When you're in a bad mood, what do you want to eat?
Many people like to eat some desserts when they are in a low mood, and some people like to improve their mood by eating spicy.
So, when you are in a bad mood, do you want to eat some sweets or eat some spicy?
This time, Zhimei found a professional nutritionist to talk about what to eat in order to effectively improve bad mood.
(At the end of the article, we have also prepared two small recipes for you to improve your bad mood, welcome to pull to the last part of the article to take your own Oh ~).
Sweets can really make the mood better.
After ingesting sweet or high-starch foods, on the one hand, a rapid energy supply stimulates the brain to produce dopamine.
On the other hand, insulin secretion is rapidly increased, and the insulin produced increases the utilization of tryptophan, which quickly enters the cells and converts into serotonin, which enters the brain and makes people happy [1].
In addition, when people are in a bad mood, cortisol in the brain will increase to enhance people's emergency response ability. The increase in cortisol stimulates the brain to produce a neuropeptide that causes cravings for sweets [2].
In other words, when you are in a bad mood, you will want to eat something sweet. And "eating something sweet" can indeed play a certain role in improving mood.
Since eating sweets is useful, why don't I recommend you?
The reason is simple: the happiness brought by sweets is temporary, and after eating sweets, you may be even more unhappy.
After eating a sweet tooth, the added sugar in it will make the blood sugar rise rapidly, which can indeed make the mood get a temporary improvement, but as the blood sugar drops, it will feel unhappy again, and you will want to eat a little more.
In the long run, it is easy to be "addictive", that is, more and more dependent on sweets, and finally may even be inseparable from sweets.
In the 1990s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States conducted a long study on the relationship between sugar and depression.
They believe that over-dependence on or craving for sugar is due to lower levels of complex amines, a group of people who are always accompanied by low mood and lack of concentration [3].
In 2017, a large data sample study at the University of London showed that high, long-term sugar intake may lead to the onset or recurrence of depression [4].
Studies have also shown that long-term excessive intake of sweets can also lead to obesity and acne; it will accelerate human aging, reduce immunity, increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases; and slow down neuromuscular reactions, making people stupid [5]!
Another reason not to recommend sweets is that it is easy to accidentally eat too much.
You may think that a small piece of cake, a cup of milk tea, does not occupy the stomach at all, how can it "eat too much"? But in fact, the added sugars you consume may have exceeded the standard long ago.
The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2016) propose that the daily intake of added sugars should not exceed 50 grams, and it is best to limit them to less than 25 grams [6].
How much added sugar is 25 g?
25 added sugars, approximately equal to:
6 sugar cubes
or 3 pieces of milk chocolate
or 2 packets of black sesame paste
or half a bottle of Coke (255 ml)
Or a small half pack of cookies
(Isn't it rare?) It is really just a casual bite to eat two bites, and the intake of added sugar is exceeded! ）
Therefore, once you are in a bad mood, "eat some sweetness", it does not matter if you do it once or twice, but if you form such a habit, it is really easy to hurt your body.
Seeing this, some people may ask: I think I will be happy after eating spicy, then I don't eat sweet, eat spicy is always OK, right?
Of course, it is no problem to eat spicy occasionally, but eating too often will still affect your health.
When we eat spicy, our taste buds are stimulated and produce a painful feeling. At this time, the brain secretes endorphins to suppress pain, and endorphins can also relieve stress and make mood happy.
But "spicy" often appears at the same time as high oil and high salt, think of the butter pot bottom of Chongqing hot pot, the red oil of the stew, skewers, spicy pot...
There are even some spicy foods, such as spicy strips, which are also hidden "high sugar" foods.
The picture below shows the ingredient list of a spicy strip
You can see that white sugar ranks high
▼
(Source: Network)
Similar to eating sugar will be "addictive", eating spicy will also have an "addictive" feeling.
