Could Depression Be Caused By Carbs? This is a question not many people would be able to answer authentically. Authentically means answering from their own experience. I can.
Why can’t other people? Because most humans go through life with their eyes closed, asleep. Things happen to them they don’t act as cause in their lives, they don’t even consider it. They don’t live consciously. I do, and this is what all my programs are about: causing you to live consciously.
About 10 months ago I removed most carbohydrates 1 from my diet. I was on that all protein, some fat, some greens diet for six months. Then I started to add, slowly, some vegetables, and about a month ago I added sweet potatoes, baby red potatoes, and finally two weeks ago I added bread.
In this article I will pay closest attention to my emotional state, my sleep pattern, because these are connected to the state of depression.
As soon as I added potatoes, I started to wake up tired, and want to stay in bed, maybe even sleep more.
Then I added sugar free candy… headaches, muscle ache, sluggishness… stopped with that one real fast.
Two days after I added bread, in addition to sleeping in every day, I started to feel tired during the day, and I started to having difficulty falling asleep, or alternately wake up after 30 minutes of sleep, and have difficulty going back to sleep.
And starting this morning, it seems, that the emotional symptoms of depression are in, full blown: I hate my life, I spend time looking where I screwed up, I start looking at other people feeling that everybody is better of than me, more successful, more accomplished.
If suicide were an option for me, I would start to fantasize about that, or start hoping that I won’t wake up one morning.
How do I know? Most of my life I have spent depressed, except the periods when I stopped eating bread. It may also be potatoes for you, if you crave chips, so don’t limit your looking to bread.
Why do carbs make you depressed?
The answer to most questions of human illnesses can be found in the gut
As I have been saying, all transformation, all power comes from making the invisible visible.
Our gut is inhabited with trillions of microorganisms that digest our food for us.
What we eat defines strictly which type of microbe and what composition will be in our gut.
Each type of microorganism thrives on different stuff…
On one hand there is the need of the human body, your body, on the other hand there is the digestive end product plus digestive waste, the result of the food you eat and its consumption by the microbes that eat it, process it.
Each type of microorganism’s waste product (poop?) also becomes part of that whole chemical picture.
When you change your diet, it takes the microorganism composition to change slowly. Until they adjust, your food goes through the digestive canal undigested, rotting, putrified.
But certain microorganisms love that, and they also love carbs. Yeah, they love it. They love carbs in every form you can give them, they can deal with it and like cancer, build themselves and destroy you in the process.
For example, candida, just one strain of the many fungus type microorganisms in your body, produce waste products that are a lot like psychothropic drugs: mood altering drugs.
Some other microorganisms, use up all the trace minerals to grow themselves, and allow none of those to reach your blood stream.
The balance is delicate, it doesn’t allow for much changes, just like our body temperature.
But we, humans, have been considering ourselves beyond the laws of nature. Our taste buds have been tempered with by industry, and we got hooked on taste; instead of eating to live, we live to eat.
We get depressed, dull, hyper, delusional, gullible: the powers that be have prepared for us the perfect diet to be sheep.
You can continue, or you can take back your power. It is really up to you.
Or stay dull, duped, delusional, scaredy cat, hesitant, really your choice.
My experiment is over.
- definition: Any of a group of organic compounds that includes sugars, starches, cellulose, and gums and serves as a major energy source in the diet of animals. These compounds are produced by photosynthetic plants and contain only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
I have always loved bread and rice and potatoes, since I was a child. I like the chemical release in the brain from the carbs. I have a desire for them. In the past I had a some issues with my blood sugar levels that I evened out with the use of chromium. I am aware of it now, and bring discipline to my eating. By level I mean degree or amount of addiction or attraction. I thibk my low blood sugar level was also related to my depression and irritability. Low blood sugar levels make me reactive and short-tempered. I have been experimenting with eating some protein, like eggs, and a vegetable, and just cutting out the bread part.
do you mean you are addicted to carbohydrates to some degree? Or if not… what are the different levels and what is a level?
Sorry, Sophie. I am saying that I think I am addicted to carbohydrates at some level.
Johnny, I wished you started to comment in English… What on Earth are you saying?
I think I am a mild or more than mild carboholic. I have tried the Atkins diet. It worked, as for Kathryn, above. But that steady-state burn of calories is unnerving. There’s none of that carb payoff. I am sure there is some comparison to be made to other things we do to set off our emotional states.
Thank you Sophie. That is great news. I’ll bring it up in the next session.
hm… you could make it a part of your Elite Circle Coaching. If there are a lot of people that want this type of coaching, I may make it a separate coaching program, but I doubt it.
I have beaten sweets and carb cravings, so I think I am qualified to coach…
Sophie – When I look back, the times I’ve gone on the Atkins diet or other low carb diets, I’ve had more energy and felt more alive and not depressed. But I’ve never been able to stick with the diets because I start craving carbs so much, I become obsessed by them. Especially candy and desserts. Constantly thinking about them and wanting them and forcing myself not to eat them. Fighting the carb craving seems to take over my life. And I end up dropping off the diet and going back to the carbs.
I need some health coaching on ways to give up carbs and not become obsessed by them. Do you offer that kind of coaching?