I wonder if alot of so-called pms mood swings and sudden dips into melancholy by most females are just due to the way we eat and diet. today, i saw myself go from a sunny disposition in the day to a dreadfully sorrowful slump in the evening. my last meal had been at 1130am and by 8pm, i had undergone a rapid mood change and was literally feeling depressed for no good reason. it wasn't like i had a bad day or anything, i was just suddenly sad.
as i tried to figure out the cause for my sudden volatile swings in mood, i realized that my sugar levels were severely low and that it was just plain lack of energy that was also sapping all my spirit out of me.
so as i stole a brownie to tide over the hunger whilst waiting for my turn at the kitchen, i started wondering if alot of the mood swings women go through are sometimes just partly due to the horrible diets that women tend to put themselves under. Not eating enough, or choosing to starve themselves so that they'll look thinner and trimmer, they may learn to tolerate the hunger pangs or shrink their appetite, but i don't think that can mask the fact that the body still needs certain levels of supplements and nutrients
of course, this doesn't mean that pms mood swings by themselves don't exist or that all mood swings and sudden plunges into melancholy are due to low sugar levels, but i do think that the crazy diets we women subject ourselves to do have a huge emotional impact on our being. i can think of many instances of female friends complaining to me that they are unhappy but without knowing why. i wonder if just heeding the body signals better would change the frequency of such complaints.
1 comment:
Carbohydrates can raise serotonin levels (giving the feel good factor) and also insulin level (which makes you wake up - hence why during dead long boring lectures u can keep awake better by sucking on a bonbon)
Thats why long hours without food can make you really tired, but it really depends on your body/diet make up and what you are already used to. Most of us have 3 meals or more a day, and we are so used to those high insulin levels that we find that our energy levels drop off rapidly when we skip just one meal- and hence the fatigue/exhaustion.
Women are particularly susceptible to diets high in processed foods/sugars, simply because it makes them feel good - which is why its not hard for you to see the reason why the pastry/bread/snack businesses at Shenton Way do so well- simply because there is a high concentration of people with long hours, stressful jobs who need a 'little boost' from food.
Anyway, if you really want to read a bit more you can look at ' Good calories Bad calories' by Gary Taubes. There are other books, but i always recommend that one first because its a 'one-stop' reading that's a great starter:)
Having said all that too, the fundamental problem that people have is overeating, be it sugar or fat, and not helping we have already lost a lot of our natural intuition when it comes to knowing for sure what is beneficial to our health.
KP
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