{"id":4692,"date":"2022-01-17T13:54:17","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T19:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/?p=4692"},"modified":"2022-09-01T09:19:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T14:19:25","slug":"food-and-mood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/food-and-mood\/","title":{"rendered":"Food and Mood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How would you describe the connection between food and mood?\nI attended a webinar last week on using nutrition to facilitate trauma healing.\nI haven\u2019t had time to review studies on this subject so I won\u2019t give you a\nspecific regimen to check out or links to websites yet. What I will tell you is\nthe message was powerful and visibly resonated with the audience. It\u2019s the only\ntime I\u2019ve ever been in a Zoom call in which numerous participants wiped away\ntears as they listened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The crux of the work involves noting sensations or emotions we\nexperience (or are trying to avoid) at a moment when our bodies feel driven to\nseek stimulating or depressing foods. Are we attempting to pump up adrenaline\nor calm it down? What is underneath our desire to do this? Can we recognize\neating habits we\u2019ve developed to regulate fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses?\nWhat happens emotionally when we change our eating habits?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does any of this matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that a high percentage of people fail in attempts to\nfollow a new diet regimen over a long period of time. This is true whether the diet\nis designed for weight loss or to avoid gluten. And it\u2019s true in people who may\nbe highly disciplined in every other area. Perhaps exploring what happens\nemotionally when we change our eating habits can give some insight that will\nlead to better approaches for lasting change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What exactly would we explore?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short answer is how food relates to us and how we relate\nto food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We typically do this with a particular diet strategy in\nmind. We may be more successful over the long haul if we focus on rituals and\nculture and how food relates to feelings of safety or danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can we discover that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can begin with habits \u2013 the foods we reach for regularly;\ntimes of day we reach for something; whether we tend to withhold food from\nourselves, etc. Keeping a journal may be helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What comes next?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, we can explore what we are feeling when we reach for the\ncaffeine or chocolate or potato chips or fried chicken that we see regularly appearing\nin our journals. We can also record how we feel after we consume that food and\nhow long the feeling lasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at these patterns allows us to determine our\nrelationship with food. Once we have a grasp of it, we can slowly build\ntolerance for feelings of uncertainty and danger that may result from changes in\ndiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why on earth would this work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food is a mood regulator. You can find plenty of scientific\nstudies about the particular nutritional properties of food and how those\nrelate to mood. In practicality, the specific properties don\u2019t matter until the\nbody is able to feel safe when we change our habits and rituals. This requires deliberately\nbuilding a framework for safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, sugar is a stimulant. You can calm the body by\nlimiting or removing it. When you do so, you\u2019ll eliminate empty calories and\nlose weight. Easy, right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, but\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The body adapts to threats using the tools it has available\nfor regulation. One of those tools is food. Another is swallowing. It is normal\nfor the body to resort to an adapted response that may no longer be needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a dieter lived with constant stress as a child, a high\nlevel of adrenaline may feel normal or \u201csafe.\u201d  That person may consume large amounts of\nstimulants \u2013 chocolate, candy, sweetened coffee drinks, sodas, dried fruit \u2013 or\nskip meals in order to feel normal. When a high level of stimulation feels\nnormal or safe, removing it will cause a feeling of danger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means removing sugar from the diet can send the body\ninto fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode. Because this is an adapted physiological\nresponse, it will not magically go away on its own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is possible to develop a framework for healing that\nshifts our relationship with food over time. It is the change in the\nrelationship that will allow us to use food to improve mood in a healthy,\nlasting way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here\u2019s what I\u2019m taking away from the webinar: If you have\nstruggled with any kind of dietary change, you are not alone. If you\u2019ve ever punished\nyourself for resorting to old habits, you can stop. Once you recognize your body\nis trying to protect you from something unbearable, you can stop fighting\nyourself. Once you stop fighting yourself, there\u2019s more time and energy for realigning\nthe relationship between food and mood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this feels right to me with or without studies to support the specifics. I can\u2019t wait to learn more about my own food and mood! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s to exploration! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How would you describe the connection between food and mood? I attended a webinar last week on using nutrition to facilitate trauma healing. I haven\u2019t had time to review studies on this subject so I won\u2019t give you a specific regimen to check out or links to websites yet. What I will tell you is … Continue reading “Food and Mood”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2538],"tags":[3052,3145,3146,3147,932],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4692"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4927,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4692\/revisions\/4927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}