Sometimes some things can spoil our mood. When we eat some specific food in these times these foods raise our mood and we become happier. But is this just a coincidence, or can some foods really raise and lower our mood?
When people see someone depressed, they usually tell him / her that everything is just temporary and it will be okay soon and tell him to eat a bar of chocolate. If the person being told eats the chocolate, it makes him / her feel optimistic indeed. That’s why everyone resorts to sweet foods -even if it is not chocolate- when they feel depressed. This belief is really fact-based. This means that, while certain foods and nutrients help your brain make chemicals that can affect your mood, attention, and focus, other foods can reduce your energy. Not only when we take certain nutrients, but also when we don’t take them, our mood can be affected and even this can have serious consequences. Maybe it can be more clear when I exemplify that theory. In the 15th and 16th centuries, a period that is known as the Age of Discovery, during their long voyages, some sailors claimed that they see visions of sublime foods and verdant fields. When they realized that it was just a hallucination some of them wept in longing; others threw themselves overboard. After many years it has been shown up that they suffered from scurvy, a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C.
Well, how nutrient can create this effect? It is not certain what is the way of it but we can claim some scientific explanations like these two;
1) Fluctuations in blood sugar levels are associated with changes in mood and energy and are influenced by what we eat.
2)Brain chemicals (neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and acetylcholine) affect the way we think, feel, and behave. So, they can be affected by what we eat.
When we look at the effects of these things on nutrients we see that consuming protein (from nutrients like beef, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, unsalted cheese, tofu, beans, etc.) leads you to have high levels of dopamine and norepinephrine, which are brain chemical that play a role in people’s motivation, mood, and concentration level. So if you eat these foods sufficiently probably you feel more energetic, optimistic, and more focused on what your job is. Moreover, complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, rolled oats, beans and quinoa, they increase the availability of serotonin hormone in your brain. When you consume these nutrients you feel happier.
Let’s look at the aspect of chocolate. Is it really useful to make us happy? Not really. Because sweetened foods like chocolate have low nutritional value. At first, they make you release serotonin, however gradually they lower your energy level. To put a finer point on it, when you eat them you feel extremely happy at first after that this nutrient makes you feel so depressed.
As you can see nutrients have a significant effect in how we feel. In order to manage it we should consume foods that have high nutritional value. In short, having a healthy diet can help us feel happy by releasing some hormones.
