Top Quotes: “Eat & Flourish: How Food Supports Emotional Well-Being” — Mary Beth Albright
Introduction
“Depressed young men with poor diets had a significant reduction in symptoms over 12 weeks when they followed a Mediterranean diet;
» People who eat 2 cups of produce daily had lower stress levels than those who ate less than 1 cup;
» Stressed people who had high levels of omega-3 fatty acids had less anxiety and inflammation than stressed people who did not;
» Eating an inflammatory diet is associated with a 25 percent greater risk of depression and an 85 percent increase in emotional distress, and anti-inflammatory foods (foods that calm inflammation) are linked to better mental health outcomes;
» When mice exhibiting healthy behaviors received the gut microbes (which are highly influenced by diet) of mice exhibiting anxiety, the healthy mice start acting anxiously; and
» The more people eat with others, the happier and more satisfied they are with their lives.”
“Neurons get used to patterns of communication pathways. When you do something repeatedly, the neurons change their connections to “learn” how to meet more easily and quickly. So sometimes your neurons see a pattern and think, oh, I know this, and then follow a series of familiar connections. But we’ve recently discovered that you can change these patterns and grow new paths of neuron connections based on your behavior (including the food you eat), an idea called neuroplasticity.”
Weight Loss Pills
“Patients report that taking this class of medications reduces the “food noise” in their own heads. They can look at a plate of cookies and not be consumed with thoughts of whether they should eat one, whereas, before Ozempic, the cookies would spur a person’s internal dialogue weighing the pros and cons of whether the cookie would be delicious enough to be “worth it” at the cost of a larger body. The internal dialogue is, at least in part, due to diet culture.”
“A 2023 report from UCLA found that people who are exposed to racial or ethnic discrimination may be more susceptible to food-related health problems because of a stress response that alters the brain’s reaction to food reward and decision-making. When participants were shown food cues — juicy burgers or creamy ice cream — those with more discrimination experiences had greater brain activation in areas that regulate cravings and appetite. The same activation did not occur when participants were shown foods like vegetables. There were also noted changes in the gut microbiomes of participants who had experienced discrimination, with potential dysregulation of the gut-brain messaging pathways. Research like this may have been dismissed in the past before we had people’s anecdotal experience with Ozempic and hard data on weight loss that comes with it.
The new class of weight-loss drugs seems to intercept the way we think about highly palatable foods, and patients instead seek out some whole-food alternatives. This has caused a ripple effect in the food industry among businesses that make more money when you buy more food. Walmart released a statement that states customers on Ozempic buy less food. The investment banking firm Morgan Stanley conducted a survey that showed that people on weight-loss injectables reduce calories by 20 to 30 percent, and most of the respondents said they mostly cut back on sugar. The fast-food company Chipotle has said it expects its sales to rise as people on weight-loss drugs choose whole foods, which its menu is based on, rather than the fried foods of many fast-food companies. Other food companies, such as Nestlé, have announced that they’re working on creating new products directly targeting people using drugs like Ozempic.”
Guts
“There is a theory about why the body evolved so that hunger is associated with anger. It goes like this: During evolution, when food was scarce, it was critically important to have the extra motivation of anger — in addition to hunger — to go seek food. Feelings of hunger might not have been enough to alert us to the urgency of eating to our evolution.”
“These traumatized mice also developed gut problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome, alongside their mental disorders.
So Cryan tested their gut microbiomes — the community of trillions of microorganisms (tiny life forms that we can see only through microscopes) that help with digestion — and found that traumatized animals had different compositions of their gut microbiomes. What we eat greatly affects the gut microbiome and whether we have helpful or harmful bacteria living inside of us. Cryan wondered: If the microorganisms inside us help with digestion and if stress affects our microbiomes, then emotional states could influence what the body does with food and how food could influence our emotional states.
Cryan next turned to whether we can target the gut to deal effectively with stress. His later research showed that when his lab introduced beneficial bacteria into the animals’ digestive systems, their anxious and depressive behavior dampened equal to or more than the effect of the antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro). Antidepressants and food together could have an even greater effect.
