Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Creamed eggplant, mutton biryani and 7 mood improving foods

Creamed ginger eggplant with penne pasta
Today's Food Diary
Breakfast: Flaxseed chili sourdough toast
Lunch: Creamed ginger eggplant with penne pasta
Dinner: Polenta with chickpeas in red curry sauce
Baking/sweets:

An uninspired and uneventful ‘eating’ day, influenced by circumstances which affected my mood. I saw an interesting article relating to food and mood which is summarized below.

In yesterdays post I quoted an article which stated that eating healthy improves behaviour. And today I saw an article about food and mood (rhyme unintended!). Food can play a much bigger role in our life than many of us expect.
  
Today's Favourite Photo
Source: Camemberu
Mutton Biryani



Today’s Favourite Blog
Source: care2
An interesting article on 7 mood improving foods.

Are you feeling sad? Eat magnesium rich foods such as halibut, almonds, spinach, lentils, baked potatoes and bananas. Magnesium produces serotonin which makes the body feel good. I am imagining lunch consisting of halibut with lentil puree and baked potato followed by banana and almond cake. Sadness will go flying out of the window.

Are you angry or feeling mad? Avoid spicy peppers, the last thing you need is more heat. 

Blueberries which are packed with vitamin C can help reduce stress. So can almonds with its vitamins and minerals like vitamin B2, vitamin E, magnesium, and zinc.  

If you are feeling restless cottage cheese can help. It contains tryptophan, a sleep inducing amino acid that relaxes the entire body and mind. Non-dairy sources include soy milk, tofu, hummus, and lentils.

Lacking clarity? Blueberries, strawberries, and acai berries helps the brain clean up and recycle toxic proteins linked to age-related memory loss and other mental decline.

If you feel bloated, perhaps because you were sad and over-ate the halibut meal and indulged in the banana almond cake, dark leafy greens help ‘de-bloat’ since greens fuel the liver.  

And if after reading this post you are feeling exhausted, you may be short of B12. B12 is found in animal products (sorry vegetarians). The only whole food source of B12 for vegans is spirulina.

9 comments:

  1. Oh yum that pasta looks great. I found the stress reducing list of foods intereesting

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  2. From now on I am going to eat according to my mood. Given all this studying...I see whole lot of banana almond cake in my future!

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  3. I'll definitely go with the mutton biryani and that curry sauce in the background is beckoning! :)

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  4. that was a very interesting article...thanks for sharing.

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  5. Great article - I think I need a blueberry, almond, strawberry, spinach smoothie with a B12 shot :) Though I think some of your Daim brownies would do the trick too!

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  6. this is my favorite part of your post"
    If you feel bloated, perhaps because you were sad and over-ate the halibut meal and indulged in the banana almond cake, dark leafy greens help ‘de-bloat’ since greens fuel the liver.
    And if after reading this post you are feeling exhausted, you may be short of B12. B12 is found in animal products (sorry vegetarians). The only whole food source of B12 for vegans is spirulina."

    I think these are all true in some sense! Even though spirulina is technically a source, B 12 is one of those finicky vitamins. Chemical structure IS important for certain things, and synthetic absorption can be different than true sources (animal) with this vitamin. Technology right now allows us to research and question this but I think this vitamin is very interesting and one to watch. I think it is something that will alter vegetarian diets in the future!

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  7. I love your mood improving foods part of this post - makes we want to go out and buy a ton of fruit and vegetables. I'm always so happy when I open my fridge and find it's full of brightly coloured vegies.

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