Happy Meals

It’s true, you can alter your emotions and even make your mind sharper by being smart about the food you eat. Here’s how to keep mood swings at bay and make the good feelings linger.

By Amy E. Lemen

Mashed potatoes, fresh baked bread, macaroni and cheese, three-layer chocolate cake. Some foods just bring us joy.

Sure, part of the happiness is tied to fond memories. The taste of four-cheese lasagna may invoke warm memories of your grandmother’s big, inviting kitchen and the sight of her carefully tending to the sauce. But there’s also a less romantic, more physiological reason for this surge of good feelings: a flood of chemicals in the brain triggered by certain foods.

Carbohydrates, protein and fat each have different effects on brain chemistry and in the right combination can boost mood. As with most things in life, though, balance and moderation are key. Without them your chemistry can quickly go haywire.

The Chemistry of Carbs

Why is happiness a piece of cake? When we eat carbohydrate-rich foods our bodies release the hormone insulin, which leaves behind the amino acid tryptophan, used by the brain to make the neurotransmitter serotonin, which gives us the mental warm-fuzzies.

Serotonin is responsible for producing a range of pleasurable sensations, like feelings of comfort, satiety and tranquility. In large amounts it puts you to sleep (think of that Thanksgiving-induced food coma). Studies have also linked the depression that some low-carb dieters suffer to drops in serotonin levels.

As a neurotransmitter, serotonin controls the “information” traveling along nerve cells in the brain via electrical impulses. Researchers suspect that food’s mood-altering power has a lot to do with its ability to trigger specific neurotransmitters.

“Serotonin has many functions, but in the brain, it’s a natural antidepressant,” says Judith Wurtman, Ph.D., a nutritional biochemist and research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Carbs are really acting as nature’s own tranquilizer.”

So, load up on carbs and live in perpetual bliss? Not exactly. As we’ve been hearing for the past few years, it’s about choosing the right carbs to get the best benefits.

Here’s why: Your body produces insulin to regulate blood sugar. If you eat carbs that increase your blood sugar too fast, your pancreas will pump out extra insulin to quickly drive your blood sugar levels down, usually too low. Plus, all this extra sugar is stored in your body as fat, another downer.

“To maintain mood, it’s important to maintain blood sugar, so that we avoid big spikes and drops,” says Lisa O’Donnell, R.D., nutrition manager at the Miraval spa in Tucson, Ariz.

So while some carbs, usually those packed with sugar, give you an initial boost in mood and energy, the love won’t last. The fire fades quickly and you’re soon left feeling tired, hungry and cranky.

Good and Bad Carbs

The Glycemic Index, a ranking of carbohydrates based on their effect on blood sugar levels, can help you steer clear of foods that may cause mood swings. Generally, carbs that digest quickly and enter the bloodstream rapidly have high-glycemic ratings (candy, sugared cereals, white bread). Those that break down slowly are low glycemic (wholegrain breads, oatmeal, fruit). When it comes to affecting attitude, the slower the better. This drawn-out process of digestion naturally stabilizes blood sugar and, in turn, levels out our moods.

“(Low-glycemic) foods also make us feel fuller longer, so you’re also controlling your appetite,” says Victoria Shanta Retelny, R.D. “From a weight management perspective, that’s beneficial, too.”

Not surprisingly, low-glycemic foods also tend to be healthier than those that spike blood sugar. Foods like apples, oatmeal, beans, whole grain pasta and nuts contain a host of other vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein that can help compound your happy feelings.

“Fiber has sort of an energy metering effect, so you’re not experiencing those highs and lows,” says Retelny. “The iron in soluble fiber also increases energy levels, which also has a mood-enhancing effect.”

On the other hand, sugar-rich foods rate high on the glycemic scale. And, unless kept in check, those sugar highs will have you strung out in no time.

“Sugar and sweets produce a rush of endorphins or morphine-like brain chemicals that initially improve mood and ease discomfort,” says O’Donnell. “But the effects are short-lived and leave us feeling fatigued, sad and wanting more.”

Visit www.glycemicindex.com for more information on the Glycemic Index, as well as a searchable database of glycemic ratings for hundreds of foods.

Protein and Fat

The protein in low-glycemic carbs like beans and nuts helps slow down the rate at which they enter the bloodstream, helping stabilize blood sugar and avoid the doldrums while creating longer-lasting energy. But studies have also shown that protein-rich foods help improve mood in other ways, mainly by making us more alert.

This mental boost stems from neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine, produced when protein is broken down into various amino acids during digestion. And by inhibiting tryptophan, protein helps counteract the sluggishness that some carbs can cause.

Not so with fat, though, especially if you overindulge. Not only are high-fat foods bad for your health, but too much can dull your concentration. According to a 2003 report from the Society for Neuroscience, overeating foods high in saturated fat can actually hinder brain functions like memory, in addition to just making you feel dismal.

“If you have a lot of fat, you’ll feel groggy,” says Wurtman. “It’s like your brain is in a paper bag.”

Staying Hydrated

Having enough water in our systems is vital to our physical and mental well-being. And the light-headedness, fatigue, crankiness and other negative symptoms of dehydration we may feel certainly won’t help our mood any.

In fact, our brains are about 80 percent water, so adequate intake (for most of us at least 84 ounces a day) ensures optimum brain function. Studies have shown that even slight dehydration can raise stress hormones, which can actually damage your brain over time.

“Staying hydrated is directly connected to how we’re feeling,” says O’Donnell. “If we’re not hydrated, we won’t feel our best.”

Personal Choices

In our meals, carbohydrates, protein and fat don’t exist in isolation, but in various combinations and quantities interacting in any number of ways. So, it’s up to each of us to determine what foods or combination of foods make us feel best, using the information above as a general guide

“Controlling our moods through food is about being aware of the effects of certain foods,” says Dawn Pallavi, owner of the Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts in Austin, Texas, who also teaches a class on how foods affect mood and emotions. “It doesn’t mean binging on high-glycemic, high-blood-sugar foods. It just means looking at what gives us a more even and stable condition.”

Consider analyzing your diet by keeping track of what you eat and how it makes you feel. Neal D. Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., says it’s all about making smart choices.

“Pick whole grain, low-glycemic foods like old-fashioned oatmeal, sweet potatoes, pumpernickel or rye bread, beans, peas and lentils over (red) meat, and whole fruit over juice,” he says. “All are good for stabilizing blood sugar, which calms you and affects how good–or bad–you feel.”

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