What does it mean to live your best life? Part 2

In my last post, I asked the question, does the what we eat affect the way that we think? The answer to that question is emphatically YES! The foods that we eat not only affect the way that we think, they also affect our mood.  If we want to live our best lives, it is very important that we eat the best of foods so that we can think right.  A wise man said that our brains are created to think right.  When we think wrong, it is like rubbing sandpaper against our brains.  Not a pretty picture!

Did you know that when you have a diet filled with bad, unhealthy foods that are loaded with sugary carbohydrates, that you are more likely to suffer from memory loss, a depressed mood, and  accelerated weight gain?  From studying and from experience, I found that what we need is a diet filled with complex carbohydrates, (such as beans, whole grain rice, fruits and vegetables) and adequate protein.  With this type of healthy diet, you are likely to experience an improved mood, be able to focus better, and loose weight quickly.  I can bear witness to this because when I had a diet that consisted of strictly navy bean soup, fresh organic fruits and vegetables, juicing, and I removed ALL sugar from my diet, I was happier, felt lighter, and was in the best shape of my life. My weight dropped down to a nice 120lbs.!   Now that I know what works best for me, I MUST get back to that.  I am not writing this blog because I have mastered what I am sharing with you.  I am writing this because as I study and grow, I want to share what I learn with you, with the intention that it helps you also.

The food we eat has alot to do with how we feel and the type of life that we will live.  There are foods that make you sleepy, foods that make you depressed, foods that increase sexual arousal, and foods that make you more alert.  Maybe I should go into those types of foods in another blog post.  Let me know if you would like to know more about that. I will say this, one ingredient that is mostly found in junk foods and fast foods, that we must stay away from, at all costs, is monosodium glutamate (aka MSG).  The Mayo Clinic warning cites the following list of possible reactions to MSG:

• Headache, sometimes called MSG headache
• Flushing
• Sweating
• Sense of facial pressure or tightness
• Numbness, tingling or burning in or around the mouth
• Rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations)
• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath
• Nausea
• Weakness

This ingredient, which I know that is found in Cheetos, Doritos, and several other junk foods that we eat, is an excitotoxin.  Excitotoxins over stimulate the neurons in the brain causing many different symptoms, one being depression.  If you feel depressed all the time, look at what you are eating and it is probably the culprit.

If we want to live our best life and have life more abundantly, we MUST eat the right foods at the proper time; eating at the proper time is another subject in and of itself. 

Until next time,
Live, laugh, love...

And Eat Healthy Foods!