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Food, Mood and Women's Health – Be your healthiest, look and feel great!

Archives for February 2012

Food and Mood: 9 Steps to Calm the Anxious Mind in Boston

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Please join me for a full 1 day seminar to learn about the powerful connection between food and mental health, and anxiety specifically.

“Food and Mood: 9 Steps to Calm the Anxious Mind, Improve Mood & End Cravings”

I’ll be doing 3 talks in the Boston, MA area in these locations and on these dates:

Tuesday, March 06, 2012 at 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM in Woburn, MA

Wednesday, March 07, 2012 at 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM in Waltham, MA

Thursday, March 08, 2012 at 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM in Dedham, MA

These are PESI seminars and are geared towards mental health professionals and are also open to the public. They are delivered as a live event with Q & A at various times during the presentation. I’ll be covering all the latest research on food and mental health, as well as practical steps for implementing changes.

[Update after the event: go to the PESI site and at the Title, enter Trudy Scott, and hit SEARCH to see all the future events, plus DVD/CDs that are available for purchase.]

Recent 2011 food mood research by Dr Felice Jacka,  looked at the eating habits of 5731 Norwegian adult men and women. They  found that “those with better quality diets were less likely to be depressed” and that a “higher intake of processed and unhealthy foods was associated with increased anxiety.”

The fee of $79.99 includes course materials.

The 9 steps are covered in great detail in The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, now available in major books stores, at Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com

Here are book reviews by Dr Winston Chung, child psychiatrist and Mira Dessy, Certified Nutrition Educator

Top 5 Foods That Make You Anxious: call with Connie Bennett

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Learn about the top 5 foods that make you anxious, 3 nutrients that improve anxiety and 2 simple lifestyle changes. I share all this on a call with Connie Bennett, author of the fabulous book Sugar Shock! How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life – and How You Can Get Back on Track. You can listen to the interview here.

The Top 5 foods

(1)  Caffeine – we self-medicate so we can function. If you quit you may need to address the reasons you are tired: burned out adrenals, low thyroid or anemia
(2)  Sugar – depletes us of key nutrients that help with anxiety (zinc, magnesium and chromium) and fills us up so we don’t eat healthy food. It also leads to a roller-coaster of mood swings because it affects blood sugar. It’s very addicting and willpower may not be enough – and the amino acids help so much
(3)  Gluten – which is found in wheat, rye, barley, teff, kamut, spelt and oats. Affects digestion and causes “brain allergies” leading to mood problems, including anxiety and depression. At least 80% of my clients feel better mood-wise off gluten
(4)  Junk food that is loaded with trans fats, additives, MSG, artificial sweeteners like sucralose, GMOs, wheat
(5) Not getting enough good quality protein – amino acids are building blocks of neurotransmitters. Grass-fed red meat has good levels of omega-3s, zinc, B vitamins and iron. Salmon, sardines and pastured eggs are great sources too  

Connie felt better when she quit coffee but then she felt so much better when she also quit sugar….

3 nutrients that reduce anxiety

(1)  Tryptophan and 5-HTP help with raising serotonin and balancing brain chemicals – so you’ll feel happy, confident, calm, and have no afternoon/evening cravings. Low serotonin is associated with the type of anxiety that’s your head such as when you have ruminating thoughts
(2)  GABA is a calming neurotransmitter and if your levels are good you’ll feel relaxed and not drawn to wine or sugar to calm down.

The amino acids are amazing and help you feel great mood-wise and quit sugar so you won’t feel deprived and won’t have to use will-power.

2 lifestyle changes

(1)  Yoga helps to raise GABA levels; get out in nature and go for a walk
(2)  Getting enough sleep is big too

All of this and much more is covered in great detail in The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, now available in major books stores, at Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com

Connie’s book Sugar Shock: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life – and How You Can Get Back on Track, is really a fabulous resource for all the facts on why sugar is so harmful. As someone who loves research I really appreciate all the excellent references and that she drew from so many experts. Connie’s second book will be coming out soon… Beyond Sugar Shock: The 6-Week Plan to Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction & Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter.

Label GMOs for the safety of food for our families and children

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There is an initiative in CA to label products that contain GMO (Generically Modified Organisms) ingredients. Label GMOs is a great site for everything you need to know and the Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/labelgmos

“Help ensure the safety of food for California families and children. Let’s get labeling of genetically modified foods on the Ballot for 2012.”

“Because this is a California Ballot Initiative, we need in-person, physical signatures. We cannot gather online and have until April 22nd to gather 800,000 signatures to get this on the 2012 California Ballot.”

I think these statements say it all:

“We Currently Eat Genetically Engineered Food, But Don’t Know It”

“GMO Corn is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an Insecticide” – wow! I did not know this!

“Today, as much as 86% of corn in the U.S. is GMO” so if you’re eating processed foods you are eating GMO ingredients.

