When we’re in a bad mood, feeling disgusted or down on ourselves, we’ll splurge by eating a big dish of ice cream with chocolate sauce, an extra piece of cake, a bag of potato chips with dip, this in the hopes of making ourselves feel better, to get out of the funk.
This behavior is common when feeling upset, anxious, tense, or angry. Most who feel this way will turn to these bad habits, this to splurge on poor nutritional foods, where others will resort to nicotine, excessive alcohol, recreational drugs, or other detriments.
When moods go cranky, it’s well known that the impulse is to chow down on food that we know are nutritionally poor, this when the hormones are raging out of control, this in the hopes to feel better.
So What’s To Blame
What’s never thought of is placing the reason for the bad mood on the carbohydrates that they’re consuming. Instead, they would rather blame some type of personal or social crisis.
They would rather blame their crappy job, their irate mother-in-law, their kids misbehaving, the bad temperamental weather that’s driving them to eat this bad selection of food.
Craving for a chocolate bar appears routine especially among women who are premenstrual, compounding into the feeling that their life and the world is wrong and plotting against them.
There are many who would blame not having that piece of cake, as the reason why they’re in a bad mood. What studies have shown however, is that the actual trigger of the moodiness may be the carbohydrates themselves, and not the other way around.
Cause And Effect
What’s known for certain is that those who are depressed will overeat on fatty foods they like, this in the hopes to make themselves feel better. You won’t find them eating Greek yogurt, carrots, celery sticks, kale, or steamed chicken.
Instead, you see them eating french fries with globs of ketchup, lumps of butter and cheap syrup on their pancakes. These are foods which all contain carbohydrates, either salty, sweet, or fatty, all considered feel good foods.
What’s also known and obvious is that these types of foods lead to weight gain, along with a multitude of medical issues which compounds the feeling of depression because of the obesity.
Once someone looks at their drained out quart of ice cream, a crumpled bag of empty chocolate chip cookies, there’s a feeling of remorse, anger, and helplessness after the eating, which compounds the battle.
Becomes A Catch 22
So what’s the cause? Does one eat all of the carbohydrates because of their negative mood, or does eating all the carbohydrates cause the negative reaction.
Whenever we’re thirsty we drink water, or does looking at a full glass of water cause the thirst. Once we put food into our body because we’re feeling hungry, do we assume that it’s the food which causes the hunger.
Do we take pain-relieving medication because we have a massive headache or back pain, or do we think that it’s the medication that’s causing the pain. Okay, that’s just wordplay.
The Role Carbohydrates Play
A study was conducted to find if there is a carb/moodiness connection. Testing was done to measure the moods of volunteers, this when they were in a bad mood, such as once they got grumpy around 2PM during the workday.
These volunteers were asked to self regulate and note down their mood swings, as they were asked to consume a beverage which contained either carbohydrates or proteins.
They had no idea which beverage was which, as the flavors were disguised to taste the same. A period of time later, once the carbohydrate or the protein was digested, the volunteers were asked to accurately fill out their “mood” reports.
Can Carbohydrates Improve Mood
The ones who consumed the drink which contained the carbohydrates, it was noted that their moods had improved significantly. The moods however, for those who drank the beverage containing the protein, didn’t change.
Another test was performed on women on their cycles, who were asked to consume the same carbohydrate or protein beverage. Similarly, it was found that the carb beverage improved their mood, while the protein drink had no effect.
The Carbohydrate Moodiness Theory
So why was it that the carbohydrate beverage placed the subjects in a better mood every time. Since the moods were measured a full hour after finishing the drink, it wasn’t the taste of the carb drink.
The reason it was found for the improvement in mood was because of the activation or increase in the “feel-good” chemical in the brain, serotonin.
The carbohydrates themselves didn’t produce the serotonin, but its consumption triggered a series of biological events in the brain and bloodstream which caused more serotonin to be produced, which triggered the better mood.
Carbs On Instinct
So there’s little wonder why we know or decide to eat carbohydrate laden foods, this whenever we’re feeling blue, stressed out, anxious, or despondent. It’s our natural reaction to do so.
It’s instinctive rather that something that we’re taught to do. But because of the current anti-carbohydrate attitude which exists and is preached by nutritionists, we’re constantly told to avoid eating these toxic junk foods.
It’s our biological makeup however, a reactive signal from the brain, this to our emotional self conscious, a message that we give to our eyes and then our mouth, that we should be eating another cookie.
What we automatically reach for is carbs of any kind to shake us out of our funk, although we know it’s bad for us, and it’s temporary because of the sugar spike. All we know is that it makes us feel better until the next crisis happens.