Have you ever wondered why some foods are so hard to resist? It isn't just the taste. Some comfort foods are only a little bit better than other foods and some really aren't as good. Yet we crave them.
Recently my husband and I cut out white foods from our diet. We lost weight, as planned. But both of us just had to have some bread; white bread, with butter, and peanut butter. We were getting cranky and short with each other. Honestly white bread is hardly gourmet food. Why did we both feel such a draw to it?
After a few days enjoying my bread, I returned to the white food free diet. I ate greens, tomatoes, onions, protein from meat and eggs and beans for starches, a good set of supplements for any missing nutrients. I was well fed on this diet. Yet when trouble hit (my dog got sick) I had to have cake. It is called comfort food for a reason. I hadn't noticed this before. I always thought it was just "a sweet tooth." But when I ate the cake, my mood lifted from rock bottom to where I was functioning again. What was happening?
I did a little bit of research and discovered that some foods, like bananas and turkey help you to create a chemical called serotonin. Serotonin is sometimes called "the happiness hormone" (even though it is not technically a hormone). Turkey is not usually considered a comfort food. Bananas, though I love them have never altered my mood. Cake does. There is more to this puzzle.
I am not a chemist. I have not understood a lot of what I have read about serotonin. I do not really need to know all the chemical reactions that are happening inside my body, just the net result. It appears that while some foods help to create serotonin, it is other foods that trigger its release; a carbohydrate load. A carbohydrate load would be sugar and anything our bodies convert to sugar which includes: white bread, cake, candy, and haven't we all been tempted by a tub of ice cream?
Now here is what really causes the trouble. These foods elevate our mood. This is a good thing. But as my grandmother and mother always said, "Everything in moderation." We need some serotonin, but when we have too much of these foods we get out of balance. It is like being hooked on drugs. You just have to have it. Now all that sugar (bread and pasta are treated like sugar in your body), all that sugar in your system has to be dealt with. Insulin comes to the rescue and gets it out of your blood stream by burning some, storing some, eliminating some and by turning some into fat. FAT. Now it begins. You soon have two pressing problems to deal with. Very quickly your mood is dropping again and your blood sugar is crashing. The quickest and easiest way to get some relief is more bread, cake, a donut or 2, pasta helps too. It becomes a cycle that can spin out of control.
Most of us have faced this problem. How do we stick to a healthy balanced diet when all you want to eat is ____ (fill in the blank with your comfort food, mine is cake followed closely by bread). We need serotonin. We don't need comfort food, or rather the fat that is the result of eating comfort food. What can we do?
A little more research and I found out that there are other things that can increase your serotonin levels. Ways that increase it in a more controlled way. Methods that don't involve food that hurt you in the long run. Here is a short list:
- meditation
- a warm shower
- a little sun
- exercise.
Notice that last one. I have heard so many reasons to exercise if you need to lose weight. The increased muscle will burn more fat. You can have fat burning while you exercise. There is fat burning after exercise (after burn). Now I find out that exercise will release serotonin.
So I will put down that donut, pick up my walking stick and hike down to the lake. This should help me stick to the healthy foods, provide some much needed exercise, and sun shine always brightens my mood. It's a win, win, win. Can't get much better than that.
The author has a blog devoted to healthy aging, particularly for "baby-boomers". She researches and reports on simple, easy, exercises, nutrition, and weight loss strategies. Visit the blog, leave a comment. Even offer an opposing opinion if you like. The site was set up to encourage thought and discussion on a topic we all have to deal with one way or another. Making the next 50 years as good or better than what has gone before.
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