Spin the globe over to Japan around the same time. A Japanese study showed that “germ-free” animals who are specially bred not to have any microbes inside of them, thus no gut microbiome, have an increased stress response, further associating stress regulation with the microbes inside of us. And the microbes inside us are, in turn, affected by the food we eat.
In 2013 a study showed that feeding junk food to mice damages the mouse hippocampus; after four days, the mice showed decreased cognitive functions related to the hippocampus (the seahorse), which interacts with the amygdala (the almond) in the limbic system. Cryan and others started coming up with research protocols that could show the effect in humans along with more in-depth animal studies. Cryan brought in a small sample of healthy human volunteers to do stressful tasks like public speaking or difficult arithmetic. Those who ate the bacteria Bifidobac-terium longum (found in yogurt) exhibited less stress during traditionally stressful tasks versus those who didn’t.
Jacka’s group published a study showing that the Western diet is associated with a smaller hippocampus. Then, in 2017, Jacka published peer-reviewed results of the first human intervention specifically targeting and measuring the effect of diet on humans’ mental health. Known as the SMILES trial, this was a psychiatric epidemiology study showing that dietary intervention alone impacted mood.
SMILES was the first randomized, controlled study to ask: If we change the diet of people with clinical depression, does it impact their mental health? The answer was yes.”
“One-third of participants in the Mediterranean diet group saw their depression symptoms go into remission. And the more the subjects adhered to a Mediterranean-style diet, the more remission they experienced. Plus, important for equal access, the food the diet-intervention participants ate was about 20 percent less expensive than the diet that they had eaten prior to the study.”
“Savory Breakfast Muffins
Even the most mindful of us need a fast breakfast sometimes. These muffins have everything required from a great quick breakfast. They’re compact, have protein and starch baked in, and are delicious. You can make the muffins in advance and keep them in the fridge for a quick grab and go. Plus getting produce, especially vegetables, first thing in the morning is always a win.
MAKES 6 MUFFINS
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ medium onion, finely chopped 1 small garlic clove, minced
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup grated aged Gruyère cheese (optional, and can substitute any hard cheese you love)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Heat oven to 350°F and grease a muffin tin.
Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and sauté the onion, garlic, and tomatoes until onions are soft and tomatoes are light brown and caramelized, 5 to 7 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and the onion mixture and combine.
Pour into the muffin tin and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the eggs are set.
Option: Use mini muffin tins for a one-bite, high-protein, and high-fiber breakfast. Just store muffins in the fridge, microwave a couple of mini muffins for 10 seconds, and you’re out the door.”
“In one study, researchers gave drinks to fans after a hockey game. They were all given the same drink, but fans rated the drink sweeter if their team won and more bitter if their team lost.”
“One time she went to a formal restaurant and was told her reservation would not be honored because they did not allow ladies wearing pants. So she took her pants off. She happened to be wearing a kind of long tunic shirt, so she just went into the bathroom, took off her pants, popped them in her purse, and went to lunch. If you know this story, you know Phyllis Richman.”
“You can buy backyard chickens for fresh eggs or, if you’re just chicken curious, you can rent them. In Washington, DC, there are businesses that specialize in loaning chickens to urban dwellers. Or you can rent to own and buy when your lease is up.”
“Also known as ecotherapy, horticultural therapy, or agrotherapy, gardening has received attention lately as a new way to provide physical activity, purpose, fresh food, and therapeutic benefits. Research shows that nature-assisted therapy reduces stress and blood pressure, improves cognitive function, and can promote cooperative behavior. There are lots of theories about why gardening has such a profound impact. Gardening decreases the stress hormone cortisol. Also, some evidence shows that dirt has beneficial microbes that can enter the bloodstream when you touch the earth, then enter the nervous system.”
“For most of the modern grocery store’s history (about 100 years since the first Piggly Wiggly), the stores haven’t had windows. Sure, there may be large windows at the front, but few or none actually in the store. This is part of general retail psychology, to turn stores into places of fantasy; the goal is to transport you to a time and place removed from the outside world so you buy more. There are no health consequences to processed foods when you can’t even see a world outside the grocery store.”