“also potatoes altered with bacteria genes, “super” pigs altered with human growth genes, tomatoes altered with fish genes, and fish altered with cattle growth genes”

You can read more from Label GMOs here and I know you’ll want your food to be labeled.

The Millions Against Monsanto Facebook group is growing by the day and has some great resources for learning about GMOs   Millions Against Monsanto. It’s an open group so feel free to join and learn and comment.

This was a pretty sad and poorly researched GMO article in the Sacramento Bee http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/19/4272670/label-this-one-do-not-touch.html

But good to see how many people are not putting up with poor reporting like this! One good thing is understanding how the uninformed think.

You can read some of my earlier posts on GMOs, where I talk about why GMOs are unhealthy and also labeling of GMO salmon in California last year.  At this stage we just don’t know enough about the possible long term consequences to our physical and mental health.

Dark chocolate for Valentine’s Day and heart health!

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Dark CHOCOLATE! …I can see you smiling as you get an endorphin and serotonin boost at just the thought of chocolate! With Valentine’s Day around the corner and with February being American Heart Health month it’s time to talk about chocolate. Not just any chocolate, but good quality dark chocolate.

Dark chocolate that is at least 70-80 percent cocoa is the best choice because it has less sugar (and sugar is toxic and addicting) and more cocoa, which is rich in antioxidants and flavonols (a class of plant-based compounds that provide many of the same benefits as antioxidants).

Chocolate does improve mood and create feelings of joy – we can all relate to this! And dark chocolate certainly does have heart benefits. This is important because heart disease is still the number one cause of death in the United States.

Moderate consumption of dark chocolate has been shown to be beneficial for heart health by:

And interestingly, dark chocolate may offer protection against cancer due to the “high concentration of catechins and procyanidins”

But here are a few questions to ask yourself as you indulge:

  • Do you devour the whole bar of chocolate rather than a small piece? (the key here is moderate consumption!)
  • Do you binge on chocolate and then feel awful afterwards – physically (really icky!?) and emotionally (the guilt-trip deal?)
  • Does it make you anxious or more stressed or keep you awake? Caffeine is found in all forms of chocolate and cacao (other than white chocolate); the darker the chocolate, the more caffeine it contains!
  • Do you suffer from migraines (sadly, chocolate gives me a terrible headache two days later!)
  • Do you experience breast tenderness leading up to your period?

If you answer yes to any of the above then you really should reconsider if chocolate is for you this Valentine’s Day! And give delicious carob a trial instead.

In Finland Valentine’s Day is called “Friend’s day” and is more about remembering all your friends, not only your loved ones. I wish you, your loved ones and your friends a happy and wonderful Valentine’s Day and a happy healthy heart – both physically and emotionally!

Sugar is toxic, addicting, and can contribute to anxiety and depression

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white sugar anxiety toxic

Sugar is toxic and “should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco to protect public health, according to a team of UCSF researchers, who maintain” “that sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.”

This is from a Science Daily summary of a new 2012 report in Nature, Public health: The toxic truth about sugar.

I’d like to add that sugar is also contributing to mental health problems. An Australian researcher, Dr. Felice Jacka, has authored a number of studies looking at food quality and anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. This 2010 study in The American Journal of Psychiatry found that a “western” diet of processed or fried foods, refined grains, sugary products, and beer was associated with a higher risk of anxiety and depression

While I feel that it is great that researchers recognize just how harmful sugar is, controlling it like alcohol and tobacco will only help to some extent. We also have to address the underlying neurotransmitter and nutritional deficiencies that contribute to sugar addiction.

Yes, sugar is addicting as drugs, alcohol and tobacco! If we just take the sugar away, say to keep it out of the house, only eat small amounts or only eat sugar one day of the week – we are asking you to rely on will-power and self-discipline. And we all know how effective that is!

As I recently reported at a Holistic Moms twitter party on food and mood:

“Sugar was by far the biggest offender with many participants discussing how difficult it can be to break the sugar habit”.

Rosie O’Donnell was recently on the Dr Oz show talking about her weight, her depression and her relationship with food. And she made this very profound statement: “being overweight is an accepted societal addiction”. This is what she said when talking about her own sugar/carb addiction “I think about candy bars all night during Halloween” and “I could survive on bread and butter”. And she was very honest and vulnerable when she admitted “I know this…I’m a smart person…I get this…but I can’t seem to fix it. I’m smart but I’m screwed up!”

Here are some steps to help you quit your sugar addiction and not feel deprived. I’d love Rosie, and all of you who battle with this addiction to toxic sugar, to know that there ARE answers!

Sugar is closely related to anxiety, affecting blood sugar swings, depleting you of key nutrients and much more. Sugar is covered in great detail in The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, now available in major books stores, at Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com.