Is The Love For Food, Making You Depressed?| You Can Find Help For Food Addiction!
What we eat and drink has a direct influence on our mood that is the reason so many people need find help for food addiction. This extends to our sense of well-being, the presence or absence of depression, mood swings, and our very ability to enjoy life. Depression often drives people to eating excesses, even junk food orgies. This of course compounds their weight-loss problem.
One reason as we have seen, is a diet of refined carbohydrates and sugar. This plays havoc on blood sugar levels and has a marked impact on our moods.
Another reason is due to a substance called serotonin, a chemical in our brain responsible for good moods, appetite control, high-quality sleep and relaxation. Low levels of this chemical in our brains cause depression (some antidepressants work by increasing the action of serotonin). Interestingly, scientists are consistently finding that both overweight people and depressed people have low levels of serotonin in the brain.
Serotonin can find help for food addiction, overweight and depressed people
Serotonin is made from an amino acid called tryptophan, which is found in protein foods. When you eat protein, the tryptophan levels in the blood are raised. Tryptophan turns into 5-HTP1. The body stores the 5-HTP and tryptophan in blood platelets before passing it into the brain. But tryptophan cannot get into the brain to produce serotonin without the release of insulin – and this only comes from eating carbohydrates. And that’s why we crave something sweet or starchy when we are depressed, and not a piece of steak. Food Allergy
Eating refined carbohydrates such as sugar and white flour causes blood sugar to rise. This causes a rapid release of insulin (with a transfer of tryptophan into the brain, if it’s available in the bloodstream). This rapid release, however, then lowers blood sugar levels below normal. When these levels drop, tryptophan cannot get into the brain – and our good mood drops. Another carbohydrate meal causes another release of insulin, which again carries tryptophan to the brain, and again elevates the mood. So important is it for the body to maintain an even mood, that we crave carbohydrates to do this for us. The solution is to eat slow-releasing, complex carbohydrates that provide a steady ‘flow’ of insulin.
This will keep our moods even, and won’t lead to carbohydrate binges that cause obesity, stress on the pancreas, and diabetes. Incidentally, this explains the common craving of high-protein dieters (especially women) for carbohydrates. Women have much lower levels of serotonin in their brains than men, so a serotonin-depleting diet will have a more marked effect on their mood.
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