Is there a connection between the foods we put into our bodies and how we feel emotionally? Consider this: have you ever eaten a piece of your favorite cake and then wanted to take a nap? Had a cup of your favorite coffee and then felt your energy plummet a half hour or so later? How about that lovely Christmas dinner, after sharing this holiday meal with loved ones, how did it make you feel? Well? What about how you’ve felt after eating a salad? Or a piece of your favorite fruit? Or a glass of clean, pure water? How have these foods made you feel emotionally? Well, if you’re anything like me you’ve noticed that the ‘cleaner’ foods like veggies, fruits and water for example, have made a difference to how you feel. After completing a 31 day juice fast in January 2008, or ‘feast’ as it’s becoming known in some circles, I’ve learned yet another valuable lesson about raw food and my mood. That my mood remains stable when I ingest plant based foods. My mood does not plummet into a place of inconsolable melancholy. My brain functions more efficiently too. My thinking is clearer and quicker. I can retrieve and input information more effectively. In addition, I can be more authentically present to my clients at work. My body feels lighter and more agile. And my Yoga practice becomes more effortless as the pain and stiffness in the joints somehow disappears on an exclusively plant based diet. Animal products are proving to not be the ones that enhance my emotional health and well being. While I feel a nostalgia for them, a sentimental attachment to them, in terms of my emotional health, it’s the plant based products that are proving to be the health enhancing ones. What this means is that I am able to manage my emotional health with the food choices that I make. Wow, what a concept. Not a new one mind you, but a powerful one nonetheless. That what we put into our shopping carts and into our bodies can have such a significant influence on our emotional well-being. IT IS the simple ideas that can have the most power to influence the quality of our lives. Simplifying my diet is paying noticeable dividends with respect to how I feel, how I feel living in my body, and by extension how I feel about myself (in this case more confident, more able, more at peace to name a few). How about you? What’s the connection between food and mood in your life? Is what you’re putting into your body lifting your energy, or depleting it? Think about it. Drop me a line if you’d like. I’d love to hear about your experience.