Emotional Nutrition: Foods That Restore Harmony

By now, many of us are clear that we do not always eat out of hunger. We also eat when we are sad, nervous, angry, bored … And many of us know that sometimes this urge to eat is totally unstoppable. It is what many experts call “emotional hunger.” And can it calm down? Yes, our diet can help us regain harmony.

Foods that maintain emotional balance

What is this “emotional nutrition” thing? A formula to control “emotional hunger”. How? The nutrients in some foods are an extraordinary help to maintain emotional balance. There are so many possibilities that it will be very easy for you to include any of them in your daily diet.

1. Omega 3

These healthy fats are the basis of a type of diet that is especially anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and jealous of emotional well-being. Students who incorporate them into their diet with food (vegetable oils, nuts …) or in the form of supplements show a dramatic decrease in anxiety rates, in addition to decreasing symptoms of depression.

2. Turmeric

Curcumin is a magical molecule with more than 100 beneficial activities in the body. In addition to being anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and many other things, it has the precious ability to cross the blood-brain barrier in the brain, where it develops its neuroprotective role (beneficial for neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cerebral stroke …), and is capable of to improve mood.

3. Fermented and probiotics

A multitude of fermented vegetables and dairy products act as balancers for the intestinal microbial flora, the microbiota, responsible for producing most of the body’s serotonin, the main neurotransmitter related to mood. 95% of serotonin is produced in the intestine and, among other functions, regulates mood, emotions and appetite. Avoid elements of stress (toxic, drugs and others) and the correct supply of probiotics is essential.

4. Nuts

In general, all provide various minerals, such as magnesium and iron, which prevent neuronal fatigue and associated anxiety states. Some, like cashews, are especially rich in tryptophan, the precursor amino acid of serotonin, which is the neurotransmitter that gives serenity, calm and patience, in addition to helping you sleep well, relax …

5. Red fruits

Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, pomegranates, blueberries and others, rich in flavonoids and anthocyanins, offer an incomparable cascade of healthy and very beneficial substances to relieve stress and anxiety. They contribute to the production of dopamine, which facilitates cognitive tasks and stimulates a balanced state of mind.

6. Chocolate, tea and coffee

Highlights the antioxidant role of green tea, the stimulating effect of the central nervous system of coffee in adequate mini doses, which increases the level of endorphins, and dark chocolate, without added sugar, which reduces cortisol, the stress hormone, and generates well-being and a good mood.

Psyconutrition against emotional hunger

Emotional hunger is often disguised as appetite. How can we detect it?

• Recognize and address your emotional triggers: difficulties, loneliness, fears and stressful situations are hidden behind bingeing.
• Paying attention to a healthy diet helps balance emotions, anxiety and stress.
• The emotional body will not be satisfied until it finds its own food: affection, physical contact, exercise, a massage, meditation, peace …
• Eat consciously, appreciating the texture when chewing, slowly, savoring the food, sitting at the table, without rushing.
• Practice emotional nutrition without falling into obsessions.

A story of kilos, stress and bacteria

Today I met in the elevator the neighbor below, an old childhood friend whom I have always seen very burdened by her overweight. She seemed happier than usual, with her eyes brighter, and I took the opportunity to offer her my best smile and ask her how she is doing.

With his low, soft and shy voice, he told me that better, that it comes from the doctor as usual, “you know”, about being overweight (“well, actually, obesity”), insomnia and depression. But today the new doctor has explained something to her that has encouraged her and she is going to start a “natural treatment” that will help her for all that happens, including anxiety and binge eating, and will help her regain her natural weight.

As she has managed to interest me, and today I have seen her more open than usual, I went downstairs at her floor and for twenty-five minutes she told me on the landing the reason for her hope and illusion.

The macrobiota affects our behavior

It turns out that we all have in our intestines a lot of millions of bugs, which are normally beneficial and necessary, and without which we could not live, but sometimes, for reasons that we do not remember now … who was born by cesarean section and had many childhood ear infections that were treated with antibiotics …

The fact is that they can lose their balance and, although it is very surprising, they produce I don’t know what substances that affect your metabolism, and that is why you have been overweight for so many years and have all those health problems.

But, in addition, those bugs, –the “microbiota that they have told me that they are called” – are capable of affecting their behavior, and their doctor has explained to them that they are responsible for their having anxiety attacks and also that he can’t resist eating nonstop, standing there in front of the refrigerator, until the entire chocolate bar is finished.

Now she has realized that it is true, when she argues with her mother or her boyfriend, or has problems at work, it is when she comes home more anxious than ever and when she starts to eat the most … and then the pain hurts. stomach. Apparently it is due to stress, which releases adrenaline and corticosteroids and further alters the composition of the bugs, so that the emotions in your brain change and then you feel bad and you cannot resist eating and eating.

