S2 EP 14 - Food for Mood: Hungry like a Wolf

It’s a new year, so let’s talk about food and feelings—because they’re way more connected than we realize. In this episode, we break down how what you eat can either calm you down or completely throw you off, without diet rules or restriction.

This episode dives into the four core emotions—joy, sadness, anger, and fear—and how each one shows up in your body. From why joy just wants to be savored, to why sadness loves soup, why anger needs cooling foods, and why fear sometimes just needs you to eat something, we keep it real and practical.

This is an honest, compassionate conversation about emotional eating, stress, and learning how to support your nervous system instead of fighting it.

If you’ve ever eaten your feelings, felt overwhelmed, or wondered why certain foods make you feel better (or worse), this episode is for you. Grab a snack, get comfy, and let’s start the year a little more regulated—together.

Contact Suzanne Swain:
Email: suzanneswain@gmail.com

Website: msmarypoppins.com

Produced By: StellaMix Podcast Productions

Transcript

New Year, Surgery Update, And Plans

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Well, hey y'all. It's 2026. Happy New Year. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and got to see all your family, friends, and furry folk that you've been wanting to see and and had just an awesome, awesome time, and that you ended the year strong. And so far the new year is treating you really well. I have to say that I've been very happy this holiday season. I've been recovering from my knee surgery, and it turns out I'm going to have to have another one next Tuesday on the 6th because this one didn't take. It turns out I have some bone loss and deficiencies from vitamins over the years from some surgery I had years ago. And that's fixable, totally fixable. But unfortunately, my leg is sort of collapsing underneath the new implant. So they're going to take it all out and do it all over again a different way. And then hopefully I'll be trucking around like nobody's business and such. So they're going to put some rods in the lower part of the leg and the upper part of the leg. I love it because it's all science. I just think it's amazing. And I watch way too much Grey's Anatomy. So I'm just like, oh gosh, can I watch? Can I have a video? You know, I think he thinks I'm really weird, but that's alright. I don't know. Anyway, but because of this nutrition thing, I've been really thinking about food. And of course, the holidays, there's lots of food around and yummy treats and all kinds of comfort things that you have that make you feel good. In the holiday season, the lights and the smells and the sounds, all of these things are indicative of joy. Obviously, during the holiday season, the food makes a huge difference because you have that one slice of pie, you're like, ah, I like cheesecake during that time of year. So I have my piece of cheesecake and it's like, wow, and instantly calm. So that's called regulation. And so when someone gets upset, you have to re-regulate them and get them back to, you know, baseline. So that's what we're going to do today is we're going to talk about the emotions and how food can affect your emotions. I see this all the time in schools with kids, especially after lunch. Depending on what they serve for lunch, I could tell whether or not my class period after lunch was going to be doing diddly squat or not. Because if it was all little brown fried things and stuff, they were going to be asleep. And so, kiddos, honestly, chicken nuggets all the time. I mean, we love the nugs, you know what I'm saying? I got you, dipping sauces and all. But do you really feel good when you eat that stuff? Seriously. You will feel better if you eat some real protein and have some good quality food. So it's about the quality of the food you're eating, not necessarily the quantity, and it's certainly not necessarily the type or style of food that you eat. So also one thing to mention about weight and body issues and stuff too. I will be doing an episode on body concerns and eating disorders and things like that. But I know I was a pretty big kid when I was little, but I had lots of anxiety. So I ate to cope. And as a kid, that's about the only thing you can do to cope, thank goodness, because other things are adult oriented. And hopefully people don't go down that rabbit hole. So I just sort of ate my feelings. And losing weight actually really wasn't that hard when I learned to control my emotions. You know, if you're an overweight person, don't be so hard on yourself. Maybe you're just really stressed out. So give yourself a break. This year, let's give ourselves a break. But I want you to have some information. So if you know about this, maybe you can make better decisions, right? We're gonna do a two-parter. This one is called Hungry Like a Wolf, and we're gonna talk about four core emotions. We're gonna talk joy, sadness, anger, and fear, because these are your most core emotions, and they can affect you the strongest. So we're gonna talk about that one today. And then in part two, which is gonna be sweet dreams are made of this, we're gonna talk about social emotions. So this is stuff that's affected by the people around you. So it can be embarrassment, you got envy, you got boredom, all that kind of stuff, disgust. Those are all social emotions that you learn from watching other people do things and then comparing yourself to them. So we're gonna do it in two parts just to make it a little less confusing and not give you a whole bunch to understand in a short amount of time. Also, we're gonna put some cool episode guides up on the website so you can download content from each