Why do you feel tired after eating a full meal? Why do you have so much trouble concentrating? Why do you crave chocolate? Can diet affect depression? Is there a natural cure for insomnia? Nutrition expert Elizabeth Somer answers all these questions and more in this completely updated and revised second edition to her nutritional guide Food and Mood. The result of research encompassing thousands of the most up-to-date scientific studies, Somer explains how what we eat has a direct influence on how we feel, think, sleep, look, and act. She addresses specific food-related issues including health conditions, food cravings, diet struggles, stress, PMS, winter blues, energy levels, depression, memory, and sleep patterns, as well as tackling the issue of supplements and providing the real story on those you need and those you don't. Included is Somer's revolutionary Feeling Good Diet, a program that shows you how to take control of your eating habits to benefit mood and mental functioning now.
In the early 1990s, when Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., a nationally recognized award-winning nutrition expert and the nutrition correspondent for
Good Morning America, wrote the first edition of her groundbreaking book,
Food & Mood, scientists were just beginning to understand how what we eat affects how we feel. Over the past several years, nutrition research has exploded, and this edition of
Food & Mood has been completely revised and updated to reflect the latest findings on the relationship between diet and mental and emotional well-being.
Food & Mood covers all the bases for eating right for a healthy body and mind and includes practical, nutritionally sound advice for putting Somer's Feel Good Diet into practice. Somer starts out by simply and eloquently elucidating the science behind the food-mood link. She explains how food affects mood; the basis of food cravings; how diet is connected to stress, PMS, and fatigue; and what foods banish the blues, boost brain power, and improve sleep naturally. Need to stop overeating and abusing food? In the second section, Somer gives compassionate, pragmatic advice for turning your eating habits around for good. The final section gives detailed, step-by-step suggestions and guidelines to help you eat right to feel great. Included are shopping tips, daily menus, information on designing a supplement program, and tantalizing recipes. (Who knew burritos, brownies, and chocolate chip cupcakes could be good for you?) --Ellen Albertson
