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Can Junk Food Give You a Junk Mood? This Book Says Yes!

Ever noticed how you can be in a really good mood, have a not-so-healthy meal and then feel like poo? Or be in a not-so-great mood and eat healthier foods and feel a bit better? That’s pretty much the whole idea behind the new book Junk Foods and Junk Moods: Stop Craving and Start Living! by health coach Lindsey Smith.

After beginning to binge eat at the age of four, it took Smith years to overcome her childhood anxiety and weight gain. Through her experience, Smith realized that when people look to food to cope with difficult circumstances in their lives, they enter into cycles of junk food eating. As a former emotional eater myself, I know this to be true. Oh, so true.

In the book, which is part personal memoir (you get a lot of Smith’s past) and part guide book, you learn how to live a healthier lifestyle by figuring out what causes you to overeat, whether it is stress-related or emotional. You also learn how certain foods—the unhealthy ones—actually help to perpetuate the feeling-like-poo state, which then leads you to eat more. (It’s one nasty yo-yo!)

With lots of information and tips, a workbook-like format to ask yourself the tough questions, and even some suggestions of what foods to eat and exercises to do, Junk Foods and Junk Moods is a pretty good guide for kicking emotional eating to the curb. The writing isn’t anything superb nor is the information earth-shattering—and I’ll admit, the first chapter is pretty off-putting with her description of watching an overweight woman eat (where’s the love and compassion there?)—but it’s her story with some good tips and exercises to stop the cravings for unhealthy stuff and get to the root of why you have them.

Tell us, have you ever noticed a connection between your mood and your diet? What foods have you feeling good? And not so good? —Jenn 

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