Tip 7 | How Diet Can Affect Your Mood

Hey there! Welcome to this video on how your diet can affect your mood.

One of the biggest things that affects your overall academic performance is your mood, and one big thing that affects your mood is your diet. Food can act as medicine to help your brain work better, to decrease aging in your brain, and to improve your memory.

Dr. Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a UCLA professor, says “diet, exercise, and sleep have the potential to alter our brain health and mental function. This raises the exciting possibilities that changes in diet are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities, protecting the brain from damage, and counteracting the effects of aging.”

Omega-3 fatty acids play a vital role in improving learning and memory, as well as fighting in the defense of mental disorders such as depression and mood disorders, dementia, and so on. In fact, studies show that children with larger amounts of Omega-3 fatty acids function more efficiently in school. There were also fewer behavioral issues among kids with higher amounts of Omega-3s.

Researchers from Oregon State University suggest that both a high-fat and a high-sugar diet, in comparison to a normal diet, affect certain bacteria in our gut, which is linked to a remarkable decrease in our ability to adapt to changing circumstances. The effect the high-sugar diet had was actually greater, and it also negatively affects learning for long-term and short-term memory.

Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that regulates our sleep and appetite, helps regulate our moods, and blocks pain. Well, it just so happens that around 95% of our serotonin is actually being made in our gastrointestinal tract. Within our gastrointestinal tracts, there are over one hundred million nerve cells as well as neurons. So, no wonder our digestive systems, along with digesting food, help to control our emotions.

Harvard Medical School found that people who take a probiotic have lower anxiety and stress levels, and show an improvement in mental health in comparison with people who do not take a probiotic.

It’s really easy to just eat whatever we want, whatever we have easy access to, whatever is cheapest, and it’s easy to not think about how much junk we are consuming. Our brains are constantly at work keeping us alive. Literally, they never shut off until the day we die. They need high-quality fuel to nourish and protect them from stress.

As you prepare for exams, be aware of your eating habits, and try to switch your diet to be conducive to a healthy lifestyle.

Thanks for watching! See you next time!