Weirdly True: We Are What We Eat

by Vasundhara Sawhney August 06, 2021

Summary.

Food is fuel for our bodies. But it doesn’t just give us energy, it can also impact our moods.
Knowing this, how can we make better food choices?

 Our gut or gastrointestinal tract is home to billions of bacteria. The food we eat
directly affects our gut health (or the balance of good and bad bacteria) and influences
the production of neurotransmitters (our body’s chemical messengers that are
constantly carrying messages from the gut to the brain).
 Because different foods trigger different moods, we can strategically choose foods that
evoke desirable mood-states. For keeping our moods even and balanced, especially in
the work environment, we can consume foods that promote good bacteria in our guts.
 We should also consider the physiological reactions various foods trigger. For
example, it might make sense to serve and consume a mild or sweet fare during a get-
together with friends and family, and, maybe consume spicy food ahead of a
confrontational meeting in which we don’t want to be run over.

What do you turn to when you’re feeling low?

If you’re like me, your answer will include “something sweet” — a chocolate
glazed doughnut, a tub of ice cream, or a box of chocolates.
We eat it, and almost instantly, we feel better. These good feelings arise partly
because pleasure hormones (like dopamine) are released in our brains when we
consume food high in caloric value.

It’s not just sweet things that have an impact on our mood either. Findings show
that organic food makes us happy and hopeful, while consuming food high in
protein improves motivation and concentration.

But food doesn’t always improve our moods. Sometimes it can evoke negativity.

A few years ago I read an article about how Malaysian prisons don’t provide
carbonated drinks to inmates who have a history of violence because if they’re
consumed when someone is agitated, that person is more likely to have an
outburst.

All of this science got me thinking: Are we really what we eat? And if we are,
how might that impact the way we behave in certain environments — for
example, at work?

I decided to reach out to some researchers who study this topic to find out.

Are we really what we eat?

Professors Raj Raghunathan (marketing professor at the McCombs School of

Business, Austin), Rishtee Batra (marketing professor at Villanova University,
Pennsylvania,) and Tanuka Ghoshal (marketing professor at Baruch College,
City University of New York) have conducted three studies that found there is a
direct correlation between spicy foods and aggression.

I reached out to Professor Raj Raghunathan to learn more about their research
on the way foods can impact our mood, and how we can use this knowledge to
our advantage.

First, can you tell me a little more about your study?

Raj Raghunathan: Though ancient texts like the Bhagavad Gita — one of the
most important Hindu scriptures — and practitioners of alternative medicine
posit that spicy foods may increase aggression, their intuitions have never been
scientifically tested. So we carried out a series of three experiments to test this
theory.
In the first study, participants first reported spice levels of food they generally
consumed on 100-point scale (1 = “not at all spicy” and 100 = “very spicy”).
They then rated their own personalities on aggression, using Forgays et al.’s
(1997) trait-aggression scale (which had items like, “I consider myself to be hot-
headed”) as well as on other traits (considerate, impulsive, dependable, reliable,
interesting) unrelated to aggression.

We found a positive and significant relationship between consumption of spicy

food and self-reported propensity for aggression — like feeling “hot-headed”
and “easily irritated.” There was no correlation between spice consumption and
peaceful traits like “considerateness.”

The second experiment established causation. In this study, another set of

participants consumed either a plain tortilla chip or a tortilla chip dipped in
habanero salsa (one of the hottest chilis in the world). Both sets of participants
then read a passage about someone named “Jay,” who behaves in an
ambiguously aggressive manner. Participants rated Jay on a variety of
dimensions, including aggressiveness, assertiveness, and impulsivity.
Participants who had consumed the spicy salsa perceived greater “aggressive”
(but not greater “assertive” or “impulsive”) intent in Jay. This result suggests
that after consuming spicy food, we are likely to perceive greater aggression in
others. The study also confirmed, via a sentence-completion task, that
aggression-related words, like “hit” came to mind more easily for participants in
the habanero condition than were non-aggression related words like “hat.”

