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When Foods Make You Feel Bad


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No foods are taboo, even fried chicken. It?s how much you eat that affects your mood. Say no to supersizing. By Susan Kleiner for MSN Health & Fitness Truth is, you don?t have to eliminate any foods from your diet. The important step is realizing what foods make you feel awful and put you in a bad mood. If you pay attention, you can identify how certain foods, in certain portions, blitz your mood like a linebacker clobbering a quarterback. The approach I take as a nutritionist is to figure out how my clients can eat those foods in smaller portions while still enjoying them for the culinary experience and the sheer fun. It?s not about eliminating foods you love, but about appreciating them more. It?s one of the eating strategies I explain in my new book, The Good Mood Diet: Feel Great While You Lose Weight (Springboard Press). ?I came to realize that I was gobbling chocolate chip cookies to stuff down the stress in my life,? says Paula Burke, a Seattle business consultant with two young children. ?Now I really savor a good piece of chocolate, taking the time to take pleasure in it. I enjoy it so much more.? My list of feel-bad foods is really more about not overdoing it rather than not eating any particular food. For instance, I am not totally opposed to the occasional order of french fries, just make it a small order. If you simply must sample a great cheesecake while dining out, share it with at least one other person. Plus, some items?notably alcohol and chocolate?can actually transfer to the feel-great foods list if you consume them in moderation. Here are the Good Mood Diet?s Feel-Bad Food categories: Alcohol Caffeine (large doses) Fried foods Fatty meats Fatty snack foods Refined sugars and starches (most often in packaged foods) And here are my top 10 Feel-Even-Worse Foods (in no particular order). Note that the oversized serving dooms the mood-boosting of some items: Large order of fries: America?s favorite fast food is a mood-buster when you eat, oh, more than two handfuls. If you insist, get a small order and eat one fry at a time. You will be surprised at how satisfied you will be. Supersized sodas: This is no bargain when applied to your emotional ballast. Drinking more than 12 ounces will take a big gulp out of your mood in the ensuing hours. Pork rinds: Forget the Atkins unofficial stamp of approval. This snack is fried skin, no way around it. Bacon cheeseburgers: The best burger for mood is a hamburger without the cheese or bacon or secret sauce on a whole grain bun. If you insist, go for the occasional slice of cheese or strip or two of bacon (but why not save the bacon for its solo performance as a breakfast treat?). And skip the double and triple patties. White flour pasta with cream sauce: Alfredo, alschmedo. Even worse if you don?t at least order it with shrimp or chicken for some protein. Salami/cold cuts: If it is prepackaged, forget it. Too many nitrates and other preservatives to yank down your mood. Opt for fresh-roasted turkey or fresh, lean ham at the deli counter. Dessert for one: A few bites of cheesecake or tiramisu can be a definite mood booster. But the second half of that dessert is Crash City. Share your desserts with at least one other person. Packaged ?fruit? snacks: This might be the most objectionable pseudo-health foods on today?s market, especially for kids. Read the labels: These so-called fruit snacks are pretty much sugar and chemical agents. Fruit? Not a chance in most of these products. Think Gummy Bears or the old Chuckles candy. Wine for two: One to two glasses of red wine with dinner a couple of times each week, arguably, not only a mood enhancer but protection for your heart, brain and lifespan as well. The trouble starts in the natural temptation to split a bottle of wine, which works out to more than the one to two glasses per imbiber. Imagine yourself crossing a line from Great Mood to Dragging the Next Day. Bagels without the cream cheese or peanut butter: Today?s bagels are not even recognizable to the true New York deli customers. They are big, doughy and a mood deflator that improves marginally with some protein and fat (peanut butter is a better choice than cream cheese). Today?s bagels are just too big; they overpower rather than nourish. The same can be said for today?s gigantic breakfast muffins. Let?s talk about fried foods to make an important point. I?m not saying that you need to give up fish and chips?just that if you eat it, make sure it?s worth the splurge. Better yet, split an order with someone and add a salad or soup to your meal. And, to repeat my mantra, be sure that if you go with fish and chips, you also eat feel-great staples such as a whole egg or a cup of cocoa that same day. Similarly, I don?t suggest you have to pass on a friend?s mother?s outrageously good fried chicken. You certainly don?t want to offend someone?s mama?plus, hey, this is family culture here. Take a piece, savor it, then think about how your body energy is likely to dip, swoon and crash if you eat three or four pieces of that chicken instead of enjoying just the one. It?s uncanny how most of the feel-bad foods are ones that often give immediate gratification, but in the long run make you feel lousy. The immediate gratification comes from flavors, aromas and what taste experts call mouth-feel. That ?long run? might be an hour, or last through to the next morning, or over a long period of time when you just don?t feel that great about your energy level?or about yourself. The ?comfort? from comfort foods usually doesn?t translate to a surge in energy. A nap, maybe, but not more energy.

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