Choose Your Food to Determine Your Mood

What you eat can affect your mood and how well your brain works.



Minor tweaks in your diet can help you control your moods; at least temporarily, by influencing the level of certain brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.


Meal Size and Mood Response

Meal size can effect mood response. Large meals have shown to reduce mental alertness and performance is the size of a meal. This is especially true for meals containing large amounts of fat, since fat can slow down food absorption. When food absorption is slowed blood flow to the stomach is increased for a longer period of time, resulting in less blood flow to the brain. The result is a very calming effect on the body, resulting in drowsiness,sluggishness, and less ability to focus and concentrate.

ul>Morning People. Morning people need their protein-rich foods during the afternoon and evening, particularly if they need to be focused later in the day for a meeting or some other work requiring attention to detail. Instead of a lunch of pasta , or an afternoon snack of doughnuts, candy or a red bull morning people would be more alert in the afternoon if their snacks focused on high protein foods, like chicken, a protein drink, or at a minimum, adding high quality protein to the lunch and dinner to increase their levels of dopamine and norepinephrine.


Night Owls. "Night owls" may improve their alertness in the mornings if they start their day with a protein-rich breakfast, like a egg white omelet. Protein provides the brain with tyrosine, an amino acid that is a precursor of the chemicals that promote alertness. A mid-morning snack is another good time to include a protein-rich food, such as cottage cheese or a low fat yogurt.

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