Food and Nutrition

Seasonal affective disorder is a condition that commonly begins in the autumn and lasts throughout the winter. This condition is also referred to as SAD because it makes an individual feel mentally depressed and physically unenergetic for several months. The condition of SAD primarily occurs in geographic regions where there is less daily sunlight as winter approaches. SAD is diagnosed in children, teenagers and adults of both genders, leading to more than 3 million cases of the condition each year in the United States.

If we don’t have the proper support and tools to safely manage our emotions, they can affect our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors – including what we eat. If you experience this, think about times you feel very depressed, anxious, angry, etc. What do your eating patterns look like during these times? If you’re gravely depressed, do you feel like eating a lot or nothing at all? If you’re angry at someone, do you feel like eating, or is your adrenaline pumping so hard that you would not be able to get a single bite in? Our emotions can certainly affect the way we eat, and this can cause further psychological or physical health concerns if our eating patterns are not healthy for us. A 2017 study published in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science sought to explore how emotions such as anger and disgust influenced food intake amongst people. Eighty participants participated in the dissection of several types of fish, and were then provided diverse types of foods to eat afterwards while also assessed with measures of disgust and anxiety. Results from the study showed that individuals who felt higher levels of disgust and anxiety were significantly more likely to avoid eating food compared to their counterparts who didn’t experience such elevated levels of anxiety or disgust. While this type of exploration is quite aberrant compared to daily behavior, it does show that when we’re approached with feelings of disgust, anger, and other negative emotions, we’re not always able to carry on with daily acts as simple as eating. When it comes to mental illness and/or addiction recovery, there’s no doubt that our emotions may act like a rollercoaster. Previous studies have shown that recovery can cause many people to feel a variety of emotions – from pain to joy, sadness to happiness, calm to anxious. These changes can certainly have an affect on your eating habits while in recovery, which is why it’s so important to have a nutrition counselor who can help you ensure that you’re receiving the proper vitamins and nutrients needed to get your mind, body, and spirit back on track. If you haven’t already, speak with a professional from a reputable treatment center to learn more about programs that could assist you on your journey to recovery. It’s never too late to seek the help you need.

After a night of drinking, you wake up, and feel a massive headache coming on. Your muscles ache, you feel groggy, and you didn’t get much sleep. These are all signs of a hangover; although typically harmless, hangovers can make it difficult to function the next day at work, and may cause you a lot of discomfort. An estimated 75% of people who drink alcohol to intoxication will experience a hangover the next morning as a result. Other symptoms, such as dry mouth, dizziness, rapid heartbeat and change in blood pressure may occur. What happens to your body when you drink alcohol that causes you to have a hangover the next day? Let’s look at what science has to say. First, it all depends on what you have been drinking. Research says the darker in color your alcoholic beverage is, the more congener it contains – leading to more severe hangovers. When the body processes alcohol in its system, chemicals called congeners form, which increase the frequency and severity of hangover symptoms. Many people also become low in blood levels of various hormones, which effect the hangover as well – for example, alcohol inhibits the antidiuretic hormone, leading a person to urinate more frequently and become easily dehydrated. Secondly, it depends on how much you had to drink and how you drank it. For example, a person who drinks quickly and has had little food to eat is more likely to experience a more severe hangover than someone who drinks moderately and has been eating throughout the night. A 2018 study published in the journal, “Addictive Behaviors” found that greater hangover severity predicted more future drinks per drinking day and alcohol problems. This makes sense, as many people who experience severe hangovers are likely heavy drinkers or drink dark liquors. Lastly, the environment in which a person drinks can affect the quality of and their ability to sleep. Loud music, smoke, flashing lights, and more can all impact your experience the next morning. Based on the physical effects of drinking, how can you prevent a hangover? There are many ways:

A mood is defined as a temporary state of mind or feeling. As an emotional state, a mood may be expressed as one of the following, for example: serious, humorous, amused, angry, playful, cheerful, gloomy, and more. Put simply, moods summarize what’s favorable or unfavorable to us, based on external and internal information. Some psychologists believe that our mood is based somewhat on a stress threshold – researcher Roy Baumeister, for example, believes that when we’ve used up all our willpower to avoid a temptation – such as eating fast food when we’re on a diet, for example – we become irritable because we’ve drained up all our cognitive resources. Consequently, a bad mood causes us to have tunnel vision, making it more difficult to see things more openly and creatively. On the opposite side, a good mood can open our minds to a world of possibilities. We all love being in a good mood, but what happens when we are in a bad mood? Can we easily change this? If there is no mood disorder present, there are a few things that we can do to help improve our mood:

Residential treatment programs can provide intensive help to those with a serious addiction or mental illness. While receiving residential treatment, clients temporarily live outside of their homes while being monitored and supervised by a supportive healthcare team. If you’re wondering if residential treatment may be a good fit for you, here are some ways to decide:

When selecting a treatment center, there are many factors you want to consider. Long-term success in recovery has been shown to meet individual’s needs not just with a mental illness or with addiction, but also with other areas of their life that have been difficult for them. Recovery is a time to develop new coping skills, understand ourselves better, and identify goals that we can work towards achieving for the future. There are three main necessities associated with a successful recovery: comfort, nutrition, and psychotherapy.

