Food & Mood: The Complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling Your Best, Second Edition [Paperback]

Elizabeth Somer M.A. R.D. (Author), Nancy Snyderman (Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1999

Why do you feel tired after eating a full meal? Why do you have so much trouble concentrating? Why do you crave chocolate? Can diet affect depression? Is there a natural cure for insomnia? Nutrition expert Elizabeth Somer answers all these questions and more in this completely updated and revised second edition to her nutritional guide Food and Mood. The result of research encompassing thousands of the most up-to-date scientific studies, Somer explains how what we eat has a direct influence on how we feel, think, sleep, look, and act. She addresses specific food-related issues including health conditions, food cravings, diet struggles, stress, PMS, winter blues, energy levels, depression, memory, and sleep patterns, as well as tackling the issue of supplements and providing the real story on those you need and those you don't. Included is Somer's revolutionary Feeling Good Diet, a program that shows you how to take control of your eating habits to benefit mood and mental functioning now.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the early 1990s, when Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., a nationally recognized award-winning nutrition expert and the nutrition correspondent for Good Morning America, wrote the first edition of her groundbreaking book, Food & Mood, scientists were just beginning to understand how what we eat affects how we feel. Over the past several years, nutrition research has exploded, and this edition of Food & Mood has been completely revised and updated to reflect the latest findings on the relationship between diet and mental and emotional well-being.

Food & Mood covers all the bases for eating right for a healthy body and mind and includes practical, nutritionally sound advice for putting Somer's Feel Good Diet into practice. Somer starts out by simply and eloquently elucidating the science behind the food-mood link. She explains how food affects mood; the basis of food cravings; how diet is connected to stress, PMS, and fatigue; and what foods banish the blues, boost brain power, and improve sleep naturally. Need to stop overeating and abusing food? In the second section, Somer gives compassionate, pragmatic advice for turning your eating habits around for good. The final section gives detailed, step-by-step suggestions and guidelines to help you eat right to feel great. Included are shopping tips, daily menus, information on designing a supplement program, and tantalizing recipes. (Who knew burritos, brownies, and chocolate chip cupcakes could be good for you?) --Ellen Albertson

From Publishers Weekly

What at first glance would appear to be yet another look at the relationships of food with emotional state is, instead, an extremely well-researched probe of what a good diet can mean to both body and mind. Somer, editor of Nutrition Report, dispels many of the myths about specific foods and diet patterns, putting in their place scientific studies showing the links between mood and diet. Among the topics she discusses are food cravings, stress and diet, food allergies and intolerances, eating disorders, premenstrual syndrome and how food can affect sleep patterns. More than 100 tables, charts and worksheets help readers evaluate their diets and make appropriate changes. Menus and recipes are also included, and the need for supplements is discussed. Readers will appreciate Somer's no-nonsense style and the absence of contrived anecdotes to make important dietary points. Although some may find that the book gets off to a slow start, those who stick with it will find a valuable nutritional sourcebook.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; Revised, Update edition (December 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805062009
• ISBN-13: 978-0805062007
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My "thing" is that I keep up with the current nutrition research. I've been reading 100s of research studies for years, then packaging that information into news-you-can-use for magazines, books, national and local television and radio, presentations to the general public, and continuing education seminars for health professionals. I specialize in understandable and practical information on how to eat and supplement and why to prevent disease and premature aging, promote health, and attain and maintain a healthy weight. For the past two decades, my aim has been to be the source of nutrition information that people can really trust to be accurate, up-to-date, and sound. I passionately love the science of nutrition, as well as cooking and preparing healthy meals, and believe with all my heart that if people just nourished their bodies with high-quality fuel, they would be rewarded a hundred-fold with health, energy, vitality, longevity, clear thinking, a fit figure, and improved moods.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Nutritional Side of Feeling Good, December 7, 2009

By 

P. Cantrell - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Food & Mood: The Complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling Your Best, Second Edition (Paperback)

There are lots of reasons why you might not be in a good mood. If you thought it was because of a bad relationship, you'd probably check out a relationship book. And, if you thought it was because you needed more exercise, you'd check out a book on exercise (BTW rec. Exercise Beats Depression for that). Having said that, this is a great book to check out if you think your nutrition might play a role in your moods AND you want to learn what it is you can do about it. So what does the book cover? Well, the book is about and inch and a quarter thick and among other things, discusses...

-how food can affect your mood
-a self-assessment of your diet
-a section on sweets and cravings
-diet and energy levels
-diet and PMS, SAD
-stress and your diet
-smart foods
-foods and your sleep
-eating disorders
-the "Feeling Good diet"
-supplements

As you can see, the book is quite comprehensive, and there's really not a nutritional stone that's been left unturned. I don't know that anyone needs to read every page of this book cover-to-cover, as not everyone will need to know about all its info (such as PMS). Instead, look at this book as a tremendous resource to refer to, and a big step in covering all your "nutritional bases" when it comes to food and feeling good.

121 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breaking old eating habits, March 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Food & Mood: The Complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling Your Best, Second Edition (Paperback)

As the mother of two little boys, one and three years old, I found myself getting as tired and cranky as they were at 2PM nap time. I just assumed it was a natural part of being a busy mom. If I didn't sneak a nap while they were down, I'd rewarm the morning coffee and 'reward' myself with a cookie. When I picked up "Food and Mood" I actually had my husband in mind! When I started using the author's eating strategies, I noticed I wasn't craving a nap or coffee at midafternoon and I was really feeling good. For other 'tired' mom's, one key that helped me was when I started eating a protein-based midmorning and midafternoon snack, which helped me avoid the quick high of coffee and sugar that wore off too soon. I've since incorporated the same strategies with the kids and my husband (a habitual midafternoon candy bar eater), and he says he notices a difference and a better energy level too. I've recommended Food and Mood to so many friends that I actually wanted to write a review to help spread the word. This is one less cranky mom wishing you well.

69 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What you eat has a profound affect on how you feel., September 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Food and Mood: The Complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling Your Best (A Henry Holt Reference Book) (Paperback)

Summary: This book is a fairly complete reference. It begins by explaining some aspects of chemical brain function. It then goes on to explain how diet can radically affect how a person feels, including mood and energy problems. As an aside, it also mentions PMS and SAD (seasonal affection disorder) as causes for food cravings and mood problems. It also mentions how certain low level diet deficiencies can cause various types of bodily harm. (The ones related to B vitamins are downright scary.) Finally this book proposes the Feeling Good Diet as a solution to all these problems.

Pros: The book is highly informative and enlightening. It is more complete on its own subject than many other books are on the subjects they cover.

Cons: This book falls short in that it is not a cookbook by any stretch of the imagination (although it does have a very short list of recipes). Although most of the book is highly informative, the Feeling Good Diet section is limited to lists of good foods and bad foods. The book also has a certain flaw common to most books: it takes too long to say what it has to say. Still, as far as books go, it is a four-star ranker.