The Epi-Log: Food Trend for 2012 from Epicurious

For someone who loves to cook and loves to blog, you would think I might be obsessed with Epicurious.  Although, it is actually a site I visit pretty infrequently, recently, they had a post up n the Epi-Log that I enjoyed called, "Epicurious Predicts Top 10 Food Trends for 2012."

I love this time of year because I am a sucker for "Year in Review" and annual "Top 10" lists, and any that is food-related, is of course, a hit with me. One of the things that particularly stuck out for me on the Epicurious list was their prediction for the diet that would be popular in 2012.  They called it the "Happy Diet" and afterwards wrote,

"Eating healthy shouldn't make you sad. That's why we're excited about Dr. Drew Ramsey and Tyler Graham's Happiness Diet, which focuses on foods designed to boost your mood--and shrink your belly."

This immediately caught my attention because of a conversation I had just had with a friend based on a New York Times blog article titled, "Exploring the Links Between Depression and Weight Gain" by Roni Caryn Rabin.  Although the article was posted in June 2010, I stumbled upon it only just recently and found it fascinating.  It discusses depression and obesity as sort of a "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?" type of question.  Most assume that being overweight leads to low self esteem and depression.  However, the article discusses studies and evidence that weight gain could often be an effect of depression, not the other way around.

Lately, I have become really curious about the physical and mental connection within the body.  I have seen in myself and in others, instances where stress and anxiety has caused physical ailments.  So a mental condition of depression or stress, causing a physical condition of obesity is intriguing to me.

The article quotes Belinda L. Needham, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, saying that “Chronic stress arousal leads to depressed affect, which then leads to excess weight gain."  And what I thought was ESPECIALLY interesting was learning that the stress hormone corisol, stimulates and promotes fat storage, primarily in the abdominal area.

Tackling the "obesity epidemic" in the United States is something that has gotten a lot of media attention lately.  This season I have been addicted to The Biggest Loser; I've read much about First Lady Michelle Obama's fight to end childhood obesity with "Let's Move!"; Chain restaurants are required to list calorie counts for their food; Cities are banning the sales of foods containing trans fats; and workplaces, including my own, are spending millions of dollars to help promote health and wellness in their employees.

Articles such as "Exploring the Links Between Depression and Weight Gain" make me wonder... is the solution to the obesity epidemic to remove trans fats from bakeries and encouraging employees to have "Treadmill Desks" or is it to address an issue that often causes obesity-- depression, stress, and unhappiness?  Diet and exercise may be the solution in the short term, but for those with weight issues, you often have to address the underlying issues of WHY you have that issue with food and weight to begin with.  I can personally attest to the fact that dieting can be a yo-yo phenomenon and with my current weight loss, I have been working to be sure that this is a lifestyle I can maintain but addressing the mental as well as the physical reasons why I have been overweight my whole life.  One of the reasons that I like The Biggest Loser and I am looking forward to Tim Gunn's new show "Revolution" is because they address these facts.

It is also a reason why I loved seeing "The Happy Diet" on the Epicurious list of trends for 2012.  I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to learning more about this and immediately put the book on my Christmas list.  In addition, after reading the New York Times article, I have been working to make sure each day is filled with healthy eating, exercise, AND time devoted to things that make me happy.  For the past few weeks I have been trying to make more of an effort to be just as diligent about my happiness as I am about the time I spend in the gym or preparing healthy foods.  For me, that means a lot more reading, writing, and blogging.  What about you?  What makes up your "Happy Diet?"