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  Food and Thought Newsletter - January 2024

  Making (and Keeping) New Year’s Resolutions!
  The end of the year is, for many, a time for reflection on the past and for aspirations for the future. Many people make resolutions for healthier choices in the new year. However, researchers suggest that only 9% of Americans that make resolutions complete them. There are many reasons for this and this issue of Food and Thought would like to address them and help you to make—and keep—your New Year’s resolutions.

  Making New Year’s Resolutions that Last
  There are several reasons why New Year’s resolu-tions don’t last beyond a few months (or in some cas-es, a few days!). These can include setting goals that are not meaningful, unexpected obstacles occur, goals are not measurable or are too vague, or lack of accountability. So, to make your New Year’s resolu-tions more likely to stick, keep these simple recom-mendations in mind as you set your own goals for 2024.
  1. Choose something meaningful..
  2. Set very specific goals.
  3. Have a clear plan for your resolution.
  4. Keep it simple.
  5. Choose something new; don’t repeat past efforts.
  6. Identify your support system to help you be accounta-ble.
  7. Give your resolution time to be-come a habit.

  Making small changes can bring big rewards.
  Keep Your 'Eat Better' New Year's Resolution With These Helpful Tips.

  1. Make time for breakfast; start the day with yogurt, fruit or whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk.
  2. Don’t skip any meals or snacks; fruit & nuts are healthy choices.
  3. Include a total of 30 minutes of activity every day; 10 minutes here and there goes a long way.
  4. Drink fewer sodas and other sweetened drinks, like iced tea.
  5. Meet your goal. Aim to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
  6. Buy pre-cut fruits and vegetables. Convenience makes you more likely to choose them when you're hungry.
  7. Pack healthy snacks. Save time and money by bringing snacks like hummus, yogurt, cut-up veggies, and string cheese to work, school, or other activities.
  8. Upgrade your salad. Add whole grains to boost the fiber, so you'll feel full.
  9. Fix pasta dishes with veggies and lean protein (like canned tiny shrimp, tuna canned in water, precooked chicken breast, or soy crumbles)
  10. Go for variety. Eat a variety of fruits & veggies.

  The Food and Thought Program works to promote awareness and provide short term counselling around the important link between. nutrition and emotional health. For more information or for a refer-ral to the program, please contact the Food and Thought Program at 781-599-0110.

   

  This work is supported by the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospital Community Benefits Community Grant Program and the Essex County Community Foundation Behavioral Health Partnership Grant.

   

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  Food and Thought newsletter - September 2023

  Feeling tired? Low energy? Unmotivated? It could be your diet! 

  There are a lot of things that can cause fatigue; a poor night’s sleep or not enough sleep, stress, even some health conditions. But what we eat also plays an important role in our energy level - in both positive and negative ways. Because the body is fueled by the foods that we eat it is important to feed it the best foods possible, and to avoid those that leave us feeling sluggish, tired and unable to concentrate. Focus on whole foods and avoid processed foods whenever possible. Below is a list of some of the best—and worst—foods for optimum cognitive health.
   

  What are Processed Foods and How Do They Effect Emotional Health?
  Most food needs some degree of processing, and not all processed foods are bad for the body. However, chemically processed foods, also called ultra-processed foods, tend to be high in sugar, artificial ingredients, re-fined carbohydrates, and trans fats. Because of this, they are a major contributor to obesity and illness around the world, and are increasingly being linked to impaired brain health, including mood disorders and cognitive decline.
  In recent decades, ultra-processed food intake has in-creased dramatically worldwide. These foods now ac-count for 25-60% of a person’s daily caloric intake throughout much of the world.
  These ultra-processed foods are sometimes called “cosmetic” foods, as compared with whole foods. Some examples of ultra-processed foods include:: frozen or ready meals, baked goods—including pizza, cakes, and pastries, packaged breads, processed cheese products, breakfast cereals, crackers and chips, candy and ice cream, instant noodles and soups, reconstituted meats, such as sausages, nuggets, fish fingers, processed ham, sodas and other sweetened drinks.
   

