After decades of working with people in my therapy practice, I have seen a variety of my clients discover that they have food sensitivities. I’m sure you all know of someone who can’t eat gluten or dairy. There are many foods a person can be sensitive to or allergic to but many people don’t realize that these sensitivities can impact their mood. It can also impact your mood if you don’t eat regularly. So, we need to consider both how often we eat, and what we eat if we want to be healthy. My focus will be on mental health but these things will affect one’s physical health as well.
Years ago, I had a client with bipolar disorder who was struggling with fairly severe manic behaviors. She frequently had sex with people she barely knew, often without birth control or protection from STDs. She learned skills that I taught her, yet she didn’t make progress for a long time. Then I discovered that she was restricting her food intake all day for fear of overeating. She was about 20 pounds over the weight she preferred and couldn’t lose the extra pounds. She primarily ate in the evening. When I educated her about the importance of regular eating and the likelihood that she would actually eat less if she ate regularly, she began eating three times a day. She lost 20 pounds and her mood stabilized. She quit doing risky behaviors and no longer needed to continue therapy as the skills she had learned began to work.
Another client of mine with bipolar disorder found that gluten acted like a light switch. When she ate gluten during a depressive episode, it would switch her immediately into a manic episode.
Another client discovered that after taking medication for her bipolar disorder, she developed food sensitivities. When she ate the foods she was sensitive to, she would become agitated (along with physical distress, like stomach aches) and have a difficult time sleeping. With regular use of these foods, she needed more medication to manage her bipolar disorder and help her sleep.
What do you do to discover these tools to help stabilize your mood? First, please understand that the majority of the population needs to eat at least three meals a day for adults and 5-6 for kids and teens. Regarding sensitivities, you have two choices that I know of. One option is to see a naturopathic doctor and get a food sensitivity test. That is probably the best option as it will uncover sensitivities that wouldn’t be included in an elimination diet. That test showed me that I am hyper-sensitive to foods I never would have known about from an elimination diet. I learned I am sensitive to poppy seeds, garlic, mustard, citrus, xantham gum, and gluten. Gluten and citrus would be easy to discover on an elimination diet, but the others would not.
For common sensitivities, you can try an elimination diet. To do this, you spend a minimum of four weeks completely eliminating these foods from your diet:
- Gluten
- Dairy
- Eggs
- Corn
- Soy
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Refined sugar
- Citrus
Some of these are very challenging to eliminate. You’ll have to read labels, including soaps, shampoos, and other topical products to be completely clear. It is even challenging to eliminate them from your diet as gluten is often in things you wouldn’t expect, like Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and mustard. You also may find it in “natural flavorings” and “other spices”. Citrus is also in lots of items you buy ready-made, like salad dressings. To completely eliminate these foods, you’ll have to carefully read labels, possibly avoid restaurants, and eat nothing if you are not clear about what the ingredients are.
The next step after you have had 4 weeks clean of these products, is to add them back in one at a time with a week between new products. After you haven’t had a food for several weeks, if you are sensitive to it, your reaction will be heightened, likely making it obvious. If you have a bad reaction to it, you will know you need to avoid that food. You may not have to avoid it forever. You could retry it once every 6-12 months and see if you still react badly to it.
When I did my elimination diet, I discovered a sensitivity to gluten, caffeine, and citrus. Later, I tried a keto diet for several months. After going keto and then returning to grains, I discovered I was sensitive to corn and oats which I hadn’t been aware of before. These sensitivities didn’t last forever. After getting away from a prescription medication I had been taking for a year or two, I was no longer sensitive to anything except gluten and caffeine.
Then, recently, after taking antibiotics, I redeveloped sensitivities, only now they were worse, causing a nasty rash on my face and neck in addition to the agitation. I expect in a year or two, I will once again be able to enjoy food with garlic and mustard. Boy, do I look forward to that day!! As you can see, without the blood test for food sensitivities, I never would have discovered the sensitivity to garlic, mustard, or xantham gum (which is in most gluten-free bread).
If you take the time and considerable effort to ferret out your food sensitivities and make sure you are eating adequate, healthy food at least 3 times per day, you will undoubtedly discover that your moods are more stable, you sleep better, and you need less medication. As you probably know, less medication means fewer side effects so overall a happier you. Blessings!
Please write in to share your stories about things you have learned here or in other places to help your mood, or just to ask questions that you’d like me to address in another post. Thanks for visiting!
#nutrition #foodmoodsolution #nutritionsolution #nutritionmood #moodstability