Food and mood – Impact of diet on mental health

Food is one of the most vital and essential requirements of every living thing in order to sustain life. While healthy food is necessary for supplying nutrients at the same time food we eat must also affect our mood in a positive manner in order to promote 360® well-being of an Individual. Not only our brain but even our gut has a direct effect on our mood.

PSYCHOLOGY

Deepak Bhatia (Counseling Psychologist)

12/3/20242 min read

Food and mood – Impact of diet on mental health

Food is one of the most vital and essential requirements of every living thing in order to sustain life. While healthy food is necessary for supplying nutrients at the same time food we eat must also affect our mood in a positive manner in order to promote 360® well-being of an Individual. Not only our brain but even our gut has a direct effect on our mood.

Balanced diet can help body and mind

A balanced course of food Items help our body and mind to work effectively. The person who takes a balanced diet always feels positive about the working of their body and mind.

Food directly controls mood swings

The kind of food we take is directly considered to impact mood swings. For a healthy person food rich in vitamins like B6, minerals and other nutrients always helps in controlling and improving the mood swings.

Food directly impacts blood sugar levels

The kind of food that one consumes directly impacts the blood sugar level there by affecting the overall alertness and mood of an Individual.

Good food Helps in avoiding over eating

Awareness about the strong connection between food & mood also helps to control the intake of food as per our requirement thereby checking overeating and avoiding the side effects on one’s body.

Stress and craving for high calories

It is observed that whenever an Individual is under the influence of stress or any kind of depression the craving for high calorie food increase considerably and vice a versa whenever we are feeling relaxed we tend to get diet conscious.

Foods that can alleviate mood

There are several foods that are known to make ones mood better if consumed at any time. These primarily include chocolate products, certain vitamin rich foods including fruits and vegetables.

Fat and excess sugar foods can impact health

If one continues eating high fat or sugar for a long period it may create serious medical issues as they have a negative impact over our blood parameters indicating certain medical etiologies that may damage our vital organs.

Good food can make good mental health

Yes this is extremely true if we consume food items that are considered to have a mood alleviating effect it always impacts our mental health positively.

On the contrary if we regularly consume food with high calories, fat and sugar then mental health issues like depression, stress etc. get an environment to grow.

Vicious cycle combining physical & mental health triggered by unhealthy food habits

Bad dietary hobbits that include high fat diets create problems in our healthy living since due to wrong dietary hobbits our physical health along with mental health enter into vicious cycle.