12. Why Bitter Foods Make You Happier and Fight Depression
Bitter foods are key to fighting depression and giving your brain the best chance at adding a little effortless joy to your day
Food has decibel-free powwows with your gut and brain. These conversations are always recorded for training and quality purposes because a happy gut is a happy life. It remembers everything. However, in a cruel twist of fate, eating comfort foods, only temporarily tugs at the corners of your smile. Many of your long-term emotions stem from the state of your gut flora. If they’re out of whack, your feelings are likely to draw an upside-down smile in steam of your shower’s glass.
Research in Nature Microbiology found people who suffer with depression tend to lack certain types of gut bacteria – specifically coproccus and dialister. These gut bacteria were linked to a better quality of life, even after other factors such as medications, age and sex were factored in. This isn’t an isolated affair. Plenty more studies have cemented the underrated link between eating the right foods and having the SpongeBob level optimism.
The Smiling Stomach
Your gut bacteria operate the faucets that control the flow of your dopamine and serotonin. The former is a neurotransmitter that decides how much pleasure you feel from just about everything. Whether you’re standing on the scale, nodding at lower body fat digits or smiling after adding just the right amount of milk to your brew, you receive a dopamine reward. How or why gut bacteria impact dopamine is unknown, but they are firmly in control.
Probiotics, as well as elements found in polyphenols (mentioned below), also send gut chemicals to stimulate another neurotransmitter serotonin. As the neurotransmitter that’s the CEO of your emotions, serotonin is key to your overall feelings of contentment. Unsurprisingly, around 90% of it is produced right in your gut. With your dopamine and serotonin levels both determined by your gut, it means it’s not how your belly looks on the outside that matters to your mental well-being. Instead, having the right internal bacteria are the internal six pack that flexes your happiness.
Plant Based Happiness
What does this have to do with bitter foods? Well, polyphenols are plant compounds which your microbiome breaks down to stimulate healthy bacterial growth. They’re so effective that a paper in the journal Nutrients found they play a major role in the health of your gut microbiome. These can be broken down into three groups: flavonoids, phenolic acids, and other polyphenols.
These offer a carousel of upticks. Protection against free radical damage. Preventing blood clots. Aid heart health. Improve brain function. This all comes from your gut. Finding ways to eat them offers you a who’s who of bitter food compounds. These include big name players in the world of bitter flavors such as cocoa, cloves, red wine, olive oil, turmeric, flaxseeds, hazel nuts, artichokes, and the skin of apples. Think of them as the the engine room for both dopamine and serotonin.
The Sunny Yellow
One of the most famous strong holds of polyphenols are found inside bitter-tasting turmeric and very few roots can offer quite as many take-aways. As well as helping to reduce gut inflammation, turmeric also stimulates the secretion of bile leading to more efficient digestion. What’s more, a new paper in the Critical Review of Food Science and Nutrition looked at 11 papers on this root and found it’s a true asset for your happiness and even improved sports performance.
Turmeric lowers oxidative stress. Fights heart disease. Battles depression. Reduces pain. Lowers muscle damage. Accelerates muscle recovery. It even gave people a more positive outlook. Phew. Talk about a mouthful. Small wonder it’s sunny in color and improve every part of your life. If you want these compounds to set to work in your body, try embracing the happiness found from eating bitter foods, even if you don’t like them at first. When it rains, they’ll help you look for rainbows. When it it’s dark, they’ll help you enjoy the stars.
Happiness Comes From Within
Pleasure. People who receive the most of it are the happiest, right? Wrong. Imagine you had unlimited resources with which to make yourself feel epic all the time. Many rich people do. And they’re incredibly miserable. Rock stars. Athletes. Billionaires. Hollywood elite. These high profilers aren’t beacons of joy you expect. Many succumb to drug addiction, anxiety, and depression, just like the rest of us.
Happiness instead comes from the flow found in purpose. Purpose offers achievement which stimulates dopamine levels. Run a marathon. Climb the mountain. Help someone without expecting something in return. Having a clear purpose, especially one that’s feels both tough and selfless, creates pure joy. It’s rooted in your ability to chase your passions that drives happiness. It’s important to remember passion is a misunderstood word. You may think it describe a strong emotion. Instead, passion in Latin means to suffer. To be happy you need to be willing to suffer for the things that give you joy.
Happiness Through Eating
Exercise is a passion and draws easy comparisons with healthy eating. Do the thing you don’t always feel like doing, as if you love it. Feel great after. It beats the pants off depression far better than anti-depressants. Exercise offers a clear reward path, reinforced by releases of feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin. Luckily, eating the healthy foods that you may not enjoy, offers the same physical pathways to your happiness.
If you gorge on the high pleasure foods you love, frequently enough to become obese, you’ll put yourself in the fast lane to depression. Fact. Eat the bitter foods you may find distasteful, and you’ll be rewarded with the achievement that underpins your happiness. Do the hard thing. Eat with purpose. By comparison, the foods you love will also begin to taste better and feel more rewarding. Find happiness through food isn’t about eating what you love, it’s about eating what your body needs. Yes, even if you detest them. Eating with discipline, restraint and fortitude is the spinach between your smiling teeth that truly KO’s depression and brings lasting happiness.
Bittersweet Tip 14: Eat For Happiness
Disco biscuits are probably on the only food guaranteed to make you feel really happy. Real food on the other hand gives you the raw materials your body needs to be a glass half full kind of person. A paper at the University of Eastern Finland looked at 2, 000 people and found a healthy diet reduces the risk of depression. No surprises there, huh? Hot on this happy food lists are bananas, berries, fish, turmeric, leafy greens, and nuts. Possibly the easiest way to look after your brain is to eat things that look like it, namely walnuts. Research found that enhance cognitive function thanks to all brain happy nutrients they offer. Here’s a few ways to effortlessly add at least 30g of these bitterly heart healthy nuts to your daily diet.
1. Toast and add to any salad
2. Grind up and include with your smoothies
3. Add ground up versions to raw cacao as protein balls
4. Crush them up and add to muesli or oats
5. Grind up and add to pesto, dips or even cakes