“In addition to soil’s benefit of helpful microbes, some research shows the sense of accomplishment that comes with growing your own food prevents depression and antisocial behavior. Sander van der Linden, professor at Princeton University, studies green prison programs, and his research supports that gardening is linked to improved prisoner behavior and less violent prisons.
““Even when using the most conservative estimates I could find, I still found large and significant differences — there is definitely something unique about green prison programs.” The Rikers Island GreenHouse/GreenTeam programs, van der Linden points out, yielded a huge decrease in prisoner rearrest rates for those in the gardening program. Rikers is one of the most violent correctional complexes in America.”
Senses
“Curiously, the brain creates flavor only when it breathes out, not in. This is surprising because, when we sniff in, we smell all kinds of things in the world-flowers, gas fumes, smoke. But flavor is created in the opposite way, only when we breathe out.”
“When hungry, they perceived the food odor as the dominant odor – even when the percentage of food odor was much lower than the nonfood odor. When participants had just eaten, however, they didn’t identify the food odor as dominant as much. A hungry subject, for instance, would smell in a 50/50 mixture of cinnamon bun and cedar odors but identify cinnamon bun as the dominant odor. If that person had just eaten cinnamon buns, the cinnamon bun odor had to increase to 80 percent before being identified as dominant. MRI scans of participants’ brains confirmed that the odor-processing parts of the brain were different when participants were hungry versus when they were full.
This matters, as many studies show that we eat what we smell. People who were exposed to a pear odor, for example, were more likely to choose a fruit dessert over a chocolate dessert.”
“Spence’s research found that food tastes sweeter when served on a white plate than on a black one. Changing from rectangular slate plates to round white ceramic plates made the same dessert taste a further 10 percent sweeter.
The color of food is also critically important. According to Spence, “Color is the single most product-intrinsic sensory cue when it comes to setting people’s expectations regarding the likely taste and flavor of food and drink.” (Anyone who has ever had a child ask for “red flavor” juice can attest to this.) Foods that are colored more intensely, even by dyes, are identified as more intensely flavored.”
“Spence and his colleagues intermittently piped crunching sounds into the booth. People who ate the stale chips with no sound thought the chips were pretty gross, as expected. But people who ate stale chips and heard crunching noises rated the chips as 15 percent crunchier than when they ate the same stale chips with no crunching noise.
Other examples: Drinking whiskey in a bright room while listening to the sounds of a lawnmower and birds will make your drink taste grassier, drink it while listening to a fire burning, and it will taste wood.”
“When bacon-and-egg ice cream was served with sounds of sizzling, it was rated as tasting more like bacon. When it was served with sounds of chickens clucking, it tasted more like eggs. Everything matters in the dining experience, and chefs, who make their living off perceived deliciousness, know this is true.
If you are a person who follows restaurant trends, you may remember “Sound of the Sea.” The title refers to a dish that the British restaurant The Fat Duck introduced in 2007, a seafood dish on a bed of edible “sand” and “shells” that came with an iPod playing ocean sounds recorded directly from the English seaside. The food on the plate was razor clams, sea urchin, oysters, and seafood foam, with “sand” made from tapioca and panko bread crumbs. The dish’s effect was so much more than what was on the plate. People cried when they ate it, recalling memories of childhood, deceased relatives, happy times gone by. Sound of the Sea and its creator, Chef Heston Blumenthal, became an international restaurant phenomenon.
We know that music generally can quickly change our emotional state, so why not our food perception? It’s not surprising that fast music increases eating speed and slow music decreases it. But slow music also increases perceived food quality. Also, according to a chef research pair’s study, “lower-pitched vibrational bass sound made the dessert [toffee] more bitter and brought out burnt notes, while a high-pitched sound made the toffee more sweet and floral.””
“Spence’s research further shows that heavy dishes and heavy cutlery create the flavor perception that food is tastier and of higher quality.”
“A Greek study found that four indicators of mental health are significantly related to breakfast quality and overall dietary patterns in teenagers. The four indicators – self-rated health, body satisfaction, life satisfaction, and mental health symptoms – were significantly better in those who ate a high-quality breakfast, including protein, whole grains, and vegetables.”
