Food & Mood

What do gutbacteria, dopamine and cravings have to do with your mental state?

Why do we reach for cookies when we’re tired or stressed?

And why do we feel even more tired and stressed after eating the d*mn cookies?

Here is the news: our cravings are not just emotional—they're also biological.

Our modern diet, sleep patterns, and stress levels have hijacked our hunger signals and rewired the brain to crave processed, high-reward foods that do not exist in nature. But there’s also good news: you can reset your body and brain by changing what—and how—you eat. Recent studies showed that people switching to a healthy diet with little meat, no sugar or alcohol, high in vegetables, fruits and nuts noticed a significant change in just 3 days!

🔬 What Science Says: Food Really Does Affect Mood

Here are some of the highlights: 

The SMILES Trial (2017): This groundbreaking study showed that participants with depression who adopted a Mediterranean-style diet saw significant improvement in mood—often better than those receiving traditional therapy alone. Gut Microbiome Studies: The state of your gut bacteria directly impacts mood and anxiety levels. People with more diverse, healthy microbiomes report less depression and stress. Harvard Research on Inflammation: Chronic inflammation is now strongly linked to depression.

 Nutritional Psychiatry: A growing field confirms that nutrients like omega-3s, magnesium, and B vitamins directly influence brain function and emotional regulation.

🧠🥦 How Food Influences Mood

We probably all know about how sugar creates steep highs and lows in our bloodsugar and energy levels. It can cause a jittery feeling followed by a strong fatigue and brainfog. But this is just the short-term effect. When we frequently eat ultra processed food (anything you could not make in your own kitchen) - Our body can't properly process them, while it is poor in nutrients. Good bacteria in the gut will not receive enough to survive which mean bad ones - who do incredibly well on alcohol and sugar btw - can take over. The gut becomes a warzone, causing inflammation and eventually damage to the gut lining. Apart from the physical effect (Bloating, IBS, Allergies, Skin rashes, Autoimmune diseases) particles that normally would never stand a chance, can then start to penetrate the intestinal wall and reach the bloodstream. Your entire body is flooded with waste that causes all your organs to suffer, causing them stress, resulting in high cortisol levels, while physical fatigue at the same time.

But there is another ´killer´ side effect of chowing down that Kitkat,  Doritos and beer on the daily.

🧬It´s called Dopamine addiction…

Dopamine is our reward hormone, and as ultra processed foods often contain the unnatural combination of fats and sugars at the same time, they cause a huge spike of dopamine, creating a reward loop similar to a drug addiction. Food suppliers, but also social media developers and game designers all know how addictive a strong dopamine hit is and use it to their, but not our benefit. We can easily say that we live in a society that enables dopamine addiction, so it´s not your fault, and you are absolutely not the only one...

But, unfortunately the addictive loop can lead to emotional highs and lows, and increase cravings that actually worsen mood over time. Cravings have nothing to do with real hunger, because you would never crave lentils, or lettuce or a carrot, would you... On the long term, the cycle puts us on edge, anxiously in need of a ´fix´ of cortisol, compromising our focus, concentration, sleep and in the end, our motivation and peace.

🌀 What should I do?

This is not a quick fix—but here are the take aways to improve your mood, with noticeable results in just three days!

• Eat anti-inflammatory, natural, gut-friendly foods and stay away from trans fats, white flour, sugar and alcohol.

• Move your body and work up a sweat at least 3 times per week

• Introduce circadian-friendly meal timing (eating during daylight hours) 

• Intermittent fasting, burning excess sugar first, meaning at least 12 hours of fasting.

• Use stress-reduction tools like breathwork and better sleep hygiene, no screens in bed, and limit their use two hours prior.