Emotional Stability On a Plate: The Mood-Food Science
Eating dark chocolate has been proven to shift our moods gradually. How can something that we eat affect how we feel?
While nutritional psychiatry is a growing branch of study, it is important to first understand how our physiology works before understanding how nutrition affects both our mind and body.
Brain is our CPU. It is capable to send instructions to different parts of the body for different tasks, including breathing or running or instructing your arm to pick that banana on that table right in front of you. It is also responsible for how we feel at a given moment of time. So how does the brain send such instructions and how does it affect our mood?
Our brain sends instructions using cells called neurons which are capable to generate and transmit electrical signals (a.k.a action potentials). When the electrical signals are generated, it triggers the production of messengers called as neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers, which by collaborating with other neurochemicals and hormones, plays a key role in how we function.
It directs our muscle to move, some of its concentration (such as that of serotonin) affects how we feel. So if you feel mood off one day, you know may be Serotonin might have blood on its hands. While it is important to know that the neurotransmitters doesn’t work independently, it is also wise to know that we don’t want to mess with these guys.
It is electrical energy that triggers the generation of neurotransmitters. Electrical signals are generated on our brain based on the flow of ions (such as sodium, potassium, calcium etc.) across the neurons cell membrane. If more ions flow into the cell membrane, the more will be the action potential or the electrical signal. Our kidneys, hormones etc. can regulate this ions concentration thereby ensuring sufficient generation of neurotransmitters. Action potential has of course other duties to do. But we will stick to the neurotransmitters part. So long story short:
Ions moves in and out of cell membrane -> electrical signal generated -> neurotransmitters generated
So how is food related to all of this? Lets delve into the dark chocolate again. Dark chocolate is a rich source of several nutrients, one of which is Magnesium. Magnesium is involved in the synthesis and release some of the neurotransmitters that affect our mood and also our brain health. Besides, Magnesium prevents excessive calcium entry into the nerve cells and calcium flow is crucial for the release of neurotransmitters. We require optimum calcium ions to function correctly. Excessive calcium could indeed result in abnormal neurotransmission. This is how Magnesium aids the regulation of few of our neurotransmitters. Now you know why eating dark chocolate is good for our mind.
There are several other ions swimming on our heads, whose quantities are also crucial.
The primary source of ions in our body is dietary intake.
Here is where a balanced diet comes into picture. Balanced diet simply means diversifying the contents on our plate! Eating nuts, fruits, pulses, vegetables, protein rich food etc. on a regular basis thereby ensuring sufficient ions (and of course other inputs) from the diet itself. Suppose we get lazy and get into a junk food diet. Even then, our body could still reuse the ions available and hence maintain the optimum ion concentration for the brains functioning. But it isn’t healthy in the long run as our body considers diet as its primary source of nutrients: a fundamental biological processes that have evolved over millions of years to support human survival and well-being.
If we consider dark chocolate, we now know that the Magnesium that it provides is involved in different mechanisms such as regulating the flow of calcium ions into the nerve cells. If our magnesium intake remains consistently low and our body continues to deplete its stores, a magnesium deficiency can still develop over time. Also, eating just dark chocolate may not be also a good idea too. In a similar way, the nutrients from our other diets correlates to the functioning of our brain and also our body.
Other than that, did you know that the gut-brain axis is the direct link between our gut and our brain? Isn’t it astonishing that there are more microbes in your gut than the total number of sand grains on earth? We think we are in control, but try making the gut biome upset (by unhealthy choice of food) and we will see them taking control. We actually co-exist, because they help with nutrient metabolism, digestion etc. and they exists because our gut provide an environment suitable for their survival.
Hence it is healthier and efficient to provide the body what it needs through healthy choice of food: a balanced diet.
A variety of nutrient intake hence positively influences our well-being. Lacking a particular nutrient for longer periods of time or having an imbalance between certain nutrients should be the last thing that we opt for. We should try to feed our gut diverse and healthy food to make the gut microbes happy and to ensure sufficient regulation of neurotransmitters, thereby ensuring proper functioning of our minds and also our bodies.
Eat healthy.. stay healthy! :)