The 2012 book is called 鈥淭he Happiness Diet: A Nutritional Prescription for a Sharp Brain, Balanced Mood, and Lean, Energized Body.鈥澨齏hat is that wondrous prescription?听It seems simple enough.听If you want to be happy, stay away from bagels, egg whites, sugary soft drinks, margarine, soy yogurt, fruit smoothies, canned soup, agave nectar and deli meats.听Who says this?听Dr. Drew Ramsey, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University in New York.听
The idea that happiness is to be found in eating the right foods is a pretty appealing one.听I鈥檓 game to try a happiness diet, but first, I say, show me the science.听The evidence against bagels, according to Dr. Ramsey, is as follows: 鈥淎t first bagels boost a person鈥檚 energy, but after a few hours you come crashing down looking for another fix in the modern American diet.听That crash can cause people to feel irritable, lightheaded or sad.鈥澨齊eally?听Has anyone ever studied such a bagel effect?听Nope.听But there are studies that show a low carbohydrate diet is associated with irritability, tension and depression.听MIT researchers have found that carbohydrate intake is one of the factors that controls the brain鈥檚 production of serotonin, a chemical that plays an important role in the control of our mood.听Starchy foods increase serotonin production, so one could argue that bagels can actually elevate mood.听So where then does the idea that bagels wreak havoc with mood come from?听Confusion about complex carbs such as found in bagels and simple sugars as in let鈥檚 say, doughnuts.听A high intake of simple sugars can cause a quick release of insulin that prompts cells to absorb the sugar leaving low levels in the bloodstream.听A drop in blood sugar can cause irritability in some people, although this is certainly not universal.听
What about those egg whites?听Well here, the problem isn鈥檛 what is in them but what is not.听The yolk!听The claim is that people who don鈥檛 eat the yolk because of a fear that the cholesterol it contains is poison for the heart are missing out on omega-3 fats, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and folate which 鈥渞egulate mood by improving the health of brain cells and contribute to feeling more stable, energetic, and less blue.鈥澨齓es, it is true that these nutrients play a role in brain function.听But you certainly do not have to rely on eggs to supply them.听The omega-3 content of eggs is negligible, and as far as folate goes, an egg yolk has about 25 micrograms whereas a serving of broccoli has 300.听But that is hardly the point.听
The point is that diet is a very complicated business and foods are composed of a complex array of chemicals and a suggestion that ten specific foods can interfere with our happiness is enough to make one grumpy.听Or maybe it鈥檚 just that I鈥檝e been eating too much non-organic celery.听Dr. Ramsey claims that 57 different pesticides have been found on celery and at 鈥渓east 12 are neurotoxins, and anything that is toxic for the brain is toxic for a stable well-balanced mood.鈥澨齏ell 57 pesticides may be permissible but that doesn鈥檛 mean that they are present on every celery stick we eat.听Very few actually are, and they are found in trace amounts.听Maybe I should suggest to Dr. Ramsey that he investigate what Snow White fed to the seven dwarfs.听Did she sneak some non-organic celery into Grumpy鈥檚 supper and keep Happy from eating bagels?听Dr. Ramsey seems to enjoy dealing with fables.
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