food and mood

[mirry]

When I had a migrane last week the doctor told me that it can be caused by food, well I had eaten egg on toast that morning so she said watch how I am after eating eggs and bread.
I have been reading about it all here and how food can cause anxiety and depression and it says what foods are the common triggers.


http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/brainallergies.htm

[jo61]

I heard Patrick Holford on the radio this week on LBC. He was discussing how nutrition affects mental health. Very interesting stuff. I'm thinking of buying his book on OPtimum nutrition for the mind.

[Karen]

An interesting article.

I have always dismissed any suggestions that my diet might play a factor in my health - emotional or physical - and it is difficult for me to say with any certainty one way or another due to my eating disorder.

However, in recent months I have vitually eliminated meat from my diet, originally due to thoughts about fat content and now mainly due to really not liking the taste much, although how much of that is due to thoughts about weight I am not sure :shrug:

I do know that I have sometimes been ill after eating eggs, which I try to add to my diet at times for the protein since I am not having meat sources. I also know that when I was originally hospitalised due to low weight and being given a lot of milk to drink my migraines became a lot worse. Since virtually eliminating dairy products from my diet - again because of fears about fat content - I've had a lot less migraines. Whether this is a real correlation or not I am not sure.

I do have a lot of digestion problems, a lot self inflicted, but I am not sure whether it is a result of poor eating habits or a natural intolerance which means that I have problems digesting food now. Quite often food passes through me undigested :blush:

Don't think I have a problem with wheat but I may well have a slight milk intolerance.

Karen

[Quirky]

I really believe that the food we eat can affect our physical and mental wellbeing and can definitely affect migraines in some people.

Lisa

[Southern_Belle]

Mirry very interesting topic. I have quite a few food allergies. I have been tested by an allergist with pricks on the back because I was tested for so many due to having asthma and eczema and colic. My son was also tested because he had severe asthma and colic. My other son had hives. I was told they are all in the same family.

My poor son had 17 severe allergies. I only had 4. These were foods. We are also allergic to mold, anything green, dust, cats, dogs, etc. We did allergy shots for 4 months twice a week one in each arm. My son, because he was so young, is much better. He is now only allergic to 2 foods and will be for life. I'm no better. We were finally able to get a dog that is hypo allergic. This was a 8 year process.

What I really wanted to state were the mood swings when we got some of the foods in us that we should not have. Just a bite of something would not kill us but I and my husband could immediately tell when something was eaten. It was so difficult with so many different food allergies (of course none of his matched mine) to never make an error. We walk around with epi-pens and have them everywhere. My son now lives a normal life.

I will say I only get major migraines and very sick to my stomach from soy. Eggs major stomach upset, I can't even get a flu vaccine. It is the mood swings I don't even catch though, sometimes I don't even realize it.

The really odd thing is I didn't have these food allergies as a child. I suffered an immune system collapse and then had them. Although I will say I always avoided these certain foods because I never liked them growing up.

Laura :)

[mirry]

Laura how interesting !

My son is 13 years old and carrys epi pen injections because he has anaphylactic reactions to many foods, he also has learning difficulties and we were told that allergies and learning difficulties often go together :ohmy: ,
so if this is the case, then it would be perfectly reasonable for food to cause mood swings wouldnt it ?

Yes I think theres something in it, I would love to buy that book to see what they say.

Ive just done another post on potassium defficiency, this whole subject is facinating and maybe we are on to something , who knows ?

:flowers:

[Southern_Belle]

Mirry,

My son has ADD which is considered a learning disability!!! Some days he is better than others. I know he is allergic to red food dye he goes nuts when he gets that into him and he just goes off the deep end mood wise. He is now 14 years old. This has been going on since I stopped nursing him at 1 year. Until then he had the worst case of colic the doctor had ever seen that lasted for 5 months. So basically we had 7 easy months, LOL. Bless him, poor thing has had a rough time of it. So sorry for your son too. I will take a look at your other post.

Laura :)

[Lindalou64]

Thats Interesting That Food Allergies Goes With Learning Disabilitys, Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....i Know Chocolate Can Bring On Anxiety And Depression And I Think Most Of Us Maybe Crave This Also When We Are Doomed................linda Xx

[happyone]

Hi,
I work with people with learning disability and once worked with a young man who had so many food intolerances. Many foods would cause him to become violent and aggresive but this may have ben that they were causing him physical discomforts that he was unable to tell us about.
He was on such a restricted diet the poor man, which in itself caused lots of problems as he did not understand why he could not have the same as everyone else.

I think there is a lot of things we don't know about food. Particularly processd foods. I know my oldest daughter was very affected by what sweets she had as an infant, although she seems fine now.

Interesting post mirry

happyone
xx

[Southern_Belle]

My thoughts exactly HappyOne. My son as a toddler would just be miserable broken out from head to toe with eczema and just screaming. I knew in my heart it was not the normal tantrums of a child that age. He did not have the normal allergy screenings until he was older they don't do it on children that young. He was operated on for celiac disease and that was ruled out. I bascially tried to do an elimination diet to see what he was allergic to. The poor kid never ate at a McDonalds until he was 12! Maybe that wasn't so bad after all... His favorite food is salad LOL.

The worst thing was I knew I was making him sick by feeding him things and didn't know how to stop it. If I knew then what I know now I would have kept nursing longer, but everyone including the doctors, said 1 yr was enough. Just shows you what they knew.

Laura :)

[happyone]

Laura,
I know all the evidence re the nursing and all that. But a good friend of mine nursed her first child for so so long and that child has eczema, asthma and several allergies food and otherwise requiring her to carry an epi pen. Her second child was nursed for a much shorter time and he is the perfect picture of health, no allergies as of yet!
I think we can make ourselves guilty for not nursing longer, but it is IMHO an unecessary guilt. I had dreadful guilt over not carrying on longer with my first, I just couldn't do it but I tried as hard as I could.
My second....well I was pretty much certifiable within a very short time of her birth:blush: and put on meds that made it unsafe to nurse her. She is a picture of health, my oldest had asthma!!

Happyone
xx

[mirry]

Interesting , my son had terrible eczema too, he spent 3 months in hospital covered in wet wraps head to toe, the doctors wanted to give him cancer treatment cos it got so bad . He always used to cry so much cos he was so allergic to things. Now hes showing some signs of anxiety, he has aspergers syndrome and other related disabilities.

What an interesting subject , when I was little I was allergic to the sun of all things,lol. And Peanuts, they used to make me sick.
Then toffees used to give me headaches, dont know why ?

Ive had allergy tests done and it said im allergic to Yeast and thats all ?
Dont know if everything shows up in these tests ?

Wonder if others have allergies on this site ?

[happyone]

I am allergic to mussels, had a really bad reaction. But know what is really yucky? My friend who is a chef told me that I might have actually reacted to the pollution rather than the mussel! Euch!

Happyone
xx

[mirry]

yuk ,lol .enough to put you off for life ehh !

[Southern_Belle]

Oh Happy yuck, poor you. Funny my oldest wasn't nursed at all as he had to stay in hospital for 2 weeks and I had to leave him behind so he had formula and he had hives. I also had eczema and was on formula as I was 2 months early a premie. Who knows? Neither of my children have any signs of anxiety or depression and none of my siblings do either. I'm what you would call the "anxiety" sheep of the family. :lisa:

Laura :)