Your food choices can modulate their emotions and brain power, experts say

Posted on August 26, 2013 by john in Health care

The breads and other foods rich in carbohydrates can make you smile, while fish and meat high in protein may help you get the maximum grade on a test, according to research which suggests that what we eat changes the way we think and feel.

“You can manipulate your mood and mental acuity just by what you eat and when you do, and such effects can happen very quickly,” said Dr. Judith Wurtman, a research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Managing Your Mind and Mood Through Food (Managing your mind and mood with food).

She and her husband, Dr. Richard Wurtman (also of MIT) have studied the relationship between food and mood over the past 30 years.

According to Wurtman, the news that carbohydrates can elevate mood first emerged a dozen years ago, in studies conducted with women suffering from premenstrual syndrome.

“Eating carbohydrates has a profound and dramatic effect to enhance the mood,” said Wurtman. “I mean anger, irritability, depression, difficulty concentrating and mental confusion. Found that such changes in mood could be reversed with carbohydrate foods, in about 30 minutes.”

Carbohydrates can do little to change serious clinical depression, but it does seem to help battle with small daily annoyances said. He noted that the reason may be simple: the body uses carbohydrates to make serotonin, the main regulator of emotion in the brain. “The one eats carbohydrates and produces serotonin, the mood discomfort of which might be suffering may disappear, at least for a while,” he said.

However, there is a problem: eating a fatty food with carbohydrates for slower digestion and inhibits this response being. “So if you really want to feel better, try to carbohydrates, but something like a fat cereal for breakfast instead of a slice of bread smeared with [fatty] peanut butter,” Wurtman advised.

What about protein? Wurtman said the science on it is a little less solid.

“However, my husband discovered years ago that one of the amino acids in the protein, called tyrosine, does increase the synthesis of two key brain chemical, norepinephrine and dopamine, chemicals that we call the ‘brain alert’” he explained. For this reason, Wurtman protein diets recommended for people who face long periods of mental effort, how to prepare for an important exam. “These help to replenish those chemicals in your brain,” he said.

The researcher noted that myths abound about specific foods and their effects on emotions. The main myth is the assumption sugar hiperactivante effect.