Food and Mood Plate

The Food and Mood Plate

Image from The Food and Mood Handbook by Peter Cox Associates, reproduced with permission.

What you eat is important for physical and mental health.
Use the Food and Mood plate as a guide to getting a better balance between these commonly-used food groups. Eat more from the bigger sections and less from the smaller sections.
Food sensitivities are not a problem - alternatives are given.
Use the Mind Meal as a practical example of good mood food eating.
Using the plate

Fruit and vegetables

The minimum recommended amount of fruit and vegetables is for five portions every day. A portion is about a handful. More accurately, an adult portion is 80g. Starchy vegetables like potatoes and yam don’t count towards the 5-a-day.
Fresh is best but some frozen, tinned, dried or juiced is fine.
Aim to eat a rainbow of different coloured fruit and veg each day, to obtain a range of nutrients.

Carbohydrate or starchy foods (e.g. bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, yam)

Choose wholefood versions e.g. wholemeal bread, wholegrain cereals, brown rice.
The Glycaemic Index (GI) or Glycaemic Load (GL) can be a useful guide to choosing slow energy-releasing options such as oats and basmati rice.

Alternatives to wheat:

Wheat-free breakfast cereals include corn flakes, puffed rice , porridge oats.
Wheat-free breads include rye bread, pumpernickel, corn bread, rice bread.
Wheat-free crackers include oatcakes, rice cakes, rye crackers.
Wheat-free grains include rice, millet, quinoa, buckwheat, polenta (made from corn/maize).
Wheat-free pastas include rice pasta, buckwheat pasta, corn spaghetti.

Protein foods (e.g. lean meat, soya, fish, eggs, legumes (beans, peas, lentils), nuts and seeds)

Aim to eat two portions of oily fish per week or take an omega-3 oil supplement daily. Choose from fresh, frozen or canned - but remember that canned and smoked fish can be high in salt.

Milk and dairy foods

If you are reducing or avoiding all animal milks and related foods, make sure you include plenty of calcium- and magnesium-rich foods in your diet instead. These include tinned fish with edible bones, leafy green vegetables, nuts such as brazil nuts, almonds, hazelnuts and peanuts and whole grains, particularly millet and oats. You could also take a nutritional supplement that contains these minerals. Note: If you would like to change your child’s diet you should consult a medical practitioner, nutritional therapist or dietitian first.

Alternatives to cow’s milk, cheese, yogurt and butter:

Goat’s milk, cheese and yogurt.
Sheep milk, cheese (e.g. feta cheese) and yogurt.
Calcium-enriched soya milk. Tofu and tempeh (made from soya) can be used as an alternative to cheese, although the taste is quite different.
Soya yogurt.
Calcium-enriched rice milk.
Butter made from goat’s or sheep milk.
Vegetable margarine or spread or olive oil.

Foods and drinks high in potential ‘stressors’ (e.g. some additives, saturated fat, added sugar, caffeine, chocolate and alcohol)

Have less of foods and drinks containing artificial colourings, flavourings and preservatives.
Have less of foods containing trans or hydrogenated fats.

USING THE PLATE

The Food and Mood plate largely follows the UK government’s healthy eating advice provided via the Food Standards Agency’s Eatwell plate (relaunched in September 2007).

The main difference is:

the presentation of healthy eating as being important for mental health as well as physical health*

also:

the focus on alternatives to wheat and cow’s milk foods, to assist those people who find it beneficial to reduce these in their diet.
the suggestion to use the Glycaemic Index (GI) or Glycaemic Load (GL) as an additional tool for choosing slow energy-releasing starchy foods.
the recommendation to eat oily fish twice each week.*
the addition of some additives, caffeine, chocolate and alcohol to the smallest segment, and the use of the term ‘potential stressors’ to describe this segment, based on the Food and Mood Self-Help Survey findings.

*As recommended in the Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum report 'The Links Between Diet and Behaviour', published in January 2008.

For more information on the macronutrient (protein, fat, carbohydrate) and micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) content of the food groups and why they are important for mental health, for detailed advice on managing food sensitivity and avoiding additives, and the Glycaemic Index, read The Food and Mood Handbook by Amanda Geary.

Please note that individual needs vary and if in doubt you should consult a medical practitioner before making significant changes to your diet, or if considering cutting out food groups altogether. The Food and Mood plate does not apply to children under two years.