Diet affecting mood

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Heres something thats been worrying me for a while.

My mood is generally very stable, I very rarely cry even if something goes very wrong - most of the time. But I've noticed that if I neglect to eat my evening meal in time, by about 7/8pm I will slowly get irritable to the point that anything will set me off. This is rather embarssing for me as, although I'm a female I'm quite a macho person I suppose you could say in terms of mood. I've dealt with deaths, stressful events with none of the usual 'female feelings' or very little. I pick myself up, dust myself off, move on. Not much really bothers me like that and I'm proud of that.

This wouldn't be so bad apart from other factors. Such as when I am ill or very stressed I stop feeling hungry, a lot of the time even thirsty and particually because my nutritutional needs change about then anyway, sometimes the first sign I have that I need something to eat or drink is when I find my mind starts flitting in all directions and I feel not really sad, but irritable, tearful and sometimes upset. Though sometimes I don't know what I am upset at. There is usually a headache involved at some point.

Changes in what I drink can bring it about too. Usually I survive off of juice, usually apple, sometimes orange. I'll get a headache sometimes if I drink too much high sugar stuff but as long as I get that right I am always fine drinking that. When I stop drinking juice, like I did today because I used up my last carton I feel terrible, headachy, feel feverish and very very irritable despite sticking to usual meal times.

I think it is because I had to drink the only thing left in the house - high sugar lemonade, maybe its something about sugar levels? We have no squash but when I move from juice to drinking squash I usually immediantly get a headache, and sometimes irritable, but not always. Water is my only other option, which I'm considering becuase the lemonade brought a huge unexpected change in my mood levels and my head really hurts. Only I usually steer well clear of water (haven't drunk it in years) because I've always had a very bad headache and stomach ache when I drink water, and no matter how much I drink it never seems to do much about making me stop feeling thirsty.

Juice is pretty much my only source of fruit, as I'm not the one who does the shopping around here. Hence the absence of anything to drink that doesn't make me feel like I'm going to tear up or snap at someone at the least thing. Which is so unusual for me, literally I'm calm, logical - thats me. I hate feeling like this.

Anyone have any ideas why this is happening? And is it something I should see a doctor about, because I really hate not feeling like me. I know that if I had ultimate control over what I ate and drank and when I wouldn't feel like this, I know because I've been controlling it this way for a long time. But I don't have have control over these things, and I really want to know why this is happening so I know better how to make this stop happening.

Its really becoming a problem.

Well you could get tested for Type 2 Diabetes. It's possible your reactions to sugar deficits and surpluses is in fact atypical. I am not a doctor - but hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) for someone with Diabetes causes shakiness, anxiety, and irritability. These seem to be approximately consistent with your explained symptoms. You need to start drinking water, I don't care who you are....your kidney function will be compromised without it. Kidney function controls glucose levels, irregular levels of glucose is also similar to or diagnosable as Type 2 Diabetes.

I would see a doctor.

Diet definitely has an effect on mood.

I have been gluten-free for three years now because I discovered that gluten caused my mood disorder/hypomania and depression.

I have been sucrose free for nearly a year now aswell because I had realised that it made me anxious/panicky ( only avoidable by eating more and more of it ... ).

I don't eat dairy very often because it spaces me out, ( like gluten but it tends to be a "happy" sort of disconnection from reality ), and makes it very difficult for me to do slow, mundane or small and detailed tasks, etc; they seem hopelessly boring/uninteresting.

And I have just decided to try cutting out high-fructose foods too because they seem to inevitably, unavoidably induce cravings/compulsive eating, etc, which I loathe. Apparently it may be because fructose ( unlike fat ) bypasses our main appetite suppressant, leptin, and increases the production of ghrelin instead, which stimulates appetite.

Low blood sugar can definitely cause mood changes, ranging from slight irritability or sadness/melancholy to aggressive and/or hysterical/out of control rage, aswell as panicky/anxious feelings and intense depression ( and headaches and nausea too ).

