Moods and Foods – How They Affect Your Body
There are times when I have wondered if there was a direct link between my brain and my stomach, because my moods seem to affect the foods I eat and vice versa. It’s true for most of us, because:
• Most people find
themselves binging on food of the feel-good kind, like ice creams,
chocolates, pastries and other junk food, when they feel really low and
depressed.
• When you’re down and in need of a good cry or a
shoulder to do it on, you find that no matter what you eat, you seem to
have no appetite and even the most delicious food tastes like dry
sawdust.
Why is it that some depressing moods cause us to become gluttons while others make us hate the very sight of food? The answer probably lies in the degree of depression that we’re going through at the particular moment.
For example, if you’ve just gotten bad news, you’re probably not going to be able to eat even a tiny morsel of food, even though it’s your favorite kind. This mood stays with you for some time, a few days or so. And it’s when you start looking for ways to beat the mood and make yourself feel good that you begin to turn to food for comfort. The good taste acts as a substitute for the soothing balm your heart needs, and when you eat what you really like, you may think you feel better.
BUT, and that’s a really big but there – you are in danger of slipping back to the depths of depression if you overdose on junk food because, for one, your stomach feels bloated and you feel really uncomfortable with all the burps and other bodily noises you’re creating, and for another, you tend to put on weight if you keep making a habit of this. So eating to beat your blue is definitely not the sanest of solutions.
If we are to stay healthy in both body and mind, we must look at food as something that provides nutrition to our body and not as goodies to be eaten when the mood strikes. Good eating habits must be made the rule rather than the exception, because only when you condition your body to follow the right diet can you take the road to good health in the long term.
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This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of x ray technician salary at her blog The X-Ray Vision-aries Blog. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.
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