People do tend to stress eat when they feel extremely low and anxious about something. Particular food gives us that comfortable space and eases our minds, which means that food can affect how we think or how our mood is in a specific period.
We usually have one food that is our happy place and provides us pleasure, mostly fast foods which provide heaven to our taste buds. Although these are certain human tendencies, which has been the case for a very long time, science has a term to state or categorize it.
Our brain needs its fuel to process and work efficiently, and it is ultimately connected to our gut. So it becomes our sole responsibility to keep this relationship as healthy as possible. Our brain has to work 24/7, for which it needs its strength from sources like the nutrition we are providing it.
Complete nutrition and how the brain resolves to make us feel happy or too moody is termed Nutritional Psychiatry. It means that what we eat defines the mood we are generating for ourselves. But remember, the fuel we are providing our brains with, whether nutritious or not, makes all the difference.
A healthy gut is equal to a healthy brain, which means your nutrition relies on a healthy diet and lifestyle that regulates your brain’s smoother functioning. When it uses up the oxygen, our body releases waste free radicals. It is our responsibility to safeguard our brains from these radicals, or it could damage the body’s cells.
The function to protect the brain and the body from these oxidative stress falls upon the right nutritious food containing a fair amount of vitamins and antioxidants that fight these free radicals, causing the cells to damage and pose a potential threat of disease. It is surprising that the food we provide our body, especially the brain, is directly proportionate to the way we behave or feel ultimately.
Hence, the more you consume refined or packaged food products, the more chances of brain damage. And those food promoting the movement of inflammatory cells in the area near the brain and a disrupted insulin-regulating level in the body. All the oxidative stress due to your consumption of unhealthy and damaging foods causes your brain to become impaired or brain tissue to be damaged gradually.
The idea is that consuming less nutritious and refined foods has proven to cause mood disorders such as depression. Let us understand the mechanism behind it.
The mechanism of your food affecting your mood
Food has a specific effect on our mood; there lies a particular mechanism and functioning inside our body responsible for generating mood changes through the nourishment we intake in our everyday lives.
The gastrointestinal tract in our body produces a neurotransmitter regulating hunger, sleep, or inhibiting pain. This neurotransmitter is known as Serotonin Meanwhile; our gastrointestinal tract has serotonin in it; it connects with millions of other neurons. Hence, our digestive system is not only made or digesting the food but has different roles too.
The role of our digestive tract involves regulating our emotions too in proportion to what we consume. Serotonin’s functioning is also influenced by good bacteria that form up into the intestinal microbiome. Good bacteria are essential as they help absorb the nutrients from the food we consume and support it by applying it into the entire body to keep the brain healthy and eventually lead to a shift in mood and feel.
Good Bacteria helps reduce inflammation and forms a barrier around the intestine that prevents it from toxins. The role of good bacteria is to develop a neutral way between your gut and brain.
Research has proved that traditional diet and form of eating have lowered depression and other conditions of mental health issues by up to 35 percent. The standard diet is better than the present refined western states of food because traditional dietary foods have veggies and essential fruits enriched with nutrients and vitamins.
The Conclusion
Experts say that everyone should try to change their diet and see how it affects their digestive system and how it changes their mood. Going for a Clean diet once in a while can make all the difference, and skipping on refined foods with sugar and preservatives could help improve your mood and brain health.
One should analyze the improvement in their mood or psychiatric health by gradually changing your diet and see how nutritious food can be the best diet for your brain and gut.