episode. And that way, if you want to talk about these things with your family, you can just download it, print it, and then bring up a discussion. So I'm hoping by the end of January to have all the episode guides up free of charge, not a problem, on the website at msmarypoppins.com, which is Ms. Marypoppins.com. If you want to support the show, it would help with production costs, especially since I am not able to work and yeah, for the next few weeks. So if you can help out, that'd be great. I have a support page where you can buy me a cup of coffee or Steve a bowl of food. And Steve says hi, he barked a lot in the last couple of takes of this. So I'm hoping that this episode will go better and not have him barking at Henry across the street because his arch nemesis just he can't stand it. So my boy. But he had dinner and now he's sleeping happily. So there you go. Emotions kind of live in the body just as much as the brain. And what we eat can either stabilize us, and you know, our nervous system can calm down, or they can energize us depending on what it is we eat and what combination of things that we're putting into our body. So we're kind of like a tree. You got to water the tree. And I saw this movie called Idiocracy once, and oh, tragically hilarious. And they were trying to pour energy drinks on plants, and then they were wondering why their garden wouldn't grow. It's like, well, yeah, because they just drink water, they don't need energy drinks. Like, but it has electrolytes. No, you you know, you gotta feed the plant. And if you were a plant, you know, you'd give pure water, you wouldn't just drink soda and junk all the time. And not to mention it's not very good for your teeth. So let's talk about some practical things that we can do to improve the food we eat and to help our emotions kind of get themselves under control. So now, rather than focusing on diet culture and restriction and things like that, you know, this episode we're gonna emphasize nourishment and sensory regulation. So, joy. Let's talk about joy, everybody's favorite. The lighthouse, the light of our day, glowing with wonderful energy. Now, this is an emotion we don't want to suppress. So we don't need to re-regulate you from joy. I don't I would hate to do so, actually. Now, you can become overstimulated. Now that's different. You can have so much joy that you're just like a little puppy, but I don't know that I'd want to keep somebody down from that. So that's just calming down and having just too much adrenaline going. But joy is an expansive emotion, and it's connected to curiosity and play and connection, all kinds of great things. So in the brain, joy is associated with dopamine. All right, that's a chemical that supports pleasure and motivation. See, so joy doesn't need to be reduced or controlled or anything. She just needs to be kind of nurtured and savored and enjoyed. And I think we don't get the time to enjoy things very often. And the word joy is in it. So you're enjoying something. It's very important. Take the time to eat a piece of chocolate or something. You do deserve it. It's self-care. So things that are naturally sweet, like fruit, fresh fruit, a fruit bowl would be awesome, like watermelon in the summer. These all gently support that dopamine, but without overwhelming your nervous system. And that's important. So some examples also I would probably go like strawberries, pineapple, oranges, apples, vanilla yogurt, oatmeal, maybe with honey in it, something like that. Also, you know, sometimes levels of vitamin D and certain B vitamins are associated with low mood or low energy. So if you feel like you don't have a lot of energy, that's one thing. But if you don't have a lot of joy, that's another. So just try to differentiate or determine which one is correct. But Joy doesn't really want a diet plan. You know, she just wants like a strawberry and a five-minute break. That's all she needs, which is probably all we need in life is a strawberry and a five-minute break, right? Now my girl's sadness. Bless her heart. Which her real name, of course, was Empathy, but it didn't really have that ring that would go great in the movie. But think of her as empathy, which I think would make it a lot easier. And as we know, empathy should be running the show in your brain, hopefully sitting at the head of the table. So she's the one that's thoughtful and does her homework and researches things and sees a purpose to research. So if she's running the show, she's thinking level-headedly, and that's important. But once we go down the road of sadness, you can run into the depression. And I have a lot of kids with depression, and it's terrible to see a five-year-old with depression. And it's just heartbreaking. Sadness is a good thing because it lets you deal and process and think about stuff. That's your research. But it also can be extremely dangerous, as we know, with you know, people not being able to come out of their depression and then bad things happen. So soup is definitely sadness's favorite food. Soups and stews and anything that comes in a crock pot. Kids, you can certainly learn how to operate an instant pot or something like that and make soups, which is really fun because you can just throw in a bunch of random stuff and it makes an awesome soup half the time. But maybe you and your family can make your own like special soup together, and then you can make it from time to time, and that's your thing that you make. So sadness definitely needs comfort food. That's also why that during the holidays, it's actually good for people who suffer from depression to go eat or remake food that their family used to make during the holidays. It can help with depression that way. Because sadness is a slowing