In the final study, participants were shown pictures of several foods that varied
in terms of spice levels and asked to rate them in terms of spiciness. Then,
participants read the passage (about Jay) used in the previous study, and
similarly rated his aggressive intent. Thus, participants in this study were merely
exposed to pictures of spicy food — and didn’t even consume them. Yet,
findings revealed that exposure to spicy food triggers aggressive intent in
participants.

All three studies confirm, at some level, that the popular saying, “you are what
you eat” may be accurate: If you consume hot and spicy food, there’s a greater
chance that you will be “hot headed.”

Our results support a larger family of studies that suggest the types of food we
eat can significantly affect our mood. For instance, one set of studies conducted
years earlier found that we are more prone to altruism after consuming
sweets. Another more recent study found that eating spicy food promoted risk-
taking in participants.

Why does food affect our mood in so many different ways?

Our gut or gastrointestinal tract (also known as our second brain) is home to
billions of bacteria. The food we eat directly affects our gut health (or the
balance of good and bad bacteria) and influences the production of
neurotransmitters (our body’s chemical messengers that are constantly carrying
messages from the gut to the brain).

Ninety percent of serotonin receptors — our mood regulators that influence our
biological and neurological processes such as aggression, anxiety, cognition,
mood, and sleep — are located in the gut. So, for example, when we eat
something sweet or sugary, it produces dopamine (the feel-good hormone) and
serotonin (the happiness hormone). The neurotransmitters carry those chemicals
to the brain, and we feel happy.

The same goes with other kinds of food. Foods can trigger physiological
changes associated with emotions. Consuming hot food increases discomfort
and sometimes even pain, whereas, as we saw earlier, foods high in caloric value
can trigger positive moods, and consuming protein can improve motivation and
concentration. Certain foods contain chemicals or ingredients that by nature
trigger how parts of our bodies function — in some cases resulting in an
increased heart rate or sweating due to a rise in body temperature.

For example, capsaicin, which is what makes spicy food taste hot, is irritating to
the taste buds. Our taste buds contain something called VR1 receptors. Their job
is to detect heat. When we eat something spicy, they get activated, triggering
sweating or discomfort.

But do aggressive thoughts mean aggressive behaviour? If I consistently

consume spicy food, will I become aggressive, hyperactive, or hot-
tempered?

We do believe that aggressive thoughts are suggestive of angry behaviour, but

we don’t have conclusive proof. It was not in the scope of our study either.
Hence, we aren’t sure that consistently consuming spicy food can make you an
angry person. On the one hand, you can expect that given our results. On the
other hand, if people adapt to the level of spice they eat regularly and certain
foods no longer taste spicy to them, you could expect that there would be no
effect on their behaviour.

Knowing this, how can make better choices about what I eat at work?
Should I be eating certain foods if I want to be more alert, more assertive,
more focused?

Because different foods trigger different moods, one could strategically choose
foods that evoke desirable mood-states. For instance, consuming a snack high in
fat or sugar content may help increase positive mood and hopefulness (and thus
confidence), which could be useful before making a presentation — but you
should also be wary of the comedown.

Likewise, when working long hours, consuming food high in protein content
may help boost motivation and concentration. Consuming spicy food, too, could
potentially come in handy — e.g., in situations in which you expect a
confrontational interaction, and you need to be at your “angry best.”

How can we make food choices that elevate our moods and enhance the
quality of our relationships?

One straightforward recommendation for keeping our moods even and balanced,
especially in the work environment, is to consume foods that promote good
bacteria in our guts. This means consuming fresh vegetables and foods high in
probiotic content (e.g., yogurt or kimchi), and reducing the intake of alcohol or
simple carbohydrates (like sugar). You’d probably want to opt for this before a
big presentation or a year-end review with your boss.

A less straightforward implication is to consider the physiological reactions

triggered by various foods. It might make sense to serve and consume a mild or
sweet fare during a get-together with friends and family, and, maybe consume
spicy food ahead of a confrontational meeting in which you wish to not be run
over. Or if you want to mitigate bouts of irritability and anger before challenging
an overly aggressive colleague, consider cutting down on the consumption of
spicy foods that day or a day before.

