THE CAUSES OF OBESITY: THE FOOD-MOOD CONNECTION

Foods can wreak havoc on our psychological health as well as our physical appearance, notes Dr. Elson Haas, director of the Preventive Medical Center in San Rafael, California, and author of The Detox Diet. Sugar is a particular culprit. "A number of my patients were on medicines for depression and other disorders,” says Haas. “When I interviewed them about their diets, which their psychiatrists or doctors never did, it turned out that they were drinking a quart of colas every day. They were getting in the neighborhood of forty to fifty teaspoons of sugar daily."

Depressed people tend to love sugar because of the initial lift it provides. Sugar stimulates serotonin (an essential mood elevating hormone) levels, which, in turn, temporarily alleviates depression and makes a person feel good. But the initial charge disappears in a matter of minutes. The reason for this up-and-down pattern is that sugar, in any form, does not require digestion and passes directly into the bloodstream, where it raises the blood sugar level dramatically and overstimulates the pancreas to produce too much insulin. The excess of insulin then causes the sugar level to careen down. The result is that twenty-five minutes after the initial consumption the blood sugar has dropped to very low levels and feelings of fatigue, irritability, and anxiety are generated. Feeling low again, the individual craves more sugar, and the cycle starts all over.

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