Woman's Own: Good Mood Diet

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Don't get down - or heavier - this winter. This easy-to-follow diet from nutritionist Monica Grenfell will help you to lose weight and feel great.

Monica says:
The days are getting shorter and it's feeling colder, so it's easy to feel isolated or suffocated by the family - a real recipe for low mood, comfort eating and weight gain - which, in turn, leads to feeling even worse. It's a vicious circle.

Symptoms of low mood
Irritability, low self-esteem, apathy, wanting to be alone, fatigue, constant eating and low energy levels, leading to aches and pains. Food may not cure genuine depression, but a change of diet will help to lift your mood. It can also stop you overeating, and losing weight - you should lose 10lb if you try this diet for a fortnight - will cheer you up as you look forward to Christmas.

How it works
This diet has an amazing effect on mood. It works to calm nerves, rouse you from fatigue, stabilise blood sugar levels and stimulate the pathways of the feel-good chemical serotonin in the body, made possible by the amino acid tryptophan. Food can manipulate mood - eating foods that deplete serotonin levels can make you feel down, but including those that help maintain normal amounts of serotonin will lift your mood.

By Andrea Mann