…
You Are What You Eat? No, You Are What You Think

Oct 20, 2021 By Andrew McConnell, Co-Founder and CEO of Rented.

Like most children, I frequently received the admonition from my mother: “You
are what you eat!” As a former competitive swimmer who easily consumed
more than 5,000 calories a day during training, I guess that large and far-ranging
diet helped make me who I am today.

As I grow older and even better understand the importance of nutrition in my

life, not to mention on my ever-slowing metabolism, I began to reflect on how
this same concept might apply not just to the food I consume, but also to the
ideas I metaphorically consume.

As a business founder and owner, my number one personal value is growth in

furtherance of supporting and helping others. In my pursuit of living this value
in practice, I constantly read books and articles, listen to interviews and podcasts
and watch presentations and TED talks, all in a continued attempt to grow
personally and help my business do the same.

Though this is a different sort of “eating” than what my mother was referring to
in my childhood, I realized that all this invested effort and time was due to the
belief that my mom was indeed correct all those years ago (no surprise there!). If
all the ideas and teachings I “consumed” were of the best sort, then I, too, would
get better. The right sort of books, articles and podcasts would be like the kale
superfood salad, serving as sustained and sustainable fuel for my mind and my
growth.

Likewise, if what I consumed was not of the best — even worse, if it was junk
— it would the equivalent of polluting my mind with fast food burgers and fries.
Not only would I be wasting my time by spending my mind and effort
consuming “empty calories,” but even beyond their lack of benefits, this junk
could have detrimental effects, as well.

What do you think?

Reading about a study by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer recently made me

reassess all of this. In the referenced study, Langer and her colleagues split hotel
cleaning staff into two groups. One group's members “were told that the work
they do (cleaning hotel rooms) is good exercise and satisfies the Surgeon
General’s recommendations for an active lifestyle.” The control group was not
given this information.

Four weeks later, Langer and her team found that simply telling hotel cleaning
staff that the work they were already doing counted as exercise led to them
having a “decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and
body mass index” compared with the control group, though neither group
changed their actual behaviour.

We typically think of nutrition as a simple equation of calories in versus calories

burned. Langer’s study, to the contrary, shows that what we think about both
actually plays a role, as well. An even more recent study further drives this point
home. In it, participants given the same milkshake had measurably different
physiological responses to drinking that milkshake based on whether they were
told it was an “indulgent” 620-calorie shake or a “sensible” 140-calorie one (in
both cases it was actually 380-calories).

That being the case, I came to realize that it is not enough to consume great
ideas and material, nor is it necessarily detrimental to consume material that is
not the best. What and how we think about the ideas in question plays at least as
critical a role. Or as Marcus Aurelius wrote long before my mother was advising
me: “Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls
are dyed by thoughts.” Or put another way, we are what we think.

For example, I could be reading a book or listening to a podcast filled with great
ideas, but if my mind is constantly wandering while I read, or I am multitasking
and not paying attention to what I am listening to, am I actually getting any real
value from my consumption?

On the flip side, even ideas I come across that are actually erroneous need not be
detrimental to me or to my business. On the contrary, if I am actively engaging
my mind in the consumption of the wrong ideas, and working through how and
why they are wrong, and what “right” would look like instead, I can actually
come out on the other side even better than before.

None of this is meant to suggest that what you consume, whether it be

nutritionally or intellectually, is of no importance. Quite the opposite: When
given the choice in both realms, you, your waistline, your mind and your
business are better served when you show the discipline of choosing the
“healthy” option.

All of that being said, “good” consumption alone is not enough if the goal is to
truly develop into something more and better. At the same time, “bad”
consumption need not be the end of the world. In both cases, if, what and how
you think about that consumption, as those hotel cleaners demonstrated, can and
will make a big difference for better or worse.

Conclusion

Like so much else in my life, the older I get, the more I learn just how right my
mom was all those years ago. She was trying to help me consume wisdom even
then that would have served me well had I only truly listened and understood.

Or perhaps if she had added a little nuance it would have resonated with me
better and sooner: You are what you eat, and you become what you think.
Coming to that realization now, my goal in my business and in my life is to
consume and think better going forward.