Food and Mood
A client recently shared that since we began working together, not only has she felt better physically, she also feels like an overall happier person.
Not surprisingly, having lost twelve pounds and having better sleep after making some fundamental changes to how she was eating and moving, she was bound to feel better!
But it was more than that, she confided; about six months into our work together, she brought up something she’d been embarrassed to talk about; she’d been dealing with depression on and off for years and had reached the point of feeling like there was just no choice – she’d have to stay on her meds forever, or face the demons inside.
She’d been feeling so much better after learning about and implementing some better eating and fasting techniques that she mustered up the courage to speak with her therapist about tapering off the duo she’d been on for years – Wellbutrin and Zoloft.
(Wellbutrin primarily affects norepinephrine and dopamine, while Zoloft primarily affects serotonin. By combining their effects, the combination may provide a broader spectrum of antidepressant benefits for some patients who haven’t responded well to a single medication. (1). )
Why did it take courage?
Because the last time she’d weaned off her meds, she fell back on drinking, and it happened on more than one occasion.
Fortunately, her therapist came from a holistic background and continued to listen to her patient, supporting her in any way she could.
But this time, it stuck.
Why? What was different? Because for the first time in her life, she had her eyes wide open to what she was eating.
Not that she had a particularly unhealthy diet, or so she thought; she ate veggies every day, tried to stick with low-fat, didn’t eat ‘too much red meat’ and many of the other recommendations many would perceive as a ‘healthy diet’.
And for some, eating in this manner is something they can do without consequence, for the time being.
More and more studies are coming out showing how the highly processed, refined American Diet is leading to the tremendous rise not only in Type II Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease (2) but also in mood related disorders, from ADD to ADHD to depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder (3).
Undoubtedly, the connection between food and mood is tremendous.
But it goes far deeper than simply developing a habit of ‘stress eating’ or turning to alcohol to ‘take the edge off’.
We’re talking about brain chemistry.
Arguably, if there wasn’t something deeply wired into the physiology of some, gettin in and maintaining a better mood, being more or less likely to have a drink for seemingly therapeutic purposes and the inclination to lean to food as solace, the idea of stopping ‘cold turkey’ would be an easy answer.
But that’s simply not the case.
Conditions like depression, anxiety, and even severe psychiatric disorders are closely tied to inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain. Refined carbohydrates and processed foods created neuro inflammation. These excess sugars literally sticks to proteins, DNA and lipids in the brain and become AGE’s responsible for premature aging of the brain. These dysfunctional molecules triggers inflammatory cytokines cascades. Constant brain sugar spikes eventually create chronic uncontrolled oxidative stress and inflammation (4).
We read a lot about neurotransmitters in the brain, and how a chemical imbalance may be part of the reason why one experiences a variety of mood disorders.
Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that transmit signals across nerve cells (neurons) in the brain and body. Key neurotransmitters include glutamate (excitatory), GABA (inhibitory), dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine (5).
In Dr. Georgie Ede’s book, Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind (6), we learn that the “most powerful way to change brain chemistry is with food, because that’s where brain chemicals come from in the first place”.
When we eat a diet containing foods high in processed sugars, trans fats, and certain seed oils oxidative stress occurs (7).
Oxidative stress can also occur due to lifestyle choices, environmental exposure and even high intensity athletic training (8).
Oxidative stress impacts tryptophan metabolism, which then affects serotonin production (which, by the way, is made in the gut).
We all know about serotonin, which plays a critical role in in mood regulation, among several other things; when Prozac made its debut in the late 80s, the term selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor became a household word!
Tryptophan’s main job is to help make melatonin and serotonin (9). Melatonin helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle, and serotonin is thought to help regulate appetite, sleep, mood, and pain.
When everything is in balanced in this way, our moods are regulated and it’s natural to feel in a happy state.
But when this pathway gets disrupted, a phenomenon called the Tryptophan Steal occurs .
