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Areas › Your body › Food, caffeine and fuel
It can feel almost insulting to be asked about breakfast when what you carry is so much bigger than breakfast. But a body short of sleep and short of food has a narrower margin before hard feelings tip into overwhelm, and hard feelings are exactly what you are trying to face. Sorting one basic thing is not avoidance of the real work. It is often what makes the real work survivable.
He who gives me food and drink (Quran 26:79). Ibrahim describes his Lord by the plainest daily needs, which suggests they are not beneath notice.
الشعراء
وَٱلَّذِي هُوَ يُطۡعِمُنِي وَيَسۡقِينِ
He who gives me food and drink
Qur’an 26:79read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A dose response review of 24 prospective cohorts found higher diet quality associated with lower risk of depression, and the relationship was strongest at the poor diet end. So the biggest gains sit with people eating worst, not with fine tuning an already decent diet. It is observational, which means it shows a pattern across populations rather than a promise for one person.
Molendijk M, Molero P, Ortuño Sánchez-Pedreño F, Van der Does W, Angel Martínez-González M. (2018). Diet quality and depression risk: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies.. Journal of affective disorders doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A steadier body gives you more room before distress goes past what you can hold.
Caffeine buys about half an hour of sharper focus and takes the payment out of your sleep. It is a decent tool for a particular hour, and using it in place of treatment usually leaves you worse off across the day.
When researchers ran DNA testing on 13 herbal products, only 2 contained the plant on the label. Three had none of it at all, and several were padded out with rice, soy or wheat that nobody had declared.
Very low vitamin D produces fatigue, low mood and a flatness that looks exactly like depression, and it is not part of routine bloods in most places. If you have never had it measured, it is a fair thing to ask for.