Absolutely! A hungry man is an angry man is a popular saying. It means food affects how we behave. And this is not limited to just the presence of food in our stomach, but the effect of food on our brain. Let’s look at what food does to our brain. When we eat food, our body digests the food and absorb its nutrients. The nutrients circulate through our body and get to our brain. The nutrients contain chemicals that contribute to the formation of certain substances in our brain.
These substances affect our brain cells and determine how we feel and behave. For instance, protein diets with high tryptophan (one of the essential amino acids) aid formation of more serotonin in our brain. Serotonin increases mood and happiness and decreases anxiety. Foods like fish, eggs, nuts, bananas, yogurt, vegetables, dark chocolate, beef, chicken, turkey, milk increase dopamine level in the brain. Dopamine enhances coordinated movements, pleasure, attention, mood and motivation.
On the flip side, too much intake of processed and sugary foods can cause abrupt increase in insulin secretion which will deplete blood glucose level rapidly and subject the body to hypoglycemic problems such as tiredness, anxiety, moodiness, and being easily irritated. Practically, all the foods that we eat have some sort of influence on our feelings and behaviour. For instance, spicy foods increase sexual libido. Coffee, dark chocolate and blue berries improve memory and alertness. Bananas, apple, oranges and yogurt increase appetite.
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