Can food affect your mood?

Last updated at 17:36 31 August 2004

I think your sister would seem to be living proof that it can! For many people carbohydrate foods can help to calm and soothe, possibly

through their influence on the production of serotonin in the brain, but it's possible that in your sister's case she's unusually sensitive

to the fluctuation in blood sugar that can occur through the ingestion of fast-releasing carbohydrate foods.

Key rules she should adopt are to never skip meals and to largely stick to eat foods that have a low glycaemic index - i.e. which release

their carbohydrate energy slowly and steadily helping keep blood sugar levels stable. In essence that means avoiding anything "white", highly processed or low fibre and concentrating on "whole" high fibre foods which release sugar slowly such as porridge, Granary bread, high fibre breakfast cereals, nuts, fruit and veg, pasta and beans.

Some sweet foods are okay if they are stil essentially low glycaemic index - for

example flavoured milk shake or fruit yogurt.

Making sure she gets enough of the minerals chromium and magnesium should also help as both are involved directly or indirectly in the

correct utilisation of sugar in the body. She'll improve her intake by eating a big bowl of All Bran every day and taking an A-Z formulation

multivitamin and mineral in addition.

If she needs to lose weight I'd advise her to do it healthily by following the GI Point Diet by Azmina Govindji and Nina Puddefoot.

(Vermillion, £7.99).