  Foods to Eat More Of

  • Avocado
  • Kidney beans
  • Almonds
  • Banana
  • Spinach
  • Dates
  • Brown rice
     

  Foods to Avoid

  • Artificially sweetened foods and beverages
  • White bread
  • Baked goods
  • High caffeine drinks
  • Processed and/or cured meats (such as sausage, bacon and salami)
     

  Rule of Thumb — Read your labels. The fewer ingredients the better! If there is an ingredient listed that your grandmother would not recognize, AVOID THAT FOOD!
   

  Change can be difficult. Start by adding a few healthier food choices to your daily and weekly meal plans. Then slowly add more as you begin to remove some of the less healthy choices. And be patient with yourself. Change takes time. But your body—and your brain—will thank you for it

  This work is supported by the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospital Community Benefits Community Grant Program and the Essex County Community Foundation Behavioral Health Partnership Grant.

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  Food and Thought Newsletter - March 2024

  The Food-Feeling Connection: Emotional Eating and Your Health

  The challenges of daily life can, at times, leave us all feeling tired, stressed and overwhelmed. In response to some of these emotions, you may find yourself seeking comfort in food. This manner of coping with difficult emotions is called Emotional Eating. Because this type of eating is not the result of hunger, it is common to eat a lot more calories than our bodies need or will use, and we often gravitate towards food that are high in fat, sugar and salt. While these types of foods may be more appealing when you are feeling stress, are in a bad mood, or feel bad about yourself, the satisfaction they provide is short-lived. In fact, these types of high fat, high sugar foods may leave you feeling worse than before, and can have negative and long-lasting effects on your physical and emotional health and well-being.

  Recognizing Emotional Eating

  Everyone has bad days, but not everyone uses food to get through them. Some behaviors and thought patterns can increase your chance of becoming an emotional eater. Some risk factors include:
  • Difficulty managing your emotions.
  • Poor body image; being unhappy with your body.
  • Dieting and/or feeling deprived of foods.
  Emotional eating often becomes a habit. If you use food to self-sooth difficult emotions, you will be more likely to crave the same (unhealthy) foods the next time you are feeling bad. This happens be-cause when you eat foods you enjoy, you stimulate the feel-good centers in your brain, triggering you to eat even more. This makes it more diffi-cult to resist the temptation of unhealthy choices in the future, thus setting up a pattern of unhealthy eating.
  Sources: https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/special-topic/break-the-bonds-of-emotional-eating: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/heres-the-deal-with-your-junk-food-cravings

  Breaking the Pattern of Emotional Eating

  Emotional eating is a learned behavior that can be unlearned through awareness and attention to your stress management habits. The first step in stopping the pattern of emotional eating is to recognize when it is happening. With this awareness you can take steps to make different choices when the urge to emotional eat appears.
  1. Do something else when the urge appears; take a walk, call a friend, engage in an activity you enjoy or are good at.
  2. Know your strengths; take note of your suc-cesses and things you are good at.
  3. Plan ahead; Do not go hungry. When you are both hungry and stressed, pizza and other fast foods become much more tempting.
  4. Make comfort food healthier. Prepare your favorite dishes with fewer calories.

  Are you an Emotional Eater?

  • Do you eat when you feel angry, depressed, hurt, or otherwise upset?
  • Do you eat in response to certain people or situations?
  • Do certain places or times of day trigger food cravings?
  If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have a tendency toward emotional eating. Speak with your health professional about additional ways to manage this behavior.

  The Food and Thought Program works to promote awareness and provide short term counselling around the important link between. nutrition and emotional health. For more information or for a referral to the program, please contact the Food and Thought Program at 781-599-0110.

  This work is supported by the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospital Community Benefits Community Grant Program and the Essex County Community Foundation Behavioral Health Partnership Grant.

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  Food and Thought Newsletter - May 2024

  Your Brain on Healthy Foods: The Benefits of Whole Foods
  Just as there is no single, “miracle” pill to prevent cognitive decline, there is no one food that can ensure a sharp brain as you age. However, nutritionists emphasize that the most important strategy for brain health is to follow a healthy dietary pattern that includes a lot of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.
  Research shows that following a dietary pattern that emphasizes whole foods (food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances) and minimizes or eliminates foods that are high in saturated fats, added sugars and sodium) can lead to optimum physical and emotional health.
  Examples of healthy dietary patterns include the Mediterranean diet, the MIND diet, and the traditional Japanese diet.

