Geary manages to get to the heart of many food issues in a clear, often amusing way ...

clearly laid out and attractively presented ... this is a book you can confidently recommend ...

an excellent guide ... leaves the reader to make an informed decision ...

comprehensive ... in-depth look at how and why certain foodstuffs can contribute to ... depression, anxiety, and fatigue ... sound theoretical background ...

a biochemical journey ... the correct balance of nutrients in your daily diet contributes to better emotional and mental health...

Understanding our diet, metabolism and potential food intolerances define our relationship with food. It has been recognised for centuries in the East that food can also affect our state of mind. In 1998, Amanda Geary received a Millennium Award from Mind, the mental health charity to research the links between food and mood. In this time, she taught six 12-week courses with over 50 women where they shared their food and mood experiences. The Food and Mood Handbook (serial no.) is the culmination of this research and is an important breakthrough in the way we view our relationship with food.
During her research, Amanda discovered how a change in diet could help:
Lower anxiety levels
Lessen depression
Improve mood swings
Lessen cravings
Reduce symptoms of PMS
Reduce feelings of fatigue

BEING A FOOD DETECTIVE
Keeping a food diary is the most effective way of pinpointing suspect foods. Keep a notebook with you at all times so that you can write down what you eat when you eat it ? if you leave it till the end of the day you are unlikely to remember everything.

Write down what you eat; when you eat it; where you ate it; who were you with; whether you were hungry or it was just convenient to eat at that time; what sort of mood you were in prior to eating; what mood you were in one hour/ two hours/ five hours after eating; were you craving one food in particular.

The more information you can gather about your eating habits, the more effective your detective work will be. Are you a convenience eater who grabs the nearest food to hand? Do you crave chocolate or caffeine if you are feeling tired or bored? Does having a sandwich pick up your energy levels in the short term but make you feel tired, or even depressed two hours later? Do you always eat a lot more when you have dinner with one certain person? Do you feel tired if you eat lunch at your desk?

THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Having kept a food diary for a couple of weeks, you will have a lot of key evidence about your relationship with food and the effects your choice of food has on your mood. You can then pinpoint the ?suspect? foods.

What foods do you eat everyday? What foods do you crave or binge on? Which foods directly link with a dip or high in mood? Are these ?highs? sustained?

FOLLOW-UP INVESTIGATIONS
With this information you can then make further investigations by changing your diet; eliminating ?suspect? foods from your diet for a week and then reintroducing them and seeing whether your mood or symptoms improve or worsen. Interestingly, symptoms will probably get worse before they get better because there will be a feeling of withdrawal from that food.

Write down in your diary how you felt before you eliminated the food, then rate your feelings every day for a week so that you can monitor any improvement.

It is important to eliminate one type of food at a time. For example if dairy and wheat are potential ?suspects?, eliminate all dairy products one week and then reintroduce. Then a week later, do the same with wheat. If you eliminate everything at the same time, it will be difficult to pinpoint the culprit.
Also plan your investigations so that they do not coincide with stressful times at work, birthday planning or holidays ? it is important that the food is the main suspect and not other aspects of your life.

TAKING ACTION
You can then adjust your diet. It may be that you do not have to eliminate a food totally from your diet, but just reduce your intake, rotate your diet so that you eat this food once a week rather than everyday or maybe you avoid it at certain stressful times. The key is to eat intuitively ? think about how that food smells and tastes before you even begin cooking or ordering in a restaurant. How will that food feel inside you? How will that food make you feel while eating it or a few hours later?

?Be aware of physical sensations as well as an emotional response. You are likely to find that what appeals one day will change, as the needs of your body alter over time. Intuitive eating is a process of paying attention to how your body-mind feels about food.?

HELPING HAND
Food diaries and elimination diets all take a lot of planning which can be a bit daunting, but Amanda Geary?s The Food and Mood Handbook offers essential information on organising diaries, eating plans and elimination diets, as well as offering insight into common food culprits, symptoms and good mood foods.

When MIND, the mental health charity, helped to launch "The Food and Mood Project", the media went straight to Amanda Geary, the project's originator and a nutritionist herself. "The Mind Meal" was launched and this handbook should be invaluable to everyone who has suffered from mood swings, food cravings, any form of eating disorder, hypoglycaemia, or PMS. The book also introduces many key issues and gives practical self-help advice on: sugar sensitivity, the caffeine effect, stresses on your system, supplements, low GI foods, allergy culprits (wheat/milk), with recipes and tips from project participants.

This is the book I wish I'd had 10 year's ago when my doctor diagnosed depression and presribed me antidepressant medication. Instead, I've written it myself and the book's content reflects my personal journey as well as the private study and professional experience of the past decade. I sincerely hope you find it helpful.Here, you will also be able to join the free email food and mood support group and share your thoughts and experiences with others who have read the book.

Eat well!

Amanda Geary November 2001

Amanda Geary is a nutritional therapist and founder of The Food and Mood Project.

2007-06-24 Excellent resource.

An excellent resource book relating food to those affected with/experiencing mood problems. Nutrionist Amanda Geary discusses topics such as food groups, sensitivities, intolerances, current thinking on neuro-biological chemicals and diet plans involved in mood in a down-to-earth and easy to read book which covers one hell of a lot. Dont buy other books if you are interested in this area, I have read many other books and this book explains and guides in much more depth, broadness and clarity than any other comparable book out there. Amanda may also help you look at areas of your diet that other auithors completely ignore. I defintitely recomend this useful and potentially life-changing/enriching book.