Day 21 All About Food

Well, have to hand it to Dave from yesterday; following the 'task of the day' I had A Good Day. I need to stop being so cynical about these websites - as much as I struggle with the relentless product placement (and a few 'wrong' ideologies) they are spreading positivity and are by no means as dangerous as movements like GWB. Throughout this Forty Days mission, I’ve always wanted to stress that even if I might disagree with a site or book or mentality, if it works for anyone else then that is incredible. Trying to figure out what works for me is drifting closer to Buddhism... but I haven't tried Paul McKenna yet so who knows!

TODAY is going to be All About Food

On Ezine Articles I stumbled across 'Serotonin - The Nutritional Way of Increasing Happiness and Reducing Food Craving'

"Along with maintaining your happiness through a positive mental attitude, you can actually stimulate it through the food you eat. Yes, that's right you can really eat to be happy!"

I'm going to eat to be happy! I'm also, evidently, going to use too many exclamation marks today!

Right. I have a vague idea that healthy food = healthy mind and generally eat silly amounts of fruit and veg. But today I'm going to focus specifically on serotonin. Which immediately makes me think of chocolate. Which is No Bad Thing.

Rather predictably, there's more to serotonin than sinking my teeth into a slab of Dairy Milk... Serotonin is a brain chemical operating between nerve cells. It's a natural anti-depressant derived from an amino acid called tryptophan (stick with me here guys, without the assistance of Dr. Aniston The Science Bits aren't my forte). Most foods we associate with serotonin are 'quick fix' foods like sweets (I love), crisps (more so), alcohol (ditto), and processed foods (naah not so much). HOWEVER! The quick release of happy hormones is closely followed by a quick dip WHICH leads to 'inappropriate eating' and feeling blue. So eating foods that release tryptophan in steady measures lets you naturally boost long-term levels of serotonin. According to the article 'this in turn reduces your food cravings and raises your happiness levels. How great is that!' Great!!

Steady Foods (hmm, which a bit like Steady Men, and Steady Bank Balance seem a bit dull) include:

Chicken

Fish

Pheasant???

Partridge???

Bananas

Eggs

Nuts

Avocados

Milk

Cheese

Game pie anyone?

Off to the shops. (Or doning the Barbour, old chap, and off to the fields...)