Does Food Affect Your Mood?
Probably all of us noticed that our mood and thoughts change depending on the food we eat. For instance, the fact that people feel happy when they consume chocolate is something which is known by everybody; or one can easily recognize that he/she feels depressed and sick when he/she eats eats fast food day after day. Yes, of course we all know that nutrition plays an important role in physical health, but what about in mental health? In this article, we are going to take a glance at the link in between food & mood.
Neurotransmitters
First of all, our brain releases chemicals that are called “neurotransmitters”. Our neurons communicate with each other via those chemicals, these are getting released to the spaces called “synapses” which placed in between neurons. The most famous that you probably heard of are the chemicals known as “happy hormones” which are dopamine, serotonin etc. As a part of the reward pathway, dopamine is produced in cell bodies which are located in ventral tegmental area (VTA) and get released in nucleus accumbens (NAc). Also, the part substantia nigra has an important role in reward system and movement which results in displaying repetitive behaviors. For example, when you eat chocolate, those structures in your brain activate and give you the desire to continue eating it. To add, eating sugary food boosts the production of endorphins which is known as “feel-good hormones”. The word endorphin is constructed from “endogenous morphine”, and produces a feeling of euphoria which is the experience of pleasure and intense feelings of well-being and happiness, and as you can understand by the word “morphine”, it has a huge effect on reducing the pain, which is the reason of you eat ice cream when you break up with your lover.
What About Your Gut?
Although, eating those type of “bad” foods (sugary foods, fast food…) changes your gut microbiota and those changes reduce the integrity of intestinal mucosal barrier (gut barrier). Thus, it increases the activity of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) which is also placed inside your gut. TLR-4 is a receptor that plays a role in inflammatory cytokine production (inflammation), and is well known by the feature of recognizing lipopolysaccharides (LPS) which is found in gram-negative bacteria (pathogenic type of bacteria). Reduced integrity of your intestinal barrier leads your gut to leak LPS and fatty acids which can trigger TLR-4, and this situation sticks your body with metabolic inflammation. Therefore, metabolic inflammation causes “sickness behaviors” such as feeling depressed, tired etc. That’s why we feel sick when we eat junk food regularly.
Then We Shouldn’t Eat Junk Food, Right?
Unfortunately, the human body is not as simple as talking about “shoulds and shouldn’ts”. Every act you display for your body affects your brain and psychology your body is a whole consisting of physical body, mind, and (in case you have faith) soul. The articles that include recipes for being healthier, the various diet types that change day by day may be damaging for you as we can see numerous examples in eating disorder cases. Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, BED (Binge Eating Disorder), or orthorexia are the disorders that typically begin with the desire of being healthier and thinner and have the highest rate of death among psychiatric diseases.
The Human Body is NOT an Experimental Object
Despite the fact that every day new articles are being published all around the world about your health and diet, remember your body is a world itself, it knows what is the best for you, tells you what you should or shouldn’t do. You can easily notice this by taking a quick look at your childhood memories where there is no rules or health stigmas. In my opinion, people should not get manipulated by the media that makes them feel uncomfortable about themselves and should listen their body carefully. Our health is not an issue that needs experiments consisting of trying all the new stuff which claim that you would live a healthier life if you act the way “new stuff” says. We are unique species in our own unique ways, and the topic of health is much more beyond than considering only physical health. Yes, food nourishes your body, but also it gives you the memories of joy, happiness, and other feelings.