Probiotics help balance our appetite

“But the good news is here!” . She reaches into her big bag and finds a shiny white and blue box: “Probiotics.” Yes sir, this is the miracle that will put the bugs in your gut in order to regain lost balance and help you sleep, change your metabolism and, above all, above all, avoid anxiety attacks, pain from stomach and binge eating.

In addition, the doctor has also recommended and taught her to do abdominal breathing exercises, a type of infradiaphragmatic breathing in which she has to concentrate “on the Hara” (she doesn’t really know where exactly that falls, but it doesn’t matter. he will find), and he comes from the sports store because he has bought some new shoes to start walking every day. With the antidepressant and anxiolytic medications you have taken …

The doctor has told him to do all that and come back in two weeks. They will then review what you eat, which is also important, although he has reassured her that they will be easy steps to incorporate. Actually, she already knows what to do, what she needs is to find the willpower, but her doctor has assured her that she will find it that way.

Is there emotional nutrition?

I say goodbye and go up the stairs the two remaining floors to get to my house, with a smile on my face that does not fade, and happy for the contagious joy of my friend and neighbor. As soon as I enter, I cannot resist the temptation to search the Internet for the keywords that I remember from all the explanation you have given me: “probiotic, emotional hunger, psychonutrition …” and it is amazing what they say.

I read with amazement that almost everything he has told me is true – the truth is that it was a bit difficult for me to believe it. S ecient scientists, after many experimental studies in animals and people, have proven that the bacteria in the intestine have the ability to control not only appetite, but also the type of diet, the preferences of the host and its behavior.

It turns out that there is a nervous system in the gut, which they call the second brain, which communicates with the brain in the head through the vagus nerve and also through substances produced by microbes (microbiota for scientists), which they pass into the blood and from there they reach the head.

At the same time, the central nervous system also influences the microbiota by giving orders to the intestine, modifying its movement and peristalsis, its secretions and permeability, which determine the living conditions of microorganisms. A kind of emotional nutrition, which nourishes both our body and our nerve cells, and restores harmony and health to us.

Obesity and being overweight are the result of an unhealthy diet

But what I found most mind-boggling is the evidence that certain bacteria in the gut can influence brain function and behavior, including my neighbor’s anxiety attacks and binge eating.

The bacteria that induce the craving for sweets are the ones that grow on these foods, so they are the ones that motivate those preferences in the host as a way to ensure their own survival … Amazing, right? Through the activity of dopamine and a certain Y-peptide, they behave like an alien within the body that drives our own inclinations and behaviors to ensure their own well-being.

In addition to directing our steps and determining my friend’s anxiety attacks, they also produce physical and metabolic changes that make her overweight.

I read that when the firmicutes predominate, bacteria that have a great facility to extract energy from food, then our body gets fat, while with the bacteroidetes the balance is restored.

Surprising, right? As it is that we have many hundreds of times more genes in the microbiota than in our body.

Or that a skinny organism gets fat by transplanting its microbiota from another that is overweight and vice versa.

Or that antibiotic treatment makes us fat because it destroys the balance between the enormous diversity of our microorganisms.

Physical exercise, another great forgotten

Amazing. I want a doctor like my neighbor’s, who, instead of prescribing me, explains and invites me to do physical exercise and infradiaphragmatic breathing. Tomorrow I will tell my co-workers, who I know will make a funny face when I start talking.

I will explain to them that they cannot even suspect to what extent the act of eating is complex, that it goes far beyond satisfying the energy needs of the physical body: it also has to do with satisfying the affective needs of the emotional body, through stimulation of the neurological pleasure and reward centers, which feed on the neurotransmitters secreted by the intestinal microbiota.

I’m already seeing their stunned and incredulous faces at lunchtime, wondering if they really are physically hungry or emotionally hungry.

By the way, to my friends, as they are, I will speak especially about the role of stress, which also unbalances the microbiota and explains that under its effects unhealthy foods or in disproportionate quantities crave. Now they will understand that it is due to a way of feeding an unsatisfied emotional body, as it happens to my neighbor when she gets angry with her mother or has problems at work, or it happens to all of us in those low moments that we feel terrible …

And finally I understand, and I will make them understand, the degree of overlap so wide that there is between the world of food and the world of affections.

Now everything fits. I finally understand that reducing stress helps you lose weight. And why children of stressed parents suffer from higher rates of obesity. And what are the best ways to treat being overweight.

It is not just about taking care of our diet, but it is necessary to pay attention to the emotional environment and contribute to the balance of the microbiota.

Anyway, with so much reading and so many emotions my appetite has been awakened. So I’m going to prepare a good dinner, with alkaline, anti-inflammatory and probiotic foods, rich in omega 3 and antioxidants. Enjoy!