Mood Foods are Good Foods

We hear a lot about diet, exercise, and healthy living. Then we hear about eating disorders, and unhealthy weight. Then we hear about the obesity epidemic in America. There are ways to measure our weight, our waist to hip ratio, our BMI and a whole host of other ways to make us feel good, bad, and indifferent about being healthy. It's enough it make you throw your hands up and wonder what the heck are we supposed to do?

Eat & Be Merry
While it's extremely important to eat right and take care of ourselves we are bombarded with a lot of confusing information. From fad diets to organic food choices it's hard to really know what to do and if we are really making good food choices. In making healthy choices about foods it's important to remember that less (production) is more. Foods that can be grown and picked and eaten are usually the healthiest. OK, foods that come from animals are healthy too. But many foods are mood killers and many others are mood enhancers. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could fill our diets with these mood enhancing selections? We would feel energized and alert and get a lot done in a day. We would be happier too, yes happier!

Studies show that certain mood enhancing foods work on keeping Serotonin floating around in your brain. What's Serotonin? Serotonin is a neurotransmitter. Basically it is one of several chemicals that your brain releases which controls mood. When you have enough, you feel balanced and in a good mood, when you have too little, you become depressed. OK, OK, I know this is not a biology lesson. So let me get to the heart of the matter here. Eating certain foods will boost your Serotonin availability.

Foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids (salmon, tuna, flaxseed), Vitamin B12 (shellfish, low fat dairy), Folate – which is especially important for women – (oranges, broccoli, soybeans, whole grains), and Vitamin D all help to keep your mood stable.

So what does this mean and how does it relate to empowerment?
Being alert and in a stable or elevated mood will enable you to think clearly and be aware. Aware of what? Of yourself, your surroundings, of people around you and their mood too. You will be more focused and better able to make decisions. Functioning in a stable mood will also enable you to weigh your options with clarity and care and feel confident about your choices. You won't be wondering if you missed anything.

Foods high in processed sugars or processed in general will elevate your mood for a little while. But you will crash shortly thereafter. This will make you feel tired, and sluggish and lower than when you started!! So, instead of eating that 300 calorie mood busting candy bar, eat an orange*. The natural sugars and fiber in an orange will fill you up better than a candy bar. Another healthy choice is an apple with some peanut butter. Quarter the apple, and dab a small amount of natural peanut butter on each slice. This snack is loaded with protein and fiber and is packed with vitamins.

By incorporating these foods and others like them into your daily diet you can feel especially empowered with regards to your health. You can be confident that you are doing something good for yourself. That's a mood enhancer too, and that can make anyone happy.


* you can even drizzle a tablespoon of dark chocolate over the orange wedges if you must. But don't overdo it and stick to dark chocolate, there's antioxidants in it and less sugar than milk chocolate.