If you find that not eating ( for a few/several hours or at a later time than usual ) frequently induces feelings of anxiety/panic, depression/melancholy or irritability/anger, etc it suggests that your body's homeostatic blood-sugar mechanism is out of whack or exhausted, and it might be a good idea to stop drinking or eating foods high in sugars, of whatever kind, whether refined/white flours, sucrose, high-fructose sweeteners, or fruit juices, or at least cut down on them.

I have a serious fruit juice habit and have just decided I need to go cold turkey on them because I just can't seem to make myself dilute them enough ... I gradually add less and less water.

Eat more fat ( good ones, like in meat, fish, egg yolks, butter, olive oil ), and if you have to eat carbohydrates choose the ones with the lowest glycemic index, eg. brown rice. Eat carrots, nuts, seeds, natural/plain yoghurts, cheese even, rather than sugary snacks or desserts.

Food is definitely connected to mood, ( and cognitive function too ).

Good luck!
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I'd support the idea of getting a blood glucose test to rule out glucose intolerance, 11krage.
Though as a health professional I'd say that physiological proneness to blood sugar dips can cause a lot of your symptoms. I myself am about the same, and my blood sugar levels are normal. But then I am hypersensitive to insulin (a genetic trait) so I blamed it all on it.
Anyway, if I haven't eaten I am no good for anything, very irritable, can't think, can't concentrate, might shout at people. Which disappears after I've had a bite.

Ouinon,
What do you mean by anxiety being only avoidable by eating more of it?

I find what I eat affects my mood a lot. I recently found that smoothes (yogurt and protein powder) keep me full much longer than oatmeal. Oatmeal is supposed to be filling but it doesn't keep me full. When I used to eat it, I would be too full to eat another bite and still not be able to get though work without starving.

I really hope dairy isn't what is causing me to be spacy lately. I hope it's just me, or something. Because I don't know what I would have for breakfast if I can't have dairy. I think it was the carbohydrates in oatmeal that somehow didn't keep me full. But it is a grain so rice milk would cause the same problem in a smoothie-wouldn't it?

I can't afford soy milk often. I do have a case of rice milk I bought for cereals. I eat dairy, I just don't like cow milk. I like yogurt, cheese, etc though.

I'm interested in seeing how food affects other people. I get really depressed from sugar. I haven't told my doctor because I don't trust that he'd believe me. I sometimes wonder if he believes people who have been depressed can have physcial problems. It doens't help that the only medicine that controls my seizures is also uses for bi-polar.

I meant that I discovered that sugar increases my levels of anxiety, even causes anxiety, and that when I'm eating sugar the only way to avoid gradually mounting levels of anxiety and stress in the short-term was to eat yet more sugar, to "ease the pain", as "tranquiliser".

And it would work, for a while, until I was feeling "sick"/unwell in other more physical ways, ( headaches, poor sleep, weight gain, hair loss, irritated skin, etc and that doesn't include the underlying systemic damage that was probably taking place ), and I would then try to cut back and discover this awful panicky headspace.

The only solution was to give up sucrose entirely, and apart from three "lapses"; today, :lol ( after drinking more than I'm used to, nearly a bottle of wine last night, at the first party I've been to in in years, set up cravings for sugar which I failed to resist ), on holiday in the summer, and in April, I have managed to avoid all sugar for nearly a year now.

I'm just starting to try and cut down on fructose too, because of its increasingly well-documented ill effects.

Dairy makes me spacy, probably because of the food opioid peptides in it, but it's true it's a pain cutting it out. If it is that, what about an egg for breakfast instead?
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Hi,
Thanks for answering. It sounds like you, like most of us on the spectrum, are all or nothing. Either you can't have something (sugar in this case) at all or you are ok with a lot of it. But having only a little doesn't help at all.

I don't like eggs. I am a vegetarian but the reason I don't eat eggs is that I can't stand the taste of it.

I've never had problems with dairy before. I have always had problems with sugar. I am ok with almost every other sweetener. I thought fructose would be ok but discovered it is not.

I love dairy. I hope I don't have to give it up. I mostly eat homemade yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese. I hope I don't have to give it up.