Mood Food: food that lifts your spirits!

© SIG Combibloc

View large image in a photo gallery

Everyone knows that food can give you a lift: chocolate helps to reduce frustration, strawberry ice-cream and cream have a comforting effect, pasta arrabiata helps to quickly restore an uptight nervous system back to normal. With consumers’ health awareness increasing worldwide, the interest in Mood Food – natural foodstuffs, which have an uplifting effect, is also growing.

Neuro-biologists have been analyzing the links between nutrition and the human psyche and have established that the combination of various hormones is a decisive factor in how good you feel. The messenger substance serotonin is responsible for generating feelings of happiness. To ensure that it is produced in sufficient qualities, the body must first however absorb enough tryptophan. This amino acid is a vital factor in the formation of seroton but cannot be produced by the body itself. Foods with a particularly high tryptophan content include cheese, curd cheese, meat, fish, pulses and nuts.

Sweet pudding comforts the soul

Tryptophan can however only by absorbed by the brain in combination with carbohydrates. The carbohydrates are initially converted into sugar in the stomach. The resulting increase in the blood-sugar level ensures the production of insulin, which in turn makes the nerve cells in the brain receptive for tryptophan. This then leads to the formation of the feel-good hormone serotonin. In this connection, when we feel frustrated, the urge to eat a high-carbohydrate pizza or a sweet chocolate pudding as a pick-me-up is driven by our body due to its need to have a clear bloodstream and make the brain receptive to the serotonin-producing tryptophan. The serotonin level rises the quickest when there is a combination of carbohydrates, sugar and high fat content – which also explains the popularity of chocolate. However, these sweet pick-me-ups quickly come at a high price for most people: because when they put on weight, their mood then mostly goes downhill again.

© SIG Combibloc

View large image in a photo gallery

Natural mood-enhancers

Combined with a balanced diet the human mood can thus definitely be lifted using natural happiness enhancers. The most effective “happy-making” foods are chocolate, bananas, pineapple and chilli.
Chocolate makes you feel happier with no less than five different active ingredients: sugar and cocoa butter make the body receptive for tryptophan absorption. The cocoa content also supplies stimulating caffeine, whilst another ingredient is phenylethylamin, a by-product of cocoa bean fermentation. This substance also increases the blood-sugar level and has an exhilarating effect. In addition the milk protein produces exorphine, a natural painkiller, whilst theobromin also boosts performance and stimulates the circulation.
Much more figure-friendly, but no less effective in lifting your mood are bananas. They contain a lot of nutrients, dietary fibre, vitamins, minerals and trace elements with hardly any fat.
Pineapple is another fitness booster and frustration killer: rich in minerals and vitamins, it stimulates the production of serotonin and reduces nervousness. Its vitamin C gets the circulation and metabolism up and running. In the evening pineapple can even act as a natural sleeping pill, because tryptophan in the brain is then converted into the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin.
The active substance countering frustration, anger and depression is capsaicin. It is found for example in chilli peppers. The brain perceives the burning sensation on the tongue as pain and counters it by releasing endorphins, which in turn increase the feel-good effect. In biology this is known as the “Pepper-High-Effect”.
“A few years ago scientists were looking into the issue of how a person’s mood influences their choice of food – today the focus is reversed. Nowadays, the international food industry is also concerned with the question as to how food can improve a person’s mood. Foodstuff manufacturers have never had a greater interest in Mood Food. After beauty products and foods mainly aimed at improving physical fitness, Mood Food could occupy a further niche in the added-value products sector”, says Daniela Bach, Head of Market Research and Intelligence at SIG Combibloc. “Good for mood” – that stands for naturalness and premium product quality and is thus outstandingly suited to consumers’ current needs.

© SIG Combibloc

View large image in a photo gallery

Colourful is healthy

At a time when healthy nutrition and wellness are playing a key role in society, the desire for “Mood Food” thus comes as no surprise. In principle a long-term good mood-food plan comes down to a varied and healthy diet. This means a plentiful, colourful mix of foodstuffs with a broad spectrum of diverse ingredients. In this context “colourful” is to be understood extremely literally. Certain foodstuff colours are believed to have a positive effect on the human psyche: orange and red foodstuffs act as stimulants, blue ones have a calming effect, yellow foods cheer you up and boost concentration.

Good-mood packaging

Mood-enhancing foodstuffs already thematically arouse the consumers’ awareness. The precondition for a successful product in this segment is naturalness and high quality. The packaging design does of course make a decisive contribution to directly appealing to consumers at the PoS – already putting the consumer in a good mood here and giving them an appetite for Mood Food. Aseptic carton filling ensures that foodstuffs – in so far as they cannot be purchased fresh – are also packed securely protecting the contents. Vitamins, flavour and nutrients are retained thanks to product-compatible processes. With its four, all-over printable display surfaces, the aseptic carton is also an attractive information carrier.

back