Many of us have experienced that extra scoop of ice cream or eating some more chips at the end of a long day. We may not do this every day, but occasional cravings for it happen. This happens to a lot of people – but does this classify as binge eating disorder? Not quite. There are some key differences between overeating at times and having binge eating disorder (BED). A lot of those differences lie in the amount of food consumed, how often these episodes occur, and the feelings experienced afterwards. By understanding the difference between overeating and BED, we can more correctly identify when our eating patterns are normal and when they may indicate a more serious health condition. Unlike overeating, BED produces feelings of shame, guilt, sadness, and regret. Many people with BED feel as though they have no control over their eating – they may eat when they aren’t hungry and may also eat alone because they are embarrassed of how much they eat. BED also causes many people to eat quicker than what is considered normal, often without taking any compensatory measures to make up for the large amounts of food consumed, such as purging, excessive exercise, etc. Americans tend to overeat, with emphasis placed on large sizes of fast-food and quick access to these selections. While our society perpetuates overeating, there is a clean difference between the overeating nature of many Americans and the eating associated with BED. If you have been diagnosed with BED, note that recovery is possible and there are some very effective methods of treatment for this disorder. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to help many people with BED; it focuses on helping people change old, negative habits of thinking towards more positive, productive thoughts. If you haven’t yet, make the decision to reach out to a reputable treatment center today. There are many resources that you can use to be on your way towards a happier, healthier life. It’s never too late.

There’s no question that our diet influences not only our physical wellbeing, but our mental health as well. Research has shown that eating lots of fried foods from fast food restaurants has been linked to anxiety and depression, in addition to weight gain. When it comes to recovery, the food we eat is important because it is what fuels us while we are getting back into clarity and making room for learning and growth. Sugar has been an important topic for discussion because many people who recover from addiction crave sweets. Healthline, a website that provides information on all things health-related, has noted several reasons why too much sugar is bad for you: 1) it can damage your teeth, 2) it can damage your liver, 3) it can cause insulin resistance and lead to Type 1 diabetes, 4) it can progress to Type 2 diabetes, 5) it can lead to cancer, 6) it can promote weight gain because it doesn’t hold nutritional value or give a “full” effect, 7) it can be highly addictive because of the rush of dopamine it gives, 8) it can lead to obesity, 9) it raises your cholesterol levels, and more. As you can see, there are several health consequences that eating too much sugar can cause on your body. Dr. Zachary Bloomgarden, a professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City told Live Science Magazine, “Sugar is bad for you because it has calories, and because if you have diabetes or a diabetes-related condition – let’s say high blood fat levels – then having sugar will increase your blood sugar and your triglycerides, which is a risk factor for heart disease”. This doesn’t mean that if you don’t have a diabetes-related condition that you can never eat sugar, however. A little bit every now and then should be fine, but you will want to speak with a doctor to get exact directions that fit your health situation. If you’re in recovery, consider speaking with a nutritional therapist so that you can have more control over your diet. What you eat holds great weight to how your mind and body function throughout the day and, when it comes to recovery, you want them to be working optimally.

Binge eating is the most common eating disorder in the United States and is associated with eating large amounts of food at a time and then experiencing feelings of shame, guilt, or distress afterwards. Healthline notes that binge eating disorder (BED) affects nearly 2.8 million people in the United States each year. Whether you have experience with BED or not, there are likely some facts that you do not know:

If you have an eating disorder, you’re not alone. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, at least 30 million people have an eating disorder in the United States. Eating disorders impact the way a person thinks and feels about their body and food. Common traits of individuals with this disorder are having a low self-esteem, perfectionism, overachiever, anxiety, need for control, difficulty expressing emotions, need for acceptance, and depression. Many loved ones have difficulty understanding what it’s like to have an eating disorder but educating themselves on the struggles many people face can open doors for more love and support. The following are common obstacles people with an eating disorder face:

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, approximately 8 million people in the United States have an eating disorder. Eating disorders are a serious mental illness that often accompany stress, depression, substance abuse, and more. Individuals with an eating disorder often experience a distorted body image and become obsessed with food and losing weight. The following are some facts that you probably didn’t know about eating disorders:

With McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC and more, fast food is becoming easier to obtain than ever before. Dollar menus capture our attention by pleasing to the more frugal aspect of ourselves, and tasty sandwiches and French fries lend themselves to our stomachs freely on a long drive home from work or after a stressful day. Eating these processed foods may seem harmless on occasion or even a few times a week, but the damage may be bigger than you realize. The American Psychological Association has highlighted several studies that have shown that eating fast food, sugar, and soft drinks can contribute to depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a host of other psychological problems. The documentary “Supersize Me” provides an extreme depiction of how fast food can affect someone’s mental and physical health; Morgan Spurlock consumes McDonald’s 3 times per day for 30 days and experiences weight gain, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, massive headaches, low energy and severe depression. What makes these foods so damaging to our holistic health? Serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates sleep and appetite, mediates our moods, and inhibits pain, is produced in our gastrointestinal tract. Our gastrointestinal tract is lined with a hundred million nerve cells, which explains why the food we place in our bodies impacts our sleep, eating, mood, and pain. Processed foods are high in unhealthy fats that are often hydrogenated, turning them into trans fats. When you typically consume food from fast food restaurants, the high fructose corn syrup and sugar serve as “empty calories” that have devastating effects on metabolism. Studies have shown that individuals who take probiotics, the bacteria that is good for your health, experience improved anxiety, perceptions of stress, and overall mental outlook. Speak with your doctor regarding the best diet for your health and what vitamins you can take to increase your chances of mood, sleep, and eating stabilization. Become more mindful of what you are eating and how it makes you feel. Doing this may help you to lead a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.