“Smell your food. Breathe in really deeply before you take a bite. Fill your entire belly up and let it expand with the aroma before you fill it with food. Breathing deeply tells your nervous system that it’s safe because you can’t breathe deeply and slowly when you’re physically fighting or running away from something.”
Conclusion
“The $400 test I held in my hand would, in about six weeks, result in a report with these recommendations. But the diet plan subscriptions, supplements, and other merchandise would carry additional fees.
I bought the test because of the mounting evidence that what happens in the gut microbiome affects emotional well-being. Some findings:
» In one study, volunteers who ate a probiotic – a supplement containing beneficial bacteria – for a month reported less depression; they also had less cortisol in their urine than those who didn’t take the probiotic, suggesting that their bodies hadn’t made as much cortisol;
» In studies, people with diagnosed anxiety disorders often have an excess of potentially harmful bacteria and vastly different gut microbiomes than people without anxiety disorder.”
“The gut microbiome can also influence how your body metabolizes and uses medication, which affects how well the medication works to give the desired effects — and shows that food added to other therapies may be helpful. Some bacteria convert drugs to make them active, and some make them inactive. And some bacteria actually hoard medication so it’s not available to your body.”
“All participants showed some brain changes that indicated the kind of stress response that the game was designed to induce. But during the game there was less stress activity in the brain in participants who had taken Bifidobacterium longum. Additionally, those participants’ resting stress level was lower, which, researchers wrote, “may be involved in the counter-regulation of negative emotions.” The game was the same for everyone, but the Bifidobacterium longum had an effect on decreasing or eliminating people’s negative responses to the ball being kept away from them. It took a potentially negative emotional experience and made it neutral.
In 2021, John Cryan’s lab released results of a study that essentially took Felice Jacka’s SMILES trial — the first randomized trial showing that food and mood were associated, back in 2011 — and bolstered the Mediterranean diet by adding more fiber and fermented foods, which our good gut microbes thrive on. The trial followed 50 stressed people with formerly poor nutrition for one month. Symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression went way down after the subjects followed the microbiome-enhancing diet. According to Cryan, “The social brain is very sensitive to changes in the microbiome.” It’s easier, given current ethical standards adopted by the science community, for scientists to track constant brain activity of animals than that of humans. Some significant animal research includes findings like:
» When the microbiomes of anxious humans were transferred into healthy mice, the mice subsequently exhibited stress behaviors, such as giving up more easily in a swim test.”
» In a study of 416 human twin pairs in Britain, a certain family of bacteria was more common in individuals with lower body weight than in obese individuals. When those specific bacteria were transplanted into mice, the mice gained less weight than untreated mice.
» A 2022 study in mice showed that the gut microbiome can influence brain plasticity, including adapting better to change.
» When rats exhibiting depression symptoms ate the probiotic Lactobacillus (found in yogurt), the depression symptoms reversed.
» Transferring the microbiome of obese people into healthy-weight mice tends to make the mice obese too.
» Transferring the microbiome of people with schizophrenia leads healthy mice to exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia.
» Microbes in fruit flies’ guts influenced the insects’ food choices. Fruit flies with particular bacterial species in their microbiomes ate more protein. When researchers changed the flies’ microbiomes, the flies ate more sugar.”
“Messages sent from the ENS influence brain plasticity, neurotransmitter production, and even behavior. You may perceive something as fair or unfair, stressful or not, depending on the messages your gut sends your brain). And those messages can change depending on your food.”
“Eating food containing beneficial bacteria — fermented food like yogurt — gets some of the food’s beneficial bacteria into your large intestine. Most of the food’s microbes don’t stay in your large intestine forever, but they do work with the bacteria that live all along the digestive system to improve what your body is able to make from your food. So fermented foods can contain both quality raw materials and specialized gut workers — a double benefit.”
