Thursday, April 26, 2012

Feelings for Food or Food for Feelings?

Lets say you just broke up with your significant other and are all geared up for a lonely night in. Chances are you have all the essentials: a couch, the TV, a sad movie, and most importantly about a gallon of ice cream or (insert other junk food here) traveling toward your face. This scene, all to familiar to many teenage girls (and most likely some guys as well), is a classic representation of the relationship between emotions and diet. Whats often written off with such humorous examples of emotional eating though, is the truth that the tie between feelings and food is a prominent aspect of our lives. Think about it, we all have generally scheduled times that we eat throughout the day, often with the same people. Even more important are the specific foods we eat for holidays and at certain times of the year. Now if you were to eat pasta for breakfast or omelets for thanksgiving things probably wouldn't seem right. Of course they wouldn't! We all invest feelings of comfort and nostalgia in different foods and so when we consume them they actually evoke certain emotions. This is what I call having feelings for food. That is, you feel a certain way about the food it's self even before you eat it. You know you like it's taste, and everything you have associated it with.
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Food can also make us feel certain ways not only by how we value them, but because of the way they interact with the body when digested. While there are countless phytochemicals, pigments, and other compounds found in food that interact with the body, science is far from understanding the particulars of their complex effects. Perhaps one of the most researched and documented food substances is sugar. This simple form of carbohydrate has many adverse effects on the body and is most noted for it's link to obesity and type 2 diabetes. Sugar, however, is also a perfect example of the way certain foods can change our emotions once consumed. Consuming sugar stimulates the production of several chemicals in the body including endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine that promote relaxed or happy feelings . These and similar chemicals are surprisingly also known to be produced in the body's response to drugs such as heroin or morphine.(1) While sugar (or any food for that matter) doesn't even come close to the harmful effects of hard drugs it is still important to understand that in some circumstances they can exhibit addictive properties. It's not uncommon for us to seek out a feel good fix when we're feeling down. Like the heartbroken teen with ice cream, sugar can sometimes give us a little lift when we need it. It's for the same reason that people faced with extreme amounts of stress in their personal lives and work often fall on drugs and alcohol addition in order to ease their everyday hardships. When we eat foods because they give us a certain feeling despite our knowledge of their potentially negative effects, we are consuming food for feelings. That is, we are focussing on how we want to feel rather than how we want to nourish our bodies. 

The way we feel about what we eat and the way that food in turn makes us feel can be a hard concept to grasp. When we want to eat is is often difficult to tell if we are being effected by hunger (the need for nutrients) or appetite (craving a specific food or nutrient like sugar). When you have feelings for a food you know it's what you want to eat; you can think about it and know it fits your diet and the occasion. On the other hand eating food for feelings generally happens as more of an impulse. You disregard the nutritional and meaningful aspects and go for the most intense flavor and subsequent feeling you can find. Its not always easy to make "feeling for food" choices but in doing so it becomes much easier to lead a healthy, balanced life through a better regulated diet. The "feeling for food" approach is essentially a way of think about food choices before eating in order to eat better and do away with any after meal guilt. Some ways to start using this approach in your diet include planning out meals before hand, keeping constant foods in your daily intake such as eating a salad with lunch everyday, or even simply eating slower to give yourself time to think about what your consuming. Hey it can't hurt, next time you sit down for a meal ask yourself it you have feelings for the food your eating or if your eating it for a feeling instead.  

What foods do your feel best about?

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Thursday, April 5, 2012

Sleepy Foods


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We have all been there, about to go to bed when suddenly hunger strikes. Many plans suggest finishing your last meal about 2 or 3 hours before you go to sleep each night and while this can be helpful when cutting out unneeded calories, if the food you consume right before bed is part of your regular daily intake (that is you just didn't have earlier in the day) there is no harm in having it before bed. The food you eat is still broken down in the body as it usually would be, but the majority of the energy from it just won't be used until the next day. So you need something to hold you over to the morning and you don't want to sabotage your diet… What foods are the best to have right before you sleep? 

What’s best for you to consume before heading to bed is largely dependent on your personal nutritional and fitness goals. As I mentioned, those aiming to lose weight generally try to have little or no food in the hours before sleeping so that any excess calories are not stored as fat during that dormant period. Likewise, people looking to gain muscle and strength often consume slow digesting proteins like casein at night giving their body a source of amino acids to rebuild muscle tissue with while they sleep. Protein is also a good choice because (like fat) it stays in the stomach for a longer period of time and can therefore help keep you satisfied throughout the night. Foods with a moderate amount of fiber can keep the stomach feeling full for a longer period of time as well yet too much before bed may cause discomfort while digesting and subsequently disrupt your sleep. (1) When selecting a nighttime snack it’s best to stick mostly to complex carbohydrates. While sugar may keep you awake and restless at night, complex and whole grain sources of carbohydrates can promote more sound sleep by boosting serotonin levels in the body (a neurotransmitter that regulates sleep). (1, 5) Dairy products can have a similar effect because they contain tryptophan, an amino acid thought to act as a sleep aid (why a warm glass of milk is a classic sleep remedy). (1, 4)

Some foods can actually help you sleep better, yet it is even more important to know which can disturb your rest. The number one thing to avoid around bedtime is caffeine. Caffeine is the world's most popular stimulant and can disrupt your sleep or even "lead to subsequent insomnia". (3) Similarly, experts warn "people use alcohol to help them fall asleep and to relax after a hard days work. [yet] Research has shown while it can indeed make you fall asleep faster the quality of sleep is drastically lessened by consuming your favorite alcoholic beverage before bed." (2) Finally stay away from "heavy meals and spicy foods before bedtime" both of which can cause discomfort while digesting and trying to sleep. (2)

In a nut shell there are two ways that food can help us sleep. Some foods like dairy products and complex carbohydrates contain chemical compounds that promote relaxation. Other foods like protein and fiber digest slowly and can help us stay satisfied throughout the night. Putting these two ideas together it’s easy to find healthy, sleep promoting foods for your late night snack. For example greek yogurt and cottage cheese are both dairy foods that also provide a great source of protein. You can easily throw in some complex carbohydrates and fiber as well by adding a granola-based cereal to either one. 


What’s your favorite “sleepy food” to have before bed?   



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