  The Brain-Gut Connection :
  Our brains talk to our gut, and our gut talks back. While the brain communicates with all body systems, this communication is particularly strong between the brain and the gut. In fact more information passes between your brain and your gut than with any other body system. This is because there are more nerve cells (the system used for this bi-directional communication) in your gut than anywhere else in your body, outside of your brain. The brain and gut communicate about many things, including practical, physical, and emotional matters. Some of these are: hunger and satiety, food preferences and cravings, food sensitivities and intolerances, digestion, metabolism, mood, behavior, stress levels, pain sensitivity, cognitive function, immunity.

  The Best Foods For Brain Health :
  1. Green, leafy vegetables, such as spinach, kale, and swiss chard
  2. Fatty fish such as salmon, cod, canned light tuna, and pollack
  3. Avocados
  4. Berries such as blueberries, rasp-berries and blackberries
  5. Walnuts
  6. Flax Seeds
  https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/foods-linked-to-better-brainpower; https://www.health

  This is What Happens When You Give Up Diet Soda:
  1. Brain fog clears and thinking and concentration improve.
  2. Migraines go away.
  3. Food tastes better.
  4. It helps weight loss.
  5. Bones become stronger.
  6. Risk for diabetes and fat storage goes down.
  7. Your kidneys function better.
  https://www.prevention/health/effects-diet-soda

  https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/foods-linked-to-better-brainpower; 
  https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626; 
  https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/the-gut-brain-connection

  The Food and Thought Program works to promote awareness and provide short term counselling around the important link between. nutrition and emotional health. For more information or for a referral to the program, please contact the Food and Thought Program at 781-599-0110.

  This work is supported by the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospital Community Benefits Community Grant Program and the Essex County Community Foundation Behavioral Health Partnership Grant.

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  Food and Thought Newsletter - April 2024

  Why We Crave Certain Foods: Understanding What Drives Snacking
  Cravings are frequent, specific, intense desires to eat a particular type of food. Cravings often involve ultra-processed, salty, sweet, or crunchy snacks. According to Erin Morse, chief clinical dietitian at UCLA Health, cravings are not about hunger. She explains, “Hunger is the need for food for fuel, for nutrition, for all the good things that our bodies and our brains need." In contrast, with cravings, "Our bodies are telling us that we want something to eat."
  People might experience food cravings seemingly out of nowhere, or they may be related to seeing, smelling, or hearing about a specific food. For example, seeing an advertisement for French fries could trigger a craving for them. But because cravings are about what we want to eat and not what our bodies need to eat to function optimally, we are at risk of eating too many calories and becoming under-nourished. This is because unhealthy food items that we may come to crave often have little or no nutritive value. So why do we crave them? Continue reading to find out more about the causes of food cravings and for some tips on how to reduce them.

  Common Triggers for Cravings:
  The brain regions responsible for memory, pleasure and reward play a role in cravings, as do hormonal fluctuations, emotions, and even hunger (though they are not the same as hunger). Seeing an advertisement for particular food items, stress or “comfort eating”, menstruation or pregnancy, and even waiting too long between or skipping meals can all trigger cravings. Additional triggers may include:
  1. External cues, like watching a favorite TV show that you have a habit of watching while eating ice cream. You'll be-come conditioned to reach for that bowl of ice cream when you watch an episode,
  2. Internal cues, such as sadness, can prompt people to crave certain foods too.
  3. Deprivation. If you're restricting food or dieting, you may find yourself craving certain foods by the end of the day. .
  4. Poor sleep. "Studies show that lack of sleep can increase appetite and increase cravings," .
  5. Social environment. Think of the workplace vending ma-chine or your partner who is constantly baking treats. "They're seeing it all the time; they want it all the time,"
  Sources for this newsletter: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318441#replacing-cravings https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318441#replacing-cravings

  Tips For Reducing Food Cravings
  1. Being dehydrated can make you feel hungry or increase food cravings.
  2. Get enough sleep. Not getting enough sleep (at least 7 hours) can contribute to increased hunger and cravings.
  3. Eat enough protein. It will help you feel satisfied longer and reduce craving.
  4. Snack smart.
  5. Remove triggers.

