 to 1⁄3 as much caffeine.

Vital Statistic
Watching television an average of six hours daily has been shown to increase the risk of mental disorders, while being physically active during leisure time reduces risk.
Source: Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise