How Food Affects Mood: Eat Your Way To Happiness

What we eat and how we feel and function are inextricably linked. The brain needs a lot of fuel and nutrients to keep it ticking over 24 hours a day, and if it’s running on empty, we can experience a whole range of symptoms such as low mood, irritability, poor concentration, anxiety, sweet cravings, brain fog and fatigue. The brain is a very glucose-thirsty and water-thirsty organ, so providing the brain with a good supply of glucose from the food we eat and good hydration is just part of looking after our brains. Overall brain health is crucial for carrying out daily tasks, and a major consideration for healthy ageing if we want to avoid conditions such as age-related memory loss and dementia, and there’s a lot we can do to support our mood too, giving us the motivation to get through each day.

Balanced Diet, Balanced Brain

Our diet has a powerful influence on our mood and brain function. The brain requires a whole host of nutritional building blocks to manufacture brain chemicals, or neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine. Serotonin makes us feel calm and happy, and dopamine is involved in motivation, pleasure and reward. Keeping these neurotransmitters in balance is key for general well-being, and eating a varied, balanced diet can provides the building blocks.

Protein foods (such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, soya products, nuts, seeds and legumes) provide amino acids (essential building blocks of protein), which help to make serotonin, dopamine and other neurotransmitters. Not only do amino acids help with this process, but so do vitamins and minerals (such as vitamin C, B6, magnesium and zinc), which the body can obtain from foods such as fruit, vegetables and other plant foods. This is why a balanced diet is key for mood and brain health, as different foods provide different building blocks and ‘cofactors’ required to make those brain chemicals.

Dietary Fibre: A Major Player

The gut microbiome is an ecosystem of microbes, made up of trillions of different kinds of bacteria. Our gut microbiome has many crucial functions including breaking down food for nutrient absorption, regulating the immune system, making vitamins, and protecting against pathogens (harmful fungi, parasites and ‘bad’ bacteria). What we put in our gut affects our brain. When we eat dietary fibre, our gut microbes break it down through a process of fermentation, producing short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) – these are involved in the synthesis of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.  Sources of dietary fibre include wholegrains, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and pulses. The key is to eat a wide variety of fibre-containing foods.

Whilst all fibre is beneficial to the gut microbiome, ‘prebiotic’ fibre is particularly beneficial as a food source for those gut bacteria. The best sources include onions, leeks, garlic, asparagus, bananas, oats, berries and Jerusalem artichokes. If you feel that a poor diet might be impacting your mood, concentration and memory, then don’t underestimate the power of dietary fibre- and make sure you eat a diverse range of fibre-containing foods.

The Gut And Brain: A Two Way Highway

The gut and brain are constantly in communication, and the vagus nerve is a major ‘highway’ connecting the gut to the brain- it’s part of the wider gut-brain axis system (a bidirectional communication network). Short chain fatty acids produced when gut bacteria consume and ferment dietary fibre act like messengers, interacting with the vagus nerve, enabling communication between the gut and the brain, including regulating the stress response and influencing mood, as they’re involved in the synthesis of neurotransmitters and various signal transmission.

Whilst the gut is doing its part, we still need adequate protein in the diet, due to its role in providing amino acids such as tryptophan, which helps to make serotonin, for example (protein foods listed above).

Don’t Be Fat Phobic If You Want A Healthy Brain

Many people are ‘fat-phobic’, especially if they have a history of dieting, where it’s commonly believed that high fat foods are high in calories and therefore to be avoided. However, the brain is a fatty organ- it’s approximately 60% fat, and brain cell membranes need this fat to function properly. The type of fat the brain requires is known as ‘essential’ fat, which means that the body cannot make these fats, it has to get them from the diet- these include Omega 3 in particular (in oily fish, certain nuts, seeds and their oils). Higher levels of Omega 3 fatty acids appear to be linked to lower levels of depression, help reduce inflammation and improve brain function. Omega 3 makes up cell membranes, promoting brain cell activity, supporting mood, learning and memory, and the anti-inflammatory properties of Omega 3 support long-term cognitive health by protecting neurons from damage.

Ultra-Processed Food: How It Can Negatively Impact Mood

When we eat, our blood sugar levels rise, but the rate and extent to which they peak and dip can determine how we feel- this might manifest as that ‘afternoon slump’ after lunch, feeling hungry soon after meals, irritability, moodiness, restlessness or poor concentration. You can keep your blood sugar levels balanced by always eating protein with every meal and snack, and limiting ‘fast-releasing’ or refined carbohydrates such as white bread, fast food, cakes, biscuits and sweets. The type and timing of your meals and snacks is key. Everyone’s body is different, so try out different meals and snacks containing different combinations of ingredients to work out which foods keep you feeling fuller for longer. If a meal keeps you satisfied for a few hours, it’s a sign that your blood sugar levels have remained stable for a while. Not only can ultra processed foods affect blood sugar levels, they also tend to be low in nutrients such as those key vitamins, minerals and essential fats that are needed to make brain chemicals and keep them stable. Eating ultra-processed foods  regularly and long-term could have a significant impact on mood.

If You’re Reducing Your Food Consumption For Weight Loss, Make It Nutritious

If you’re restricting your food intake as part of any kind of weight loss programme such as a very low calorie diet (VLCD) or using weight loss injections, it’s really important to ensure that what you do eat is nutrient-dense. With less food being consumed, your meals need to provide your body with those building blocks to help manufacture brain chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine.

Balanced Lifestyle, Balanced Mood

In addition to a poor diet chronic stress, poor sleep, hormone imbalances, lack of sunlight, lack of exercise, excessive screen use and loneliness are just a few other key factors that can contribute to persistent low mood or anxiety. Looking at all aspects of your life can help you to identify the key things you need to focus on improving.

Not everyone finds it easy to eat a nutritious diet- perhaps they eat mindlessly, comfort eat, or have poor nutritional knowledge. Food can balance mood, and equally, when our mood is balanced we’re more likely to have the energy and motivation to eat more healthily and have a healthy lifestyle.

Looking for some one-to-one support?

SPECIAL OFFER (ongoing): Buy 4 sessions upfront and get the 4th session HALF PRICE (£30). Contact me for a FREE chat to discuss, or to make an appointment.