Geeky wellbeing favourites: July 2024
Food, food, plus the usual mind–body science highlights
This time last year I was probably in the best shape I’ve ever been in my life. After a moment of horror when I got to the heaviest ever in March, I decided it was time to make a change. I used my behavioural science knowledge to design a simple strategy.
I weighed myself every day to take the drama out of seeing the number pop up. To take the emotion out of it and just track change. To take the power away from the number. This scale was my inspiration, and honestly I would consider getting it but having to pay a monthly subscription doesn’t appeal.
I carefully measured everything I ate and logged it into a calorie counting app that showed me my daily allowance. I decided not to bother with vegetables as their calories are low and, well, that’s something we should all be eating in abundance. But everything else was there, like an honesty contract between myself and an imaginary other who would judge me if I went over. It reminded me a little bit of conversations I’ve had with people who go to a nutritionist to lose weight – it’s like outsourcing your willpower to avoid the judgment.
Oh yes, and exercise. (but that hasn’t changed much)
Fast-forward to 12 months later, and life is a little different.
In March, immediately after my dad died, I spent a week eating nothing but bananas, crackers and cucumbers. I ate these with difficulty, and not because I was hungry or because I was enjoying their flavour in my mouth, but because I knew I had to eat something to keep functioning and they were, strangely, the only things I could keep down.
Stress does curious things to out bodies. People often think that stress equals comfort eating, but acute stress, the kind that leaves you barely functioning, can have the opposite effect. After all, eating doesn’t exactly work well with running away from a lion or fighting for you life. All that digestion effort would get in the way of survival. That and, if you are in freeze mode, you don’t have much use for calories.
Chronic stress must act in a different way though. That’s when the comfort eating starts, the craving for (in my case) chocolate or pasta, the things that feel like a warm hug.
I’m fascinated by how much power food can have on some people, myself included, and not on others – those people who claim that they have no interest in it and just eat it to stay alive.
But with my Greek and Jewish background, I guess I didn’t stand a chance.
Thank you so much to those of you who attended (live and not live) the first yoga and the immune system workshop – I loved sharing psychoneuroimmunology with you, and your feedback has been incredibly encouraging!
The next one is on September 7th and it will focus on the mind–body connection; you don’t need to have joined the first one for it to make sense. Melanie and I would love to see you there.
5 food-related things to check out this month
Ultra-processed foods. This is a somewhat biased but still really interesting book on the effects of ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, on our bodies, including their impact on the obesity epidemic. It has made me re-think some, seemingly healthy, food choices by reviewing the ingredients.
Are plant-based meats unhealthy? Are you vegan or someone who is trying to eat less meat by substituting with meat alternatives? If, like me, you are concerned about eating UPFs (which pretty much all plant-based meats are), this Zoe podcast is really interesting and covers a recent research study on the topic.
Why does chocolate make us feel good? If your comfort eating consists primarily of chocolate, this is quite an interesting read on the science behind it. Spoiler – as you might have suspected, chocolate does make us feel better.
What would life without eating be like? Trigger warning – this was a pretty devastating read on the mental health impact of not being able to eat proper food as a result of suffering from inflammatory bowel disease.
The problem with sad desk salads. This is quite US-focused but as someone who has consumed many a desk salad in my office-working days (including the horrendously expensive £10+ salads from salad specialist chains), I can completely relate to the sentiment.
Exciting news! I’m planning something for the autumn that combines two things that I love, yoga nidra and writing. This is still in planning mode, so maybe you can spare me your brain for a minute or two?
Mind–body science highlights
Impact of yoga nidra on brain correlates with experience
This one is for those interested in the neuroscience of yoga nidra and are up for a challenging read. The researchers used brain imaging (fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imagining) to compare the brains of people who were ‘experienced’ in meditation vs a control group of people who were not. Although the brain patterns of both groups were comparable before and after the practice, the experienced group showed a unique brain pattern that is indicative of going into a state between sleep and wakefulness during yoga nidra. This suggests that meditation somehow primes the brain to get into the nidra state more easily. Also interesting that the brain pattern observed is different to what is seen in other types of meditation.
Yoga’s effect on depression is inconclusive
There is evidence that yoga can be beneficial in depression (by evaluating depression scores, for example), but do we have evidence on how this happens? This systematic review evaluated research into biological changes that happen after a yoga-based intervention among patients with depression – these include markers of inflammation and cortisol. Not surprisingly, the evidence was mixed but as ever, this is likely due to the quality of the available research.
Can fast breathing improve your memory?
This is quite a small study (just 16 participants) but I thought it was interesting and worth sharing. Participants performed Kapalabhati, a fast breathing practice, for 18 minutes, over 7 days. The researchers found that the practice led to improvements in working memory compared to before (ie baseline). They also report that the practice led to activation of the sympathetic nervous system (which you would expect), and quick return to normal after the practice. Note that in addition to the small sample size, this was not controlled (ie they only compared the effects of Kapalabhati with baseline) and only included male participants. If, like me, you were a bit shocked at the 18 minutes, this was split for 5 minutes plus 1 minute break, three times. But still, I’m not sure I could (or want to) sustain that much Kapalabhati breathing.
Yoga can help with work-related stress
This is the kind of research you want to be quoting when approaching companies to get them to offer yoga to their employees. It’s qualitative research (the kind I do for my other job), which means the sample is small but you get deeper insights. Some of the themes that were uncovered include an increased sense of wellbeing, decrease in perceived stress (including the bodily effects of stress), and increased focus and productivity. Also, relevant in this context was an increased sense of gratitude when yoga was offered in the workplace, which meant that participants felt that they wanted to give back to the workplace. Some lovely quotes in there too.
You may have missed
Here are a few older blog posts on topics relevant to this month’s highlights.
Your brain on yoga nidra – if you are interested in the neuroscience, here’s my review from last year of what had been published on the subject.
Burned out? Try yoga – Evidence that yoga can help with work-related stress, with some focus on the pandemic as a time of intense stress.
5 reasons why you should start a breathing practice today – This one is mostly focused on slow breathing, but gives another flavour of the science of breathing.
Until next month!