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Today’s Blog Action Day topic is just the thing to get me blogging again. I do appreciate a good global conversation about food on any level. Let me review why I came up with the blog and web site “Living on Purpose” in the first place.
- As I added digital index tags to a wellness guide to create a secondary index in a 320 page manual, I counted hundreds of health conditions which could be alleviated or cleared up entirely by adding proper nutritional supplements to the diet.
- As I wrote research reports on nutritional supplements, I found the facts regarding the dearth of nutrition in today’s American diet.
After I couldn’t stop thinking about the link between mood and food, I researched and wrote the Sad for No Reason ebook (currently unavailable), and built this web site as a reference guide. You see, a lack of nutrition in the diet actually has close physiological ties to a low-grade depressed mood and irritability; leaving a person with no good clue as to why she feels depressed. She may find herself sad for no particular reason when the cause is vitamin and mineral deficiencies. (I’m using “she” simply because I’m a woman and I don’t feel like writing he/she every single time. Men, this information applies to you, too.) Here is an excerpt from Sad for No Reason to illustrate:
False Moods
If you’ve spent your life complacently accepting your mood problems as part of who you are, get ready for a revelation. Think about it. Ladies, when you are angry and snap at your partner for some annoying habit, like when he chews his food too loudly, you probably explain your moods away as “PMS” or general irritability. Do you also cry too easily for unknown reasons? Men, if you are harsh with your children for forgetting to take out the garbage, or if you burst into a rage for a seemingly trivial thing, you may explain your anger away by saying, “That’s just who I am,” or cautioning your children: “Don’t make me angry.” Do you find fault with yourself every day and beat yourself up for minor mistakes?As psychotherapist Julia Ross has explained in her book The Mood Cure, the previous situations are symptoms of false moods caused by nutrient deficiencies and chemical imbalances in the brain. These false moods can be treated with nutrient therapy, thereby making talk therapy easier and more productive. A false mood can be identified by its constant presence despite your attempts to heal or “get over it.” Ross calls it an “emotional impostor” and “meaningless biochemical error,” and she insists “you shouldn’t have to live with these kinds of distorted moods on a regular basis.”
The moral I learned as I wrote this ebook is ‘The food you put in your body affects your brain’s ability to work efficiently.’ Our normal western diet has been given the meaningful acronym SAD, for Standard American Diet. Empty calories, extreme amounts of fried foods, lack of essential fatty acids for brain health, and even nutrient-robbed soil are contributing factors to this SAD diet.
Excerpt:
RDA stands for “recommended dietary allowance.” The term was coined in 1941 to explain the healthy amounts of vitamins and minerals each person needs to ingest on a daily basis to avoid a severe deficiency in their diet. However, the RDA does not help us understand how much of any one vitamin or mineral we need to maintain excellent health. It only covers what your intake needs to be for sub-optimal health, just over deficiency.
Excerpt:
As noted, depression (as in grief and sadness) stemming from a life event such as death in the family, change in social life, injury, or long-term illness is a natural reaction. Sometimes dietary deficiency is secondary to a mental illness. But in many cases, a poor diet actually initiates mild depression and apathy. So the cause of a bout of the blues that came out of nowhere could be difficult to trace.
The ebook then goes on to list the 24 vitamins and minerals which, when deficient, can cause depression as a symptom. Twenty Four!!! Can our everyday diet provide enough nutrition? Can our everyday vitamin supplements be absorbed enough to provide the missing nutrients? Imagine if everybody actually had the means to fulfill their own bodies’ needs for these nutrients?
Having the power to positively affect my mood through my food choices gives me a one-up on my day. I can choose to eat a healthy breakfast containing a little carbohydrates and a little protein to set me up for stable moods and a better ability to handle stress. Let me tell you this works! Just last week I forgot to eat breakfast and felt the decreased ability to handle stressful situations or conversations.
I’ve been blessed with a body and the means to obtain food. It’s my job to sort through the grocery store choices to find which foods hinder me and which foods help me. Not all snack food manufacturers have my ultimate health in mind when they send a product to market. Don’t believe that just because a product is in a store, or even a health-food store, that it’s going to be healthy for you. Do your homework on what you put in your body; it gives you a competitive edge on…bettering yourself!
Action (ways to do your homework on food)
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution home page. Sign Jamie’s petition.
Food Matters home page for the movie. Food Matters’ Take Action Guide.
The Mood Cure. I learned a lot about the mood-food connection from this book.
UltraMind Solution. Lifestyle-changing book, “Do you have a broken brain?”
King Corn documentary on the overuse of corn in all types of food, including as a filler food for cows at the end of their life cycle, which tends to destroy the nutritional value of the resulting beef.
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