“Tryptophan — an amino acid found in oats, nuts, cheese, and (famously) turkey — is essential for us to eat because our bodies can’t produce it. Once tryptophan is ingested, different microbes do different things with it. Some microbes turn tryptophan into serotonin, which is then stored in the gut. But other, non-beneficial microbes turn tryptophan into a substance called kynurenine, which causes inflammation and has been implicated in psychiatric disorders. This is why you can’t just say “eat more tryptophan.” How the nutrients we eat are processed by the body is influenced by the microbes we have, which is influenced by what we eat because it’s a system. And it’s why we likely won’t be able to create a superpill anytime soon that replicates all the gut-microbiome benefits of whole foods.
A study by the American Gut Project showed that people who ate 30 or more plant foods each week have more diverse microbiomes than those who ate 10 plants per week.”
“When you’re considering gut health, fermentation is the way to go. It can get confusing — because fermentation is a subset of pickling, you can buy fermented “pickles.”
For now, remember to choose foods where good bacteria can live until they get to their final destination — your gut. So it’s likely that any food labeled as fermented and full of beneficial bacteria will:
» Be refrigerated;
» State that it is a fermented food; and
» State that it contains live and active cultures — maybe even specific strains of bacteria.”
“Toxins from the intestine that leak into the blood can cause inflammation in the brain. One way to discourage toxins from leaking into the blood is to have a strong intestinal lining. If you don’t have enough good food — prebiotics — for your gut microbiome to feed off, the microbes will hungrily eat your gut lining instead. When the microbes eat the lining, the lining weakens and becomes more permeable. This is how toxins can leak out.
So prebiotics both allow your gut microbes to make substances that support mental wellness and help you maintain a strong intestinal lining, which further supports mental wellness.”
“Some researchers believe that gut microbiomes today are dramatically different from even 75 years ago, as the ultra-processed food system now produces more processed food devoid of the fiber and nutrients generally provided by whole foods, which the good bacteria need to flourish.”
“100 grams of fresh corn kernels have about 3 grams of fiber, but after that corn goes through industrial processing, it can have as little as zero grams of fiber. However, both fresh corn and processed corn can be listed on an ingredients list as “corn.””
“One of my favorite things about this study is that it refers to “diet-induced obesity,” recognizing that obesity generally is a complex condition that has to do with more than just food.”
“Fiber can significantly slow absorption of sugar.
When you’re choosing food with some sugar but no fiber, consider either starting with fiber or adding in a food with fiber (nuts in candy, for example).
Some snacky ways to get fiber (that won’t feel like you’re eating the fiber version of what you really want to eat) include popcorn, guacamole, dipping vegetables, high-fiber bread, pumpkin seeds, crunchy baked chickpeas, almonds, and raspberries.
I personally can’t believe popcorn isn’t a more popular snack — it may have just gotten a terrible reputation because of artificial butter toppings and low-quality microwave popcorn. Instead, try buying a bag of loose popcorn kernels, place about a quarter cup in the bottom of a large microwavable bowl and seal the top of the bowl with microwave-safe plastic wrap. With a fork, poke a few holes in the top of the plastic and microwave the bowl for about 3 minutes, or until there is a second between kernels popping. This tastes better than any standard microwave popcorn, doesn’t have added chemicals, and will save you money.”
“Your heart beats faster to circulate more blood to the legs for your flight response and sends less blood to the not-as-immediately-important stomach and skin (goosebumps are in part your skin trying to warm itself when blood has been redirected to other parts of your body, causing the muscles at the base of each hair follicle to contract).”
“Sheet Pan Dinner
Sheet pan dinners have everything on one pan, cooked in one oven, at one temperature, that’s all done at one time. It’s great for when you’re dealing with a lot — those times when takeout sounds way more relaxing than cooking. There’s just enough chopping involved in prepping the vegetables to get you involved but not so much that it becomes tedious. And pounding chicken with a rolling pin gets out some extra energy.
SERVES 2
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
¼ cup tahini
¼ cup plain Greek yogurt 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
Kosher salt
1 lemon, sliced into thin rounds
1 (15.5-ounce) can chickpeas, drained
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced into ½-inch-thick strips
2 cups broccoli florets
1 medium carrot, sliced into ½-inch-thick rounds
4 ounces Brussels sprouts, quartered
½ teaspoon paprika
Heat oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.
Place the chicken on a cutting board, cover it with plastic wrap, and hit it with a rolling pin several times, just to make it uniformly thick and even.
