| Food and Mood Centre

Eating alone? Join the club!

Social interaction and support from family, friends, and colleagues has long been associated with positive health outcomes. Having meaningful relationships helps us to manage stress and anxiety, improve physical and mental health, and increase overall quality of life. Conversely, social isolation, l...

Fueling the fire: diet, depression and inflammation

By Dr Sarah R Dash You likely know inflammation as the redness and swelling that appears after you cut your finger – it’s painful, but its job is to help us heal. Systemic (or chronic) inflammation is different. We can’t see this low-level autoimmune response, and it’s usually a prolonged r...

Recap of Gut Revolution: A Catalyst special – Part 2: Obesity (Garry’s story)

Airing on ABC’s catalyst series last month, Gut Revolution was a two-part feature seeking to sort the facts from the faeces. Hosted by Dr Joanna McMillan, we followed the path of two people with debilitating gut issues, on their quests for better health. Food and Mood Centre director, Professor Fe...

Recap of Gut Revolution: A Catalyst special – Part 1: IBS (Melissa’s story)

The Magic Pill

by Sara Campolonghi The prevalent approach in Western countries towards health is generally based on symptom care rather than on health prevention and promotion. Usually we begin to deal with our health when there is something wrong with it, instead of taking care of it in advance, through...

Polyphenols: Do we all just need a little more chocolate?

by Meghan Hockey For many of us, we instinctively turn to chocolate when we are in a bad mood. Is it the taste or are we programmed to choose these foods because of their mood-boosting benefits? Chocolate, along with fruits, vegetables, spices, tea, coffee and red wine all contain nutritive compoun...

Are you a cicada … or an ant? When choices make us really happy!

by Sara Campolonghi Unhealthy food choices we make on a daily basis are almost always linked to the search for some kind of pleasure, or to the avoidance of displeasure. Eating a delicious ice cream or our favourite pizza gives us pleasure. Sitting on the couch in front of the television after a ti...

Nutritional psychiatry: investigating the link between food and mood

By Dr Sarah R Dash Whether we’re reading about it, shopping for it, preparing it or eating it, food is a big part of our day-to-day lives. While everyone’s got to eat, I’ve always found myself particularly interested in food; not only the joys of preparing and eating it, or learning how it fu...

An introduction to mood foods

by Dr Sarah R Dash Nutrition research is constantly evolving, and it can be difficult to keep up with the latest advice in order to make informed choices. Based on what we know about the obesity epidemic, it may not be surprising to learn that over half of the total daily caloric intake of American...