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Foods and Moods
Broadcast starting week of November 14, 2006

This week on The Infinite Mind, we look at Foods and Moods. Just thinking about eating your favorite foods can make you feel good. Now, scientists are unearthing surprising links between the foods you eat and behavior. We'll hear about the latest research. Noted food critic and Gourmet magazine editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl starts the show with a reading about comfort food. Then, on a low carb diet? Feeling irritable or even blue? You are probably not alone. We speak with two M.I.T. researchers, Richard Wurtman, MD and Judith Wurtman, Ph.D., who have investigated the possible links between serotonin and carbohydrate cravings, and explain why low carb diets might be making people crabby or even depressed. Also, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, the National Institutes of Health researcher who helped first identify the link between Omega-3 fatty acids and depression, reveals new research indicating that eating fish may reduce violence in society. Plus, a visit to one of New York's hottest new restaurants, "Public," which has won awards for a mood that compliments the food. And we'll hear from Johns Hopkins anthropologist Dr. Sidney Mintz about the social role of food in cultures throughout the world, from "sinful" foods to why customers in Asia flock to McDonalds even though people may not like the food.

Host Dr. Peter Kramer opens the show with a commentary questioning if we really are what we eat, and how what goes in our mouths influences the chemistry of our minds. Then, The Infinite Mind’s Jackson Braider talks with Ruth Reichl, food critic and editor of Gourmet magazine, about the sentimental value of food. She reads an excerpt about comfort food from her new memoir, Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise. As Reichl notes, we are indeed what we eat.

Next up: How does comfort food soothe the brain? Dr. Peter Kramer talks with husband and wife team Richard Wurtman, M.D. and Judith Wurtman, Ph.D. from the MIT Clinical Research Center. They explain why our brains crave sweet and starchy foods like mashed potatoes and cookies, and why many people instinctively reach for carb-heavy foods to cope with PMS, depression, and winter blues. Based on their research into the effects of carbohydrates on mood, the Wurtmans argue that low-carb dieting could make some people, particularly women, feel crabby and depressed.

You can learn more about Drs. Richard and Judith Wurtman’s work through the MIT Clinical Research Center’s website.

After the break, The Infinite Mind's Emily Fisher visits top-rated New York restaurant Public, and talks to executive chef Brad Farmerie and his brother, restaurant designer Adam Farmerie, about how their restaurant works to create a mood, and how lighting, decor, and presentation subtly affect our perceptions of what we eat.

See how deeply architecture figures in the conception of the restaurant Public at their website.

Can food affect our darkest impulses? Dr. Kramer then talks with Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a top scientist at the National Institutes of Health, about cutting-edge research into the possible connection between food and violence. Could eating certain kinds of fish—and other foods containing a special type of fat known as omega-3 - make us into less aggressive and hostile people? Dr. Hibbeln talks about his recent cross-cultural studies linking lower seafood consumption with higher homicide rates.

To read more about Dr. Hibbeln’s work, you can visit the NIH’s Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics website.

Finally, The Infinite Mind’s Geeta Dayal speaks with Dr. Sidney Mintz, an anthropology professor at Johns Hopkins, about the many meanings of foods across cultures and throughout history.

Visit Dr. Sidney Mintz’s website to learn more about anthropological work regarding food stuffs and foodways.

Heard this week on The Infinite Mind:

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