When this occurs, Tryptophan is diverted away from its main role toward another pathway, the kynurenine pathway, making instead, a neurotoxin called quinolic acid.
Studies have demonstrated that quinolinic acid may be involved in many psychiatric disorders, neurodegenerative processes in the brain, as well as other disorders (10).
The other piece we need to understand is the GABA Glutamate balance. Glutamate is the main excitatory and GABA the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian cortex (11).
With oxidative stress, the uptake of both are inhibited, which alters their capacity to function in their normal roles, leading to a decrease in GABA accumulation and increase in glutamate levels (12).
When GABA levels drop, feelings of anxiety, irritability, depression and mood swings may occur.
Interestingly, alcohol in the brain serves to initially mimic GABA by slowing down brain activity and leading to a feeling of relaxation. The key word, of course, being ‘initially’. It’s not news to anyone that alcohol is anything but a long term remedy for this imbalance and in fact, it worsens in.
And the cycle is complete.
Draw it out if it you’re more of a visual person – seeing it in flow chart format makes it all crystal clear.
Doing whatever we can do to prevent oxidative stress from affecting our minds, our bodies, in the first place is a fundamental step in healing as well as preventing these processes from happening in the first place.
Some of the lifestyle choices are obvious; don’t smoke. Skip or at least minimize alcohol consumption. Move your body. Meditate or do some type of spiritual practice.
Some, which arguably may be the most important, may not be as obvious.
As Dr Ede suggests., “ a diet needs to: nourish the brain and contain all essential nutrients, exclude ingredients that damage the brain and energize the brain by providing reliable energy in ways that support healthy brain metabolism in a healthy range.”
A Paleo approach, when followed properly, is one perfect example of a nutrient dense, alkaline forming diet, rich in alkaline forming compounds and completely devoid of anything causing inflammation.
Another key component is integrating a fasting protocol in some, way shape or form into your weekly regime.
One of the main reasons to add this into your personal protocol is that fasting triggers autophagy, the body’s cellular recycling system. It allows a cell to disassemble its junk parts and repurpose the salvageable bits and pieces into new, usable cell parts. A cell can discard the parts it doesn’t need (13).
There is not a one-size fits all approach to fasting, duration of fasting can vary from person to person; and women also need to factor in where they are in their cycle when determining what time and for how long to fast (14).
And coming back to the client who initially inspired me to write this piece in the first place… she’s not the only one. It’s estimated that 1 in 4 American Adults are dealing with anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder (15), while 1 in 6 are taking at least one pharmaceutical to address it.
All the statistics included in this article were easy to find, all but one. How many who are taking these meds are feeling better?
All I came up with was, “this is not a stat that is routinely tracked”.
And how many are being given the education about how what they choose to eat and when can vastly improve their symptoms and even contribute significantly to feeling better overall?
It is for this reason that writing a piece like this is critical. If one single person who is struggling reads this and is inspired them to focus on what they are eating – how food truly does create mood – and that same person shares this message one other, it can be the seed that becomes a positive disruption in an overwhelming confusing landscape of sub clinical illness.
Show it to your doctor, ask the questions and if they’re met with blank stares, keep looking until you find that practitioner who will listen and support your recovery.
Most importantly, know that the human body is capable of miraculous things if given the proper tools.
(1) https://www.newfrontierspsychiatry.com/when-the-meds-arent-working/
(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK209844/
(3) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10851576/
(4) https://nutritioncollective.co.uk/transforming-mental-health-with-nutrition-and-metabolic-support-introducing-dr-georgia-ede/
(5) https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22513-neurotransmitters
(6) Ede, Georgia. Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind: A Food-First Plan to Optimize Your Mental Health. Hodder & Stoughton, 2024
(7) https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/oxidative-stress
(8) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8698973
(9) https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002332.htm
(10) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12467378/
(11) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinolinic_acid
(12) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11025412/
(13) https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24058-autophagy
(14) https://drmindypelz.com/
(15) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr213.pdf
