The effect of food intake on mood

Literature consistently demonstrates that individuals experiencing emotional distress, especially depression, report a craving and preference for sweet carbohydrate/fat rich foods. This relationship exists in individuals experiencing fall/winter seasonal affective disorder, premenstrual syndrome, and some obese individuals. The cravings and preference for these foods occur only during the fall and winter in individuals with seasonal affective disorder and in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle in individuals with premenstrual disorder which is the time when symptoms of depression are experienced. Additionally, unipolar depressed individuals increase their preference for sweet carbohydrate/fat rich foods as they become depressed. They also increase their consumption of carbohydrates from sucrose. Several studies indicate that sweet carbohydrate/fat rich foods are consumed because of the resulting mood enhancement. However, other studies have revealed that elimination of intake of added sucrose and/or caffeine from the diet of unipolar depressed individuals results in an amelioration of depression that is maintained as long as the substance they are sensitive to, added sucrose or caffeine, is not consumed. The cravings and preference which some depressed individuals have for sweet carbohydrate/fat rich foods seems to result from the enhancement in mood following consumption. Paradoxically, however, a better long-term strategy for mood enhancement may be to totally eliminate added sucrose and caffeine from the diet of depressed individuals. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.