Perky with paneer?

Find out how and why various types of foods affect your moods…

Did you know that what you eat might affect how happy or depressed you are? They will influence how alert or sluggish you feel. It may therefore be no surprise that coffee picks you up and alcohol slows you down. Chocolate lifts you up while a bowl of rice/pasta calms you down and decreases your alertness. While sprouts, paneer or curds perk you up!

During the past two decades, researchers have identified tangible effects that certain foods have on our brain chemistry. Your thinking and feeling processes are influenced by the presence or absence of certain types of chemicals that are specific to your brain and nervous system. These brain chemicals called neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that ferry signals between different brain cells. They affect our mood, mental alertness and learning ability. These are dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin.

Carbohydrates will calm you down
When carbohydrates are eaten alone, an amino acid trytophan is introduced to the brain because of increased levels of insulin in the blood. This tryptophan gets converted to serotonin, the calming blood chemical, resulting in a general feeling of relaxation. This improvement in mood happens when only a high carbohydrate food is eaten alone. Serotonin is linked to feeling of calmness, which is great at the end of the day since it helps you unwind before bedtime. But it maybe is not such a winner in the afternoon, when a high level could make you fuzzy brained.

People who are stressed reach for sweets, cookies, potatoes, pasta, candy etc. Probably they are trying to medicate themselves to increase serotonin levels in order to feel better. Trying unfortunately is not achieving. To obtain the serotonin increase, you have to eat an all-carbohydrate snack on an empty stomach. Because fat slows down digestion, buttering your toast, making oily pasta or adding ghee to your rice will dampen and delay the effect. Also putting any protein in your system within four hours of your dose will disarm the mood shift completely. Moreover, not all carbohydrate foods work. Fruits don’t because its sugar fructose causes insulin to be released slowly to trigger a serotonin boost. Then what do you eat to calm your nerves? Starch. If you are nervous about a presentation, examination or anything else, dry breakfast cereal or puffed rice; toast with jam; a cup of pasta/ rice or a boiled potato eaten half an hour before will calm your nerves!

Proteins will perk you up
Eating a meal that’s mostly protein will improve your brainpower. Just as trytophan is the precursor to serotonin, another amino acid called tyrosine, is the precursor for norepinephrine and dopamine- brain chemicals that aid alertness, reaction time and mental acuity. If you’re doing something mentally taxing, then you’re using up these chemicals in your brain. The only way you can replace them is by supplying the amino acid tyrosine. In other words by gnawing on a chicken drumstick or munching a bowl of sprouts.

Therefore lean protein in meals will keep the carbohydrate from zonking you out. That’s right as carbohydrates relax you they can also make you feel downright drowsy. This soporific effect helps explain the traditional post-rice meal energy dip. People, who complement their carbohydrates with protein, avoid this drop in alertness. So if your lunchtime bowl of rice/ pasta leaves you lethargic, balance out the meal with some lean protein like curds, cottage cheese, dal, beans or chicken/fish.

Sweets will lift you up
Some researchers believe that the link between food and mood has more to do with sugar and fat than with carbohydrates. A dose of carbohydrates leaves people calmer an hour later, but it is the hefty proportion of sugar and fat that makes people go weak in the knees at the first taste of ice cream, chocolate, cake or mithai. Eating sugar can bring anxious people quick relief. Animal studies suggest that high-fat foods have a similar soothing effect. Sweet and creamy is the dynamic duo – fat makes food desirable and sugar makes the fat invisible. Humans hunger for fat and sugar because the substances trigger the brain to release endorphins (morphine like chemicals) that send pleasure signals throughout the body, including the mouth. Of course, one risk of turning to sweet snack when you’re anxious or blue is that you may not be able to at one scoop, piece or cookie. If you are not susceptible to binges or self-reproach, nibbling on forbidden foods is pure pleasure! The king of these foods is chocolate, which not only boosts endorphins but also probably packs enough sugar and also contains caffeine and theobromine (these compounds act like coffee in stimulating you).

It is however important to remember that sugary foods can give you a temporary high but a quick crash in spirits follows soon. Deal with cravings by getting back to nature and relishing the sweet taste of fruits and dry fruits.

Caffeine will stimulate you
Caffeine found in coffee, tea, dark chocolate, sodas such as colas, root beers and other flavours temporarily stimulates your brain and puts you back in action. Up to two cups a day of tea /coffee is fine but over dependence can lead to anxiety, nervousness, insomnia, irritability, racing heart and irregular heartbeats. If you are a caffeine addict, cut back slowly to avoid withdrawal symptoms.

Alcohol will slow you down
Many resort to alcoholic beverages either under stress, anxiety or just ‘to get into the mood’. In the longer run the effects of alcohol are more detrimental than helpful. Excessive alcohol increases anxiety, causes low blood sugar, interferes with vitamin/mineral metabolism, irritates liver and digestive tract and the yeast in alcohol exacerbates allergies.

Vitamins and minerals will pep you up
Most people can get all their vitamins and minerals by eating right. If they don’t, their moods can be affected. Without enough B vitamins you can feel depressed, grouchy and nervous. Without enough iron, you can feel nervous, forgetful, irritable and weak. Lack of magnesium causes chronic fatigue. Vitamin B1 (thiamin) helps feel calm, sleep well and fight depression. Vitamin B3 (niacin) deficiency leads to psychological symptoms. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) takes care of symptoms associated with premenstrual syndrome.

All in all, it becomes important to eat a well balanced diet that doesn’t cause mood swings. A diet with complex carbohydrates (whole grains, fruits, vegetables), low-fat protein (lean meat, fish, skim dairy products and beans) and small amounts of fat should suffice. Avoid sugar, caffeine and alcohol, which add to your stress burden. Understanding how foods affect your moods will improve your physical and emotional health.

Madhavi Trivedi.
Nutritionist and Diet Consultant.