In a small bowl, whisk the tahini, yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, and a pinch of salt.
Brush both sides of the chicken with oil and season with salt. Put the chicken on one side of the baking sheet, slather with a quarter of the sauce (reserve the rest for serving), and top each thigh with a couple of slices of lemon.
Rinse and dry the chickpeas and put them on the end of the baking sheet opposite from the chicken. In between the chicken and chickpeas, place the pepper, broccoli, carrot, and Brussels sprouts. Drizzle ¼ cup of oil over everything and sprinkle with salt. Sprinkle paprika on the chick-peas.
Bake for 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Serve with the remaining sauce.”
“Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter
Even when life is crazy and I can’t even with the cooking, I can motivate to throw three ingredients together.
Also … dark chocolate and peanut butter? You’d have to pay me not to make this. It’s a great way to sneak your way up to dark chocolate if you’re used to eating milk chocolate.
MAKES ABOUT 1½ cUps
2 cups (about 10 ounces) shelled, roasted, and unsalted peanuts
1 cup dark chocolate, chopped or broken into small pieces
Kosher salt
Place the peanuts in the bowl of a food processor and run the processor about 2 minutes — the peanuts will grind, then stick together, then turn into a ball, then turn into peanut butter.
Add the chocolate and run the processor until chocolate is incorporated, about 90 seconds (time will depend on the size of your chocolate pieces).
Taste and add salt to your liking (I put in 1 teaspoon, but I love a salty peanut butter).
This is amazing served as a dip for apples. It will thicken in the fridge.”
“Eating a bunch of candy followed by a bunch of broccoli will likely spike blood sugar higher and more quickly than eating broccoli followed by that same amount of candy. That’s because if your stomach has some fiber in it already, it slows the absorption of sugar from the candy. In studies of people with type 2 diabetes, those who ate fat and protein before carbohydrates had lower long-term blood sugar and released naturally occurring GLP-1, an active ingredient in injectable weight-loss drugs like Ozempic.”
“One of the Gordon Lab’s most significant studies used the microbiomes of human twins – one overweight, one thin – to populate the gut microbiomes of mice. The mice were then fed the same diet and the same number of calories. But the mice who had received the microbiome of the overweight human twin gained more weight and had higher body fat than the mice who received the microbiome of the thinner twin.
Researchers took it a step further and transferred different types of bacteria into overweight mice’s microbiomes, then saw those mice’s body weight decrease. Research went on to show that when overweight mice were given a diet that resembled a Western-style diet, they gained more weight even when they were exposed to lean-human microbiomes.”
“There are numerous other studies in mice showing that food injected directly into the gut, with a total absence of any other kind of sensory cues, activates a gut-brain food response that drives behavior. Here is an example: A mouse is introduced to two sugarless flavors. When the mouse eats one of the flavors, researchers inject an infusion of sugar directly into its gut (not into its mouth, so it never actually tastes the sugar). The other flavor releases no sugar infusion into the gut. The mouse will always prefer the flavor that gives the gut sense of sugar. It turns out we don’t even need to taste the food for the gut to send reward notices to our brains. Also, when you inject food directly into the mouse’s stomach, a dopamine signal is sent directly into the brain, even with no taste or smell or other sense involved. So, totally separate from our sensory experience of eating, there is a pure reward sense for nutrients that is driven entirely by the gut.
Sure, we like the way food tastes and we love the act of eating. But activation of sensors in the gut is a huge part of what makes food so rewarding to our brains. It’s part of the reason why the chew-and-spit diet never works, and why food rich in sugar and fat is so rewarding.
Fat and sugar have different pathways to get to the brain. So when we eat a food that is rich in both fat and sugar, our brains may be flooded with pleasure signals from more than one pathway.”
“Fat is delicious. Fat provides food with taste, texture, and aromas. It lends its own flavor and is a conduit for and concentrator of other flavors. It luxuriously coats the tongue, helping flavor to linger after the eating is over. Fat is comforting, prolonging the pleasurable feeling of a full belly and releasing relaxing hormones like dopamine.”
