This handout is used for a culinary class at Colorado Mountain College. A collaboration with the Psychology Department (Drew Mikita), Culinary Department (Ian Buchanan), and Sciences (Dr. Justin Pollack). The class is offered free to the community through Build Hope Summit. It is designed to promote positive dietary habits, recognize the connection with food and emotions, and create some tasty treats!

We are what we eat! (Literally though)

Food and mental health are connected in a variety of ways. The food that we eat LITERALLY fuels our brain, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The calories you ingest will directly influence, happiness, anxiety, motivation, energy levels, drive, and overall mental wellness. Everyone’s body is unique, reacting differently to certain foods and flavors. Awareness of diet is essential. Pay Attention to the way you feel after you eat specific foods. 

• Gauge and Inventory  your energy levels, motivation, physical feeling, and overall emotions. Are you bloated, groggy, tired, energetic, sad, depressed, excited, etc.? Understand that correlation of food and feelings is often directly causal.
• Eating often becomes a compulsive act. Often being stuck in the habit of unhealthy choices because it is routine. Awareness of what we are eating can help form new patterns that make us feel better mentally and physically. 
• Form new habits with foods that make you feel better. Be honest with yourself about how you feel after eating different foods. Don’t lie to yourself to justify eating junk, let your body guide you. Making adjustments to your diet can often yield immediate feeling changes. Sometimes there is an adjustment period going from eating crappy foods to a better food-fuel source. YOU HAVE TO WANT TO FEEL BETTER! FORGIVE YOURSELF AND BE PATIENT!
• Cook your own food. A great way to be aware of exactly what is going into your body. Also the process of cooking can be very therapeutic. Cooking is something people have always done, it is a relevant & necessary skill. 
• There is no decision too little to make a difference. Even the smallest healthy decision can make a difference in your mental and physical health. If you make a bad food choice, focus on the next right decision you can make. 
• Use positive food choices to build confidence. You should feel good about yourself when you make a “healthier decision”, don’t fight it!
• Break your routine, BE BOLD! Try foods that are not your everyday same old. Expand your horizons not only with the foods, but flavors, cultures, cooking styles, and more. You may find something you really enjoy ALSO makes you feel better.
  

The Value and Place of Comfort Foods

It is important to fuel your body with nutritious, healthy foods as much as possible. These calories fuel us physically, mentally, and emotionally. Finding foods that are healthy AND tasty is incredibly necessary, or you won’t eat them! Nutrition aside there are some foods that we crave. They can make us feel comfortable, warm, and remind us of childhood or a positive time. Maybe make-believing you are at home, on vacation, or with a special person. Comfort foods have their place and can be beneficial to mental health.

• Identify a few foods that are comforting to you. Why are they comforting? Who do they make you think of? Where do they remind you of?  The foods, that just the mere thought of makes you smile and feel warm inside. These foods can help pull you out of a funk, remedy a bad case of “The Mondays,” or just make you feel at peace. Eating some great family recipes is a way to improve your mood, immediately! Especially on a really rough day, maybe you are in a dark place, suicidal, broken, whatever, what food can help get you off that ledge? Eat it, Enjoy it!
• Make the classics healthier! Maybe your comfort food is mac ‘n’ cheese, filled with cream, butter, and eleven cheeses. Find some healthy substitutes for the recipe. Get creative finding better options that maybe fill the comfort food itch without the negatives. Or if you really want to have it “just the way Grandma made,” make a small batch, and have just a little bit instead of the whole damn pan.
• Exercise before indulging in comfort foods. A great way to “justify” comfort foods is to save them for after a hike, bike ride, ski day, or other activity. This will help balance out some of the calorie intake. Also, your body is better at processing food after significant exercise.
• Make the comfort food a social experience. Have friends over to share and indulge with you on comfort foods. Share about what the foods mean to you, memories, people, places, recipes. The social benefits are big too. 
• Everything in moderation, including moderation. If you are gonna eat healthy, it is ok to treat yourself, set boundaries for your eating habits with comfort foods.

Food, Feelings, and Culture

Eating is universal, something all human beings need to survive. Ingrained in all cultures, families, and history. Think about the shared (yet markedly different) experience humans all have with the growing of food, going to a marketplace, preparing and sharing it, all humans similarly and uniquely. What positive culturally different-from-your-usual food experiences do you have? Any memories?