Food Addictions and Sensitivities

Explore ways of managing your moods in Amanda Geary’s excellent “The Food And Mood Handbook” (Thorsons, £8.99)

Change your food to suit your mood! 

As silly adverts go, the one I heard on radio the other day takes the oatcake. It ridicules people who eat healthy snacks and tells them to swallow a multivitamin instead. Pill popping after all, has been the preferred medical therapy since pills began and now some supplement companies are seeing fit to convince us that you don’t have to give up the booze, the fags and the sugar in order to be healthy. In my view, supplements do have an important part to play, but we all realise that no vitamin or mineral can make up for an abusive diet or toxic lifestyle.

Apropos abuse – the World Health Organisation estimate that 400 million people are suffering from mental health problems, many of which are related to alcohol or drug addictions. Did you know that alcohol is the number-one killer of young men in Europe? The number of people addicted to seemingly less innocuous substances such as those present in our food, must be unquantifiable.

What exactly makes an “addict”? There are various interesting theories about the underlying physiological processes of addiction, whether it be to coffee, chocolate or curry. Some may have a genetic predisposition to producing smaller amounts of certain brain chemicals which makes them feel “low” and tend to be more attracted to substances which stimulate them.

Food sensitivities are often hidden culprits for addictions and could be the cause or result of this condition. Others suffer from nutritional deficiencies which can result in cravings and are associated with serious mental health problems. Very low fat diets, for example, can lead to depression with ever more women joining the thin but “prozaced” brigade.

Another plausible theory for addictions is that of persistent low blood sugar, where individuals seek specific substances to regenerate their flagging blood sugar levels. Consider that the average consumption of sugar has gone up to 20 teaspoons per day. Consider that synthetic chemicals and the wrong kind of fats are the order of the day. One could almost argue that we are driving our children into the arms of the drug pushers. Ecstasy or Ritalin, just take your pick…

The Food and mood Handbook

A nutrition-based approach to mental health combines dietary changes with nutritional supplementation in order to correct biochemical imbalances, i.e. change your food to change your mood! Explore ways of doing this in Amanda Geary’s excellent “The Food And Mood Handbook” (Thorsons, £8.99). Amanda works as a nutritional therapist in Brighton and Lewes and is the founder of The Food and Mood Project, started by Mind, the UK’s leading mental health charity.

Food and Behaviour Research

To arrange a nutritional consultation simply call the Dolphin House Clinic, Brighton, East Sussex on 01273 324790 or visit: www.thehealthbank.co.uk