We know that what we eat affects our mood. And sometimes when we change the way we eat it’s for the better, like switching from white bread to quinoa bowls at lunch. That way we’re not hungry by mid-afternoon and have more energy. But sometimes we tweak our diet to try to be healthier but the effect on our mood isn’t so positive. Here are some ways our diets could be ruining our personalities and what we can do to fix it.

1. Your friends notice that you’re getting angry. When we’re dieting, we have to use our grown-up voice a lot. We say no to ourselves when we want a chocolate muffin for breakfast because of the sugar and we tell ourselves we can’t have more salmon, even though it’s healthy, because it’ll put us over the daily calorie limit. And studies show that using all that self-control tends to tick us off. We want the chocolate and we’re mad we can’t have it.
2. You’re starting to feel cranky, irritated, or just a tad bit unenthused. We know that what we eat impacts how we feel, but professor Gary Wenk says what we’re NOT eating can affect our mood as well. For example, if you go vegan for a month, your body isn’t getting the essential amino acid tryptophan that your brain needs to make the feel-good hormone serotonin. So you could be feeling grouchy when your levels drop off. Cutting carbs can do the same thing, according to a study. Who knew the key to happiness was in a rice bowl?
3. You just might kill someone (seriously). Get this, your brain normally burns about 12 doughnuts worth of glucose, or sugar every day, just to do its basic functions. So if you stop enjoying your normal afternoon granola bar, your brain gets less sugar and can go haywire. And then you could go postal. Not that you’re going to actually stab anyone just because you’re hungry, but if your blood sugar gets too low, it might put you in a fighting mood.

Of course, none of this means you can’t ever try to diet again. If you need to lose weight, just go about it the right way, without making sudden, drastic changes to the way you eat. Wenk says you need a balance of all the usual stuff, just less of it. And he says if you’re already trying the moderation thing but still feel like you might lose it, just hang in there because it’s only temporary. Let’s hope so!

Source: NY Post