Weight Loss Foods and Your Mood
Your food and mood are very much intertwined; many people, who resort to ever increasing late night pantry raids, are often able to relate their weight problem to a time of emotional turmoil. Often when we are feeling low, we feel the need to lift our spirits and the options often lay in the sweet filled shelves of our fridges or kitchen cupboards. Lately research has found however, that this may not be such a coincidence as you expected. Scientists have discovered substances in chocolate that target the same brain receptors that marijuana does, suggesting that they have the same chemistry, which may very well explain why chocolate is automatically eaten at times of depression and that foods can actually trigger important changes in brain chemistry.
Weight loss foods and moods are directly related and can actually determine whether we are happy or depressed, these powerful brain chemicals can also affect our appetite and ability to control it. Which is why diets often don’t work, and why many diets are unsuccessful. Many of us eat more when we are sad, lonely, angry, or feeling some emotional negativity, we eat for comfort and to ward of boredom. Becoming aware of what controls our appetite and eating patterns is crucial when it comes to losing weight and establishing a healthy way of eating.
By applying weight loss tips that understands the foods biochemical reactions on how we feel, can be used to our own advantage ensuring we eat the right foods at the right time. For example having a mainly carbohydrate breakfast such as oats has a positive mood enhancing effect, because complex carbohydrates increase the levels of serotonin in the brain, which make us feel good and controls our appetite. Protein can help us to feel alert and focused, so eating a predominantly protein meal for lunch is good, such as tuna with a small portion of rice. If you eat mainly a carbohydrate lunch such as a potato salad it will make you feel tired.
For an evening meal if you want to relax then it may be best to have a small carbohydrate dish. What is important is that each one of us is different, assess your own daily patterns and work out the different kinds of foods that are appropriate for you and at which times suit you better to eat, so that you maintain your energy levels and vitality at times, when you need it most.
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