  Healthy Snack Ideas for Every Kind of Food Craving
  1. Instead of chips, try 1/4 cup of lightly salted nuts.
  2. Instead of milk chocolate, choose antioxidant-rich dark chocolate with 70% cocoa or more.
  3. Instead of pastries or can-dies, switch to fresh or dried fruit.
  4. Instead of soda, try seltzer water with a squeeze of fruit juice or a slice of fresh orange, lemon, lime or sprig of mint.
  5. Instead of full-fat cheese, switch to low-fat cheese. And remember, always in moderation.

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  Food and Thought Newsletter - September 2024

  What Are Micronutrients and Why Are They Important to Mental Health?
  According to the World Health Organization, micronutrients are vitamins and minerals needed by the body to perform a range of functions, including enabling the body to produce enzymes, hormones and other substances needed for normal growth and development. While the body needs only small amounts of these micronutrients, their role in maintaining physical and mental health is critical. Deficiency in any of them can cause severe and even life-threatening conditions, as well as increase the risk of developing or exacerbating symptoms of depression, anxiety and cognitive impairment. Micronutrients believed to impact mood and brain functioning include: Omega-3 and N-3 essential fatty acids, Vitamin B, Vitamin B-12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E, Magnesium, Zinc, Potassium.
  Continue reading this month’s newsletter for more information on micronutrients and their impact on emotional health.

  Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids
  Research shows that increasing essential fatty acids has an effect on the prevention and treatment of anxiety and depression. Omega-3 can optimize mood and cognitive func-tion. Foods Rich in Omega-23 Fatty include: fish, chia seeds, walnuts, seeds, seaweed, and olive oil.

  Vitamin B-12
  Vitamin B-12 is a critical brain nutrient necessary for the production of Serotonin (mood stabilizing chemical), and may prevent the loss of neurons. Foods rich in this micronutrient include: liver, shellfish, crab, fermented cheese, eggs, and tofu.

  Vitamin B
  Vitamin B produces energy needed to develop new brain cells. Foods rich in this micronutrient include: Salmon, leafy greens, liver, eggs, oysters, legumes, turkey, chicken, and yogurt.

  Vitamin C
  Crucial to cognitive performance. Helps the maturation of neurons and the formulation of the myelin sheath that protects neurons and speeds impulse transmission. Foods rich in this micronutrient include: citrus fruit, peppers, strawberries and broccoli.

  Vitamin D
  Helps support the growth of new brain cells and Serotonin production. Low levels of Vitamin D have been correlated to memory loss. Food rich in Vitamin D include: Salmon, sardines, tuna, egg yolks, and fortified dairy.

  Vitamin E
  An antioxidant that protects cells from the damage associated with oxidative stress. Foods rich in Vitamin E include: Sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, spinach, pumpkin, red bell pepper, plant-based oils.

  Magnesium
  Acts as a gateway for NMDA receptors, which are involved in healthy brain development. Foods rich in Magnesium include: Spinach, seeds, almonds, cashews, and peanuts.

  Zinc
  Maintains the integrity of DNA that helps the brain direct all cellular activities. Foods rich in Zinc include: Lamb, pumpkin seeds, grass-fed beef, chick peas, cashews, yogurt, & mushrooms.

  Potassium
  Acts as a “brake” for the central nervous system. Low Potassium levels contribute to anxiety, worry, restlessness. Foods rich in Potassium include: avocado, pineapple, dried apricots, tomatoes, potatoes, and melon.

  Sources for this month’s Newsletter: https://www.who.int/health-topics/micronutrients#tab=tab_1   https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/vitamin-and-nutrients-handout.pdf

  This work is supported by the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospital Community Benefits Community Grant Program and the Essex County Community Foundation Behavioral Health Partnership Grant.
  The Food and Thought Program works to promote awareness and provide short term counselling around the important link between. nutrition and emotional health. For more information or for a referral to the program, please contact the Food and Thought Program at 781-599-0110.