“When I diet I am in a bad mood”, is a typical phrase of many people when they change their eating habits. Some, on the other hand, claim that they feel like new, always in a good mood and with a better character than before. This is normal; there is no doubt that dieting has a psychological component that, on the one hand, can make you grumpy if it leads to starvation, but on the other hand, it can improve your mood if it fits well with your lifestyle and helps you feel better physically and with your self-image.
It is not uncommon that the lack of energy and mood that arises during a weight loss plan has its origin in an inadequate diet. When eating healthy but little, the person perceives that he/she is getting hungry and instead of feeling good, he/she becomes irritable and in a bad mood. The key is, then, to eat healthy in terms of quality and quantity.
For the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition (SENC), we must be aware that each person does not shop, cook or eat in the same way if they are having a good day, if they are depressed or angry or if they have another type of feeling. For this reason – and because not every day is a good day – they suggest keeping in mind that eating well influences emotional balance and that alterations in emotional balance should not prevent the individual from continuing to eat well.
What foods can generate a bad mood?
Precooked and prepared foods, such as potato chips or fast food, reduce serotonin levels, the deficit of which translates as malaise and moodiness. Diets high in flour and sugars favor excitement, especially in children.
Low levels of serotonin (a transmitter of the nervous system), coupled with stress and lack of healthy food intake (such as fruits and vegetables) severely affect the brain and emotions, venting in the form of anger.
On the other hand, people who are on a diet tend to have feelings of guilt when they consume some food that is not allowed within a healthy diet, which makes them be in a bad mood, disappointed and sad for not meeting their own expectations.
What attitude towards food produces bad moods?
A balanced diet requires an adequate supply of nutrients according to the individual needs of each person for the maintenance of health and the prevention of diseases.
It is important to consider both the quantity and quality of the food consumed; it should be attractive so that one enjoys what one eats and to see the improvement of eating habits not as a short-term goal but as the fundamental basis of a lifelong diet. Hydration and fiber intake are also essential for maintaining a state of well-being.
Eating in a pleasant environment, without distractions such as television, enhances the enjoyment of the organoleptic characteristics of food and increases the feeling of satiety. On the other hand, eating slowly makes you chew food better, thus helping digestion to avoid bloating, heaviness, gas or poor digestion.
Dietary changes
Some patients are accustomed to using food as a solution to moods, to calm just that emotion. But eating won’t solve the problems. Channeling them through exercise or other therapies can help.
It is important to know that you can eat anything and enjoy food without getting fat or having other negative consequences. The key is not to gorge and to chew well, taste and enjoy food from the first bite.
If someone decides to go on a diet, instead of focusing on what not to eat, they can learn and know what they can eat, and choose healthier options. Doing it right will usually make you feel positive, because you know you are doing the right thing for your health.
No one should ever go hungry. Even if the person is eating healthy but little, he or she may feel grumpy and the feeling will be negative. You can perfectly balance eating well, and rich foods, with maintaining the right body weight.
Studies and research affirm that certain foods produce greater well-being than others, because when ingested, they cause the brain to release endorphins, hormones that favor mood and increase pleasurable sensations.
Therapies
1. Nutritional Support: fundamental in the elaboration of a personalized diet, in which preferences and energetic demands are taken into account.
2. Medical Support: Fundamental especially for the analytical control both for deficiency and excess of nutrients.
3. Nutritional Coaching: is used as a new approach to complement the work of nutritional technical advice performed by specialists in Nutrition and Dietetics. To accompany and increase their motivation and confidence to carry out the changes.
4. Psychological Support: The state of mind conditions the nutritional needs. Sadness can suppress the appetite and anxiety can make the patient compulsive.
5. Physical exercise: physical activity appears in the new nutritional pyramid. Daily exercise was already a recommendation, but now it is specified as one hour a day (or 10,000 steps a day). Physical exercise is a very important factor for health, as it improves and maintains it, and its benefits are at all levels: physical, psychological and social.
Tatiana Mendizábal – Nutritionist