Food and Mood This information was originally published in the Mayo Clinic Health Letter, February 1995 - this article gives a brief description of how some researchers believe that foods, particularly carbohydrates, can affect your mood. ============== Are you feeling happy? Or perhaps a little down in the dumps? Tired? Forgetful? Maybe it's your diet. Scientists have long known malnutrition can reduce mental and physical performance. But now it's popular to take that relationship one step further--and propose foods may be a way to manipulate performance in healthy adults too. The theories for how food may affect behavior revolve around neurotransmitters. These brain chemicals exert control over many of your body functions, including temperature, mood and appetite. Even though 30 to 40 different neurotransmitters exist, only a few maybe sensitive to diet. Foods that affect levels of neurotransmitters are carbohydrates, such as cereal, bread and pasta, and proteins, such as meats, fish and dairy products. Here's how diet and behavior are connected: "Calming" carbohydrates Studies suggest eating a meal that contains a lot of carbohydrates will make you sleepy. Let's say you just ate a carbohydrate-rich meal such as a big bowl of pasta. In response to the meal, blood levels of amino acids (compounds that make up proteins) fall. However, the level of one amino acid--tryptophan--rises. This gives tryptophan a competitive advantage for entry into your brain. There it stimulates production of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is associated with sleepiness. Increased serotonin production in your brain then leads to feelings of drowsiness or calm. Some researchers suspect eating a high-protein meal boosts alertness simply because protein reduces serotonin production caused by a meal rich in carbohydrates. =================== Over-eating carbohydrates has been identified as a symptom of SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder - for more information on this go here: http://www.mayohealth.org/mayo/9602/htm/sad.htm