Food for Mood - The Link Between Diet and Emotional Health

From: ImmuneSupport.com
by Blake Graham, B.Sc AACNEM

Blake Graham is a clinical nutritionist specializing in nutritional and environmental treatments for patients with CFS, FM, and other chronic conditions. He is an associate of the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine (AACNEM) in Perth, Western Australia and a Committee Member of ME/CFS Australia (WA). This article is reproduced with permission from his Nutritional Healing Newsletter at http://www.Nutritional-Healing.com.au

If your emotional state is not what you would like it to be, the answer may lie at least partly in your diet.

At first consideration, this may seem a bizarre idea, but after taking a closer look, it makes perfect sense. Our emotional response is strongly related to our brain health and chemistry. Neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, which regulate mood, are made from amino acids. These chemical pathways also require vitamins and minerals as cofactors for their normal function.

The brain is made largely of fatty acids and requires a healthy supply of other nutrients to function normally. Almost every vitamin or mineral deficiency can cause psychiatric symptoms such as depression, anxiety, irritability, low stress tolerance, etc. A large array of other dietary factors such as caffeine, allergies, alcohol and blood sugar also influence our mood.

A growing number of health professionals are now utilizing this information to improve the mood of their patients.

Nutrient deficiencies are not an all or nothing issue, as varying degrees of severity exist.

For example, while full blown scurvy is now rare, mild vitamin C deficiency is not uncommon. In the nutritional treatment of altered mood states, correcting these nutrient deficiencies is a primary initial consideration. This may consist of dietary changes and ...

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Food for Mood - The Link Between Diet and Emotional Health