Food Can Fix It - dr. Mehmet Oz

song that nails the sense of something wrong instead of right with the world.
But even if you can’t quite put your finger on the origin of your mood, you
may instinctively put your fingers on something else: food.
When we feel off, we self-medicate, and many times, food is the drug of
choice. I’m lumping several “problems” into one category—feeling down,
anxious, angry, etc.—but there is a common thread. They all make us more
prone to emotional eating.
The instinct to eat isn’t always bad, however. In fact, used in the right way,
food can actually change your brain chemistry to balance the hormones that
influence your emotional state. Unfortunately, most of us prescribe ourselves the
wrong kind of medicine. Sometimes it’s half a jar of peanut butter or a mega
bowl of ice cream. Sometimes it’s too much alcohol. These kinds of OTKC
(over-the-kitchen-counter) medications have real dangers—including the
possibility of addiction. Let’s take a look at the emotional dynamics.
Different forces are in charge when you make decisions. The executive
function—located in the cerebral cortex—gives you the ability to see a problem,
analyze it, make a choice, and find a solution. It’s how we get things done from
day to day. It’s the part of the brain that has helped us survive, thrive, and
continue to extend our lives as individuals and as a species. Executive function
allows you to read this book, make decisions about food, and be smart about
how you fill your plate.
Other decisions are more emotional and/or instinctual; you’re reacting rather
than thinking. These responses are associated with a part of the brain called the
amygdala, which helps regulate fear, love, temptation, and anxiety. It impels you
to gobble down a cake pop at the mall because you saw a kid eating one and it
looked darn good. It has you reaching for a bag of chips when a relative sends
you a super-annoying text. It makes choices about food without consulting your
master eating plan, just by reacting.
Often the two functions work together. For example, your emotions may tell
you that you’re attracted to someone, and the executive function allows you to
cook up the best way to ask that person on a date. But here’s the interesting
thing: The amygdala is darn persuasive, which is why emotion can override
logic and reason. In the thick of things, emotional impulses can shove the
executive aside, so self-control does take some work and strategy.
Without that, we can fall prey to feelings and impulses, rather than
knowledge-based decisions, as humans did when our only big decision was
whether to fight an enemy or flee from one. There was no time to carve a
pro/con list on the wall of your cave. There was no need for twenty-one-day
plans because you didn’t even know whether you’d make it through the next