Wellness Wednesday - Crabby Foods

Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and now you're feeling kind of crabby today?

Here are some foods you DON’T want to eat. RUNAWAY from them! Even though you think they will comfort you and make you feel better, they'll make you feel much worse:

Diet Cola – Aspartame, the chemical sweetener used in diet colas and other sugar free foods and beverages is a compound that decreases the efficiency of the brain. I don’t know about you, but as I get older I need all the brain efficiency I can get!

Coffee – A cup or 2 is okay . . . more than that can increase symptoms of depression by blocking serotonin - which is something that you don’t want to block – it’s a brain chemical that helps regulate your mood. Feeling crabby in the late morning, early afternoon – try cutting back on the Joe!

Sweets – Simple sugars and carbs cause rapid rise and fall in your blood sugar levels, and this is something you don’t want to happen – it creates mood swings, fatigue, grogginess and crabbiness (yes, that is a word). If you’re already in a bad mood, one of the worst things you can do is to eat something sweet to make you feel better.

Alcohol – More than 2 alcoholic beverages a day can worsen symptoms of depression. Alcohol is a depressant and slows the neurotransmitters in the brain (again, not good). It also affects the REM stage of sleep, which is necessary for serotonin production. Remember from reading above, serotonin is the natural “happy” drug for your brain, so you definitely want to get your REM sleep to make as much serotonin as possible.

Next week’s Wellness Wednesday will expand on this and give you simple alternatives to boost your energy and put you in a good mood! Stay tuned . . . .