“On the protein-leaning days, subjects were more likely to accept the offer and get whatever unearned cash they were offered – which was always less than what the “proposer” took. Their self-interest and logical thinking outweighed their sense of injustice or anger. On carb-leaning days, subjects were more likely to reject the offers, focused on the unfairness of the other person getting more cash even though that meant that no one got any cash. When the subjects ate carbs, their anger outweighed their own self-interest in getting at least some cash.
Protein meant the proposer and the participant got some money, even though it was unfairly balanced. Carbs meant no money for anyone.
One big clue emerged as to why this was happening: The amount that the subjects’ behavior changed was proportional to the amount of the amino acid tyrosine in their blood. And the amount of tyrosine was directly proportional to how much protein they ate. The subjects who ate protein showed more tyrosine, which is a precursor for creating the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine – meaning that when you have tyrosine, dopamine is able to follow. The tyrosine precisely predicted how much subjects’ behavior shifted from the carbohydrate-leaning breakfast.”
“Bringing oil to high heat, whether for frying or for use in making non-fried ultra-processed food, produces a contaminant known as acrylamide. Acrylamide has been shown to suppress the expression of the genes that decrease the strength of the blood-brain barrier, so pathogens that naturally circulate in our blood can more easily get into the brain, potentially wreaking havoc on emotional well-being. Consumption of acrylamide is associated with neuroinflammation that is in turn associated with mental health disorders.
As Chris van Tulleken writes in 2023's Ultra-Processed People, “There is all the epidemiological evidence: dozens of well-conducted studies carried out independently of industry funding showing convincing links between UPF and a range of health conditions, including early death.” In just the past few years, more than a dozen studies across five countries have consistently shown that consumption of ultra-processed food is associated with greater health problems – and problems happen incrementally.”
“The evidence is compelling enough that Colombia passed the first-ever “junk food tax” of 10 percent in 2023, rising to 15 percent in 2024 and 20 percent in 2025. The law is designed to incrementally increase the expense of junk food (intending to both decrease consumption and collect money to pay for health problems believed to be linked to ultra-processed food).”
“Eat at least one fermented food each day. Check the label for two things: First, that it has no added sugar (it can be harmful to good bacteria). Fermented products have natural sugars, so it’s OK for the label to list something under “total sugars” —but under “added sugars” it should say 0. Second, be sure that it contains live, active bacteria. Products that are pasteurized after fermenting will not retain as many or any of the beneficial bacteria. Do not heat fermented foods; heat will destroy a lot of beneficial bacteria.
Good fermented food choices include:
» Kombucha with no added sugar.
» Fermented vegetables. Remember that fermentation is a subset of pickling; not all pickles are fermented. Fermented vegetables (including “pickles”) will likely be in the refrigerator section and will not list vinegar as an ingredient. Look for kimchi, Korean fermented and spiced mixed vegetables.
» Fermented cottage cheese. Most commercial cottage cheese is not fermented, but you can find fermented cottage cheese by looking at the label.
» Yogurt. Try buying plain and adding your own fresh fruit and/or honey. If you buy a pre-flavored yogurt, look for as few added sugars or artificial sweeteners as possible.
» Miso paste. Miso is a seasoning made from fermented soybeans or barley.”
Eat at least 25 grams of fiber each day for women, 38 for men. To level up, pay specific attention to soluble fiber, which is what your good microbes thrive on. Some great sources of soluble fiber include garlic, onions, oats, apples, bananas, black and kidney beans, avocado, and broccoli.”
“Layer smells. If you’re eating food with some lime in it, try grating lime zest on top of your dish — there will be a lot of lime scent and a little extra taste too. If you’re baking cookies, save a few bits of dough to pop in the oven when you serve the cookies — the smell will heighten the flavor. I sometimes put a small drop of good olive oil on a lamp lightbulb a few minutes before a meal — the heat from the bulb heightens the scent and tells my brain it’s time for something good.”
“Put on some sounds you associate with what you’re eating. Try listening to the sound of waves crashing when eating seafood or a song that was popular when you were a teenager when having a childhood comfort food. Make eating playlists. If it works for highly rated restaurants, it may work for you at home.”