This is because the capsaicin in chili peppers stimulates the nervous system, and if you want to constantly feel the pleasure of chili peppers, you need to eat more chili peppers to satisfy [7].
People with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, mouth ulcers, constipation, etc., should also eat less or even not eat.
If you have hemorrhoids, chronic cholecystitis, gastritis, stomach ulcers or poor gastrointestinal function, it is even more important to be careful of "eating too spicy" to induce or aggravate the disease.
Therefore, once you are in a bad mood, "eat something spicy" and it is not recommended.
If I don't eat sweet or spicy, what can I eat?
As a dietitian, it is recommended that you try the following foods:
Foods rich in Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids[8], such as salmon, tuna, anchovies, bluefish, trout;
Foods rich in monounsaturated fatty acids [9], such as olive oil and avocados;
Foods rich in folic acid [10]: dark green vegetables such as spinach, asparagus, kale, and legumes, such as edamame, broad beans, black beans, chickpeas, etc.
Foods rich in vitamin B6: brown rice, lean meat, sunflower seeds, nuts, animal liver, eggs, avocados, bananas, etc.
Foods rich in vitamin B12: seafood such as clams, oysters, herring, salmon; eggs; beef, etc.
Here, I also share two of my treasured "good mood recipes". The small partners you need can pick up by yourself, and you can also refer to and replace the ingredients on this basis to make a more suitable for your taste.
Mashed potato crab salad
ingredient
200g of potatoes, 3 crab sticks, 1 egg, 100g cucumber, 50g corn, 50g carrots, 100g sugar-free yogurt
Preparation method
1. Potatoes + eggs are boiled and then pressed into a puree;
2. Add yogurt and stir;
3. Add other prepared ingredients and stir well;
4. You can moderately season according to your own preferences (such as black pepper, lemon juice, mayonnaise, etc.);
Cold mixed chicken shredded soba noodles
100g of soba noodles, 200g of chicken breast, 1 egg, 50g of carrots, 50g of cucumbers, 50g of spinach, minced garlic and green onion peppers
1. After the chicken breast is cooked, it is cooled and torn into strips, and the eggs are beaten and fried and cut into strips;
2. Soba noodles are cooked;
3. Vegetables shredded;
4. Mix your favorite sauce and stir all the ingredients together.
Finally, I wish you who see you here, eat well, drink well, and have a good mood every day!
Reviewer
Lin Chen | a dietitian in the Department of Clinical Nutrition, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Affiliated to Capital Medical University
bibliography
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[3] R.J. Wurtman, J.J. Wurtman. Carbohydrates and depression. Sci Am. 1989. 260: 68-75.
[4] Knüppel A, Shipley MJ, Brunner EJ. Sugar intake from sweet food and beverages, common mental disorder and depression: prospective findings from the Whitehall II study. Sci Rep. 2017. 7(1): 6287.
[5] Wiss David A., Avena Nicole, Rada Pedro. (2018) . Sugar Addiction: From Evolution to Revolution. Frontiers in Psychiatry ,9:545
Chinese Nutrition Society. Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents[M].Beijing: China Light Industry Press, 2016
Fu Yuling,Deng Fumin,Yang Shuai,Xu Jiuping. "Self-masochism" on the tip of the tongue:Psychological problems in spicy food[J].Advances in Psychological Science,2018,26(09):1651-1660.
Zhou Enqi, Wang Peilin, Sun Sqi, et al. Research progress on antidepressant effect and mechanism of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids[J]. Chinese Journal of Neuropsychiatric Diseases, 2021, 47(3):4.
[9] Amini S, Jafarirad S, Amani R, et al. The relationship between dietary intakes during pregnancy and incidence of postpartum depression: a case-control study[J]. Nutrition & Food Science, 2019, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print).
[10] A Sá Nchez-Villegas, Doreste J , Schlatter J , et al. association between folate, vitamin b 6 and vitamin b 12 intake and depression in the sun cohort study[J]. 2017.
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