Product Description

Why do you feel tired after eating a full meal? Why do you have so much trouble concentrating? Why do you crave chocolate? Can diet affect depression? Is there a natural cure for insomnia? Nutrition expert Elizabeth Somer answers all these questions and more in this completely updated and revised second edition to her nutritional guide Food and Mood. The result of research encompassing thousands of the most up-to-date scientific studies, Somer explains how what we eat has a direct influence on how we feel, think, sleep, look, and act. She addresses specific food-related issues including health conditions, food cravings, diet struggles, stress, PMS, winter blues, energy levels, depression, memory, and sleep patterns, as well as tackling the issue of supplements and providing the real story on those you need and those you don't. Included is Somer's revolutionary Feeling Good Diet, a program that shows you how to take control of your eating habits to benefit mood and mental functioning now.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55832 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.com Review
In the early 1990s, when Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., a nationally recognized award-winning nutrition expert and the nutrition correspondent for Good Morning America, wrote the first edition of her groundbreaking book, Food & Mood, scientists were just beginning to understand how what we eat affects how we feel. Over the past several years, nutrition research has exploded, and this edition of Food & Mood has been completely revised and updated to reflect the latest findings on the relationship between diet and mental and emotional well-being.

Food & Mood covers all the bases for eating right for a healthy body and mind and includes practical, nutritionally sound advice for putting Somer's Feel Good Diet into practice. Somer starts out by simply and eloquently elucidating the science behind the food-mood link. She explains how food affects mood; the basis of food cravings; how diet is connected to stress, PMS, and fatigue; and what foods banish the blues, boost brain power, and improve sleep naturally. Need to stop overeating and abusing food? In the second section, Somer gives compassionate, pragmatic advice for turning your eating habits around for good. The final section gives detailed, step-by-step suggestions and guidelines to help you eat right to feel great. Included are shopping tips, daily menus, information on designing a supplement program, and tantalizing recipes. (Who knew burritos, brownies, and chocolate chip cupcakes could be good for you?) --Ellen Albertson

From Publishers Weekly
What at first glance would appear to be yet another look at the relationships of food with emotional state is, instead, an extremely well-researched probe of what a good diet can mean to both body and mind. Somer, editor of Nutrition Report, dispels many of the myths about specific foods and diet patterns, putting in their place scientific studies showing the links between mood and diet. Among the topics she discusses are food cravings, stress and diet, food allergies and intolerances, eating disorders, premenstrual syndrome and how food can affect sleep patterns. More than 100 tables, charts and worksheets help readers evaluate their diets and make appropriate changes. Menus and recipes are also included, and the need for supplements is discussed. Readers will appreciate Somer's no-nonsense style and the absence of contrived anecdotes to make important dietary points. Although some may find that the book gets off to a slow start, those who stick with it will find a valuable nutritional sourcebook.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The author of numerous books on nutrition (e.g., Nutrition for Women, LJ 10/15/93) and the editor of the monthly Nutrition Report, Somer has compiled ample information from scientific research that links nutrition to depression, mood swings, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and premenstrual syndrome (PMS). She includes over 100 tables, charts, and worksheets to help readers access their own mood swings plus nutritional menus and recipes to help counter these swings. Her only false step is recommending that anyone short on time purchase pre-cut vegetables, since vegetables begin losing nutrients when they are cut. Only those who are truly interested in nutritional research will be motivated to read this book from cover to cover, but it will serve as a good reference for any reader. Recommended for large nutrition collections.
Loraine F. Sweetland, Rebok Memorial Lib., Silver Spring, Md.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Breaking old eating habits
As the mother of two little boys, one and three years old, I found myself getting as tired and cranky as they were at 2PM nap time. I just assumed it was a natural part of being a busy mom. If I didn't sneak a nap while they were down, I'd rewarm the morning coffee and 'reward' myself with a cookie. When I picked up "Food and Mood" I actually had my husband in mind! When I started using the author's eating strategies, I noticed I wasn't craving a nap or coffee at midafternoon and I was really feeling good. For other 'tired' mom's, one key that helped me was when I started eating a protein-based midmorning and midafternoon snack, which helped me avoid the quick high of coffee and sugar that wore off too soon. I've since incorporated the same strategies with the kids and my husband (a habitual midafternoon candy bar eater), and he says he notices a difference and a better energy level too. I've recommended Food and Mood to so many friends that I actually wanted to write a review to help spread the word. This is one less cranky mom wishing you well.

I owe my life to this book
After years of depression, lethargy, and out-of-control weight, I thought that I would be that way forever. I had lost interest in anything fun. I couldn't keep up with household tasks. I was irritable, grouchy, intolerant. All I wanted to do was sleep.

Until reading and applying the principles presented in Food and Mood!

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I truly believe that it saved my life!

What you eat has a profound affect on how you feel.
Summary: This book is a fairly complete reference. It begins by explaining some aspects of chemical brain function. It then goes on to explain how diet can radically affect how a person feels, including mood and energy problems. As an aside, it also mentions PMS and SAD (seasonal affection disorder) as causes for food cravings and mood problems. It also mentions how certain low level diet deficiencies can cause various types of bodily harm. (The ones related to B vitamins are downright scary.) Finally this book proposes the Feeling Good Diet as a solution to all these problems.

Pros: The book is highly informative and enlightening. It is more complete on its own subject than many other books are on the subjects they cover.

Cons: This book falls short in that it is not a cookbook by any stretch of the imagination (although it does have a very short list of recipes). Although most of the book is highly informative, the Feeling Good Diet section is limited to lists of good foods and bad foods. The book also has a certain flaw common to most books: it takes too long to say what it has to say. Still, as far as books go, it is a four-star ranker.