Anger And Diet: How Food Can Affect Your Mood?

Have you ever been so angry that you do things that you later regret? Many people have found themselves in such a situation at one point in their lives. There are others who have anger management issues and are spending a huge amount of money on therapy. What if you were told that the food you eat can help you to control your anger?

There are researches that suggest that diet can be used to partially control anger. When food is ingested into the body, it is broken down into various constituents some of which has been shown to have varying influences on mood.

Some food can make you aggressive while other foods can balance mood swings.

Causes And Impact Of Anger On Health

Everybody’s level of tolerance is different. Some people are easily angered while others can tolerate ill treatment towards them without getting overtly angry. Generally, anger can result from disappointment, hurt, and fear. Although expression of anger is one of the normal human expression, too much of it can have severe physical and mental consequences.

Anger triggers some physiological changes that spike the release of adrenaline (also called fight or flight hormone). The excess release of adrenalin is often accompanied by symptoms like tension, headache, hypertension, and depression.

Studies On The Relationship Between Food And Anger

It is not only what you eat that makes your angry, what you don’t eat can provoke an aggressive response. There is a popular saying that, “An angry man is a hungry man”. Not so surprisingly, this assertion has received scientific backing. A research finding published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Science showed that people who were hungry were more prone to stab a voodoo doll. According to the findings, the hungrier people become, the lower their blood sugar and the angrier they become.

Scientists suggest that the feeling in your stomach is not isolated from the rest of the body but can have a severe impact on vital body organs like the heart, brain, and lungs. Hunger stimulates the body into a fight-or-flight response.

There is another study at the University of California that linked an increase in trans fatty acids intake to increase in aggression. This is likely because the buildup of trans fatty acids decreases the ability of the brain to utilize omega-3 fatty acids (which has been found to reduce aggression. There has also been proven relationships between deficiency of omega-3 and depression which adds to irritability.

Foods That Help With Anger Management

Anger management diet does not involve any drastic changes in food constituents, rather, a small modification on what you eat. This includes;

• Eating more mood supporters particularly fruits and vegetables
• Choosing foods that are close to nature over processed food. A good example is choosing an apple over apple juice.
• Add a sprinkle of food rich in magnesium like spinach, almonds, and pumpkin seeds in your food because they support sleep.

It is important to check your Vitamin D level because low levels of this vitamin have been associated with mood disorder.