10.
Food FIXES for Bad Moods
Feeling a little cranky, moody . . . off? Choose foods that will turn
your well-being back on.
In medicine, we often think of formulas: x symptom + y symptom = z condition.
The answer to that equation dictates the treatment options. Some conditions,
however, don’t have clear formulas. Some are nuanced in their appearance,
which makes them trickier to treat. Some diagnoses are more art than science.
That’s certainly the case when it comes to mood issues—a kitchen-sink
category that contains stress, anxiety, or just feeling down. You can’t simply take
an X-ray, MRI, blood test, or other diagnostic that shows something’s not right.
There’s no biomarker that can tell us, hey, your mood has a reading of thirty-two
tears per minute so you should be treated with two tablespoons of
whatevericillin.
Like any health issue, mood problems have a wide spectrum of severity—
some are episodic and minor, while others can be chronic and life-threatening.
Important note: Major mental illness requires professional help, so please don’t
rely on this chapter to magically resolve it. If you have any doubt about whether
what you are feeling is serious enough to warrant a doctor’s visit, it likely is.
Here, I’m addressing the common and normal fluctuations of emotions
including frustration, anxiety, and blues that many of us experience as we cycle
through our lives. People with minor mood issues—the kind we will deal with in
the next few pages—can have difficulty describing their state of mind. Perhaps
artists capture this kind of trouble better than anyone; think of a painting from
Picasso’s blue period or a piece of classical music or a poignant lyric from a pop