BeanDiet

Maybe it's the shorter daylight hours and the fact I've just moved to a new city... I don't know about you, but I want to hear good news these days. So forgive me for sharing with you some evidence that avoiding meat (yes, including fish) improves mood. Now, who couldn't benefit from that? And if you do avoid meat and think your mood isn't so hot, just think how bad it could be!

On a personal note, I distinctly remember experiencing a significantly improved memory after removing all animal origin foods (all meat, dairy and eggs) from my diet. I also lost 20 pounds - talk about putting me in a good mood.

Just in (via PCRM.org):

Omnivores who cut all meat out of their diets experience mood improvements, according to a poster session presented this week at the annual American Public Health Association conference. Researchers at Arizona State University divided 39 omnivorous participants into three dietary groups: control (made no changes to diet), fish (consumed three to four servings of fish per week and no other meat), and vegetarian (consumed no meat and no eggs). The vegetarian group experienced mood improvements in both tension and confusion categories, while the meat-eating participants and fish eaters showed no significant changes in mood.

Beezhold BL, Johnston CS, Daigle DR. Restriction of flesh foods in omnivores improves mood: a pilot randomized controlled trial. Poster presented at: American Public Health Association's 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition; November 9, 2009: Philadelphia, PA.