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Areas › Your body › Food, caffeine and fuel
The point is not to start cutting foods out on a hunch. It is to say the possibility out loud to a doctor, particularly if the gut symptoms and the mood symptoms rise and fall together. Keeping a rough note of what you ate and how you felt for a fortnight gives that conversation something to work from.
Eat the lawful and good things that God provides for you (Quran 5:88). Good here is not only a category in law, it is also what agrees with the body it goes into.
المائدة
وَكُلُواْ مِمَّا رَزَقَكُمُ ٱللَّهُ حَلَٰلࣰ ا طَيِّبࣰ اۚ وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِيٓ أَنتُم بِهِۦ مُؤۡمِنُونَ
but eat the lawful and good things that God provides for you. Be mindful of God, in whom you believe
Qur’an 5:88read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
There is decent evidence that food can move mood. In the SMILES trial, adults with major depression given twelve weeks of dietary support improved substantially more than those given social support. It was small at 67 people and participants knew which group they were in, so the size of the effect is uncertain. It also says nothing about which food matters for you, only that the diet as a whole can shift things.
Jacka FN, O'Neil A, Opie R, Itsiopoulos C, Cotton S, Mohebbi M, Castle D, Dash S, Mihalopoulos C, Chatterton ML, Brazionis L, Dean OM, Hodge AM, Berk M. (2017). A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the 'SMILES' trial).. BMC medicine doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
An inflamed body produces tiredness and flat mood, which feel from the inside exactly like a psychological problem.
Do not cut out major food groups long term without dietetic advice, especially if you have a history of restrictive eating.
Herbal products are rarely covered by insurance and they add up quickly. That cost belongs in the decision, particularly when you cannot be sure the capsule holds what it says.
Gluten free and dairy free eating is essential in coeliac disease and in a genuine milk allergy. Neither one treats ADHD, and putting a child on them without a reason carries costs of its own.
A child struggling with attention, anxiety and daily reflux at once may be dealing with one problem wearing three coats. Undiagnosed coeliac disease and other food reactions can produce all of it, and the gut symptom is the clue worth following.