Boost Mood!

Kate Cook, is a nutritional expert of 20 years, a speaker, author of 8 books – The latest, “Positive Nutrition” sets out a simple road map to getting the best from our food. 

Kate has spoken in some of Britain’s top companies and continues to inspire teams with her down to earth style, twinkle in the eye, and a practical sense of what is possible.  www.katecook.biz

As we near a year Locked Down in our own houses, with the threat of the virus ever present, the long haul of the past year is definitely catching up with many of us. Whilst we see glimmers of hope of spring in the air, with the evenings getting lighter, and mornings less chilly, we are, at the same time not out of the woods yet. A great number of us are feeling lethargic and blue, finding it very difficult to motivate ourselves to feel optimistic about the future. What we need to do is find some strategies to start turning the tide on our low spirit, creating a feeling or renewed growth and hope. That all starts with a getting the right foundation on what we choose to eat!  But diet does not exist in a vacuum so I am going to give you some other lifestyle foundations that might just get your mood heading upwards to the stars.

Diet Foundation

The first step to getting a better outcome on your mood is to make sure that your basic biochemistry is balanced – this is a fancy way of saying that you need to balance the amount of available sugar in your system. Glucose (sugar)  isn’t a bad thing when it comes to cellular energy but it is about balance.  Our system is fine-tuned at any given moment by hormones that control everything in our bodies – the hormone that controls how much available sugar is in our bodies is called insulin.   Our bodies are ancient systems, 200, 000 years ago, we didn’t have processed food or foods stacked with sugar – are systems are primed to balance the right amount of glucose that will give our cells energy, but not cause toxicity.   Insulin is adapted to allow glucose into the cells to give us energy, like a key in a lock, it turns the lock and allows the sugar into the cell. The problem comes when there is just too much available glucose in the system – insulin has a solution for that!  The hormone acts as a fat storage hormone, and you start accumulating fat around the middle.  In the old days, that fat would have been for a rainy day, or a cold winter but now, it is the first step to diabetes, a disease that means the ability to control the levels of sugar in the blood have gone array.  So what has this all got to do with low mood?  It turns out, that when our blood sugar levels are fluctuating we can actually feel blue, we can feel anxious, and we can feel mentally depressed.

The simple first steps to making sure your blood sugar is balanced is to eat real food, that is food found in nature. Plenty of vegetables, whole grain, protein (meat if you eat it, otherwise good quality protein that isn’t in a packet – eg NOT Quorn, or similar – these foods are processed)  Don’t eat refined food (especially breads and pastas) and of course sugar is like rocket fuel. In fact, may scientists like Dr Robert Lustig, think that sugar is actually truly addictive like a drug. Eric Clapton accredits sugar as the gateway drug that got him into heroin.  Whilst you can feel temporarily high on sugar, what goes up must come down and mood can tank.

Soul Foundations

Robert Lustig in his book “The Hacking of The American Mind” talks of other essential ingredients to lasting Happiness, the C’s of lasting contentment– The first one being Cooking. Although boring, the foundation of good health and lasting happiness is being able to create your own food – food and what you put on your fork is the biggest predictor of good health, and something you have ultimate control over, both for vibrant health but also to influence mood. 80 per cent of all disease is reversible through lifestyle, and food is the area you have the most control over. Good food encourages a healthy digestion, and the gut is thought to have direct influence over your mood.   Eating real food will help with this – but definitely fermented foods such as kefir can give you a head start!

Lustig also talks of another critical C of happiness – Connection.  Many of us will have sorely missed this element this year but reach out to a friend.  Don’t get caught up in busy-ness, finding community and connection, and meaning are essential elements of that willow the wisp feeling of a contented, happy life.