emotion and it helps us process loss and invites empathy. This is about connection, this emotion really. And it often shows up as like being kind of heavy and tired and withdrawn and just kind of black. But when she's present, the body is seeking warmth and softness and comfort. So soft things are really nice. Your sense of touch is extremely important with sadness. So warm foods, you know, soups, like I said, stews, oatmeal, mashed potatoes, applesauce, uh, warm drinks. You know, I like my honey lemon teas and things like that. There's all kinds of cool teas out there that are non-caffeinated and things like that you can try and maybe pick a special kind of weird type of tea. Give it a shot. I tried some tea that was made from flowers, and I was like, wow, that's actually really good. So you never know, you just got to take a risk. And that will have something to do with fear later on. But these foods tend to activate a calming energy inside of you and helps to re-regulate you, which is really obviously the goal. So you may have a low vitamin D level and omega-3 fatty acids, you may be lacking a little bit in, which is fish oil, so like salmon, things like that. But it's usually linked with depression and low energy. So fish oil, eating fish can help a lot with sadness. And of course, you know, lots of sugary things and so on and so forth, but that doesn't last. So if you want the sadness to go away on a long, like all day, have something that's very comforting. I find for breakfast here in the south, we eat biscuits and gravy. And wow, they also put chocolate gravy, which is sort of like Swiss Miss type of hot chocolate mix in sort of a jelly gravy type of stuff. But I don't know, I can't eat that for breakfast. But I don't know about you. But if you can, go for it. So soup is essentially a hug you can eat. I'm gonna say that she wins the soup category. Sadness, soup. Sadness, stew. No problem. All begins with S. So says Suzanne with an S. Oh, yay, it's anger time. You're like, what? Yeah. Stop. Anger time. Anger is my favorite emotion by far because it comes from love. You have to care about something so much that it makes you that angry and you're okay with being that dysregulated. Nobody wants to be that dysregulated. So anger is something that comes from a passion that you care about something completely. So I like to talk to my angry people, and I tell them that they just love too much and they need to protect their heart and they need to protect them from getting dysregulated by other people. So if people make you really angry all the time, folks, then maybe you need to think about why they're getting to you and why do you even care. So if you can get to the well, I don't care stage, then I'd say you're doing pretty well. But of course, you want to have empathy. So anger and empathy or sadness work together really well as a pair because anger is really motivational. Anger, anger will get you off the couch. It's like, I will not stand for this. So I'm making this podcast because of anger. I was like, there is nothing for middle school students, nothing. And I had a conversation with Meg Lafauve, who wrote Inside Out, and we were talking about that there isn't really a way to have a middle school show for families and kids. Well, here we are, folks, and doing pretty well, I'd say. So it gets you motivated to do things, and that's really important. But anger's a really high energy emotion, it's you know, but it's rooted in love and protection, of course, but it activates your stress response and it raises your body temperature, your heart rate, you start sweating, things like that. So anger can motivate action, but it reduces your problem-solving ability. So you can either be angry or smart. It's kind of a really brief way of explaining it. I can go into all the technicalities, but let's just say this. You get two choices. You either can do fight, flight, fawn, freeze, or flitter, as I like to say, or you can do math problems. You can be logical or irrational, or you can be like, I just need to run. Ah, get out of here. It has to do with adrenaline. So you only get to pick one. So I say never do math problems with a lion because if you're scared, you can't do anything really logical. So anger, you tend to get really wound up about something, but unfortunately, the more angry you become, the less logical you become. And sometimes your arguments may not be as well-rooted as they should be. So if something really upsets you, sit on it for a while, make some notes about it, and then come back when you're calm. It's a wonderful emotion. It just has to be controlled like a wild stallion of fire horse. So you want to eat cooling type of foods, hydrating foods. Watermelon is actually really good for anger. It'll help you kind of go back to balance. Coffee is really, really good. The smell of coffee can calm you down. Things like popsicles and yogurts and smoothies, cucumbers that have a really fresh taste, mint, mint tea, hydrating fruits, pineapple, melon, things like that. All that's helpful. A lot of times anger comes from low magnesium and vitamin B6 deficiencies. So, hmm. Interesting. It can cause irritability and anxious behavior. So we'll be revisiting the B vitamins with anxiety, that's for sure. But anger is really the body asking to cool down before thinking clearly. It just needs a minute to just be like, okay. It's sort of an exhale. So cooling foods become that exhale. Mint is really, really good, also if someone's angry. You can give them a peppermint, and that really works. I like to give out boxes of lemon heads for anger and anxiety, especially, also depression. Lemon heads work for lots of stuff, and you can't eat too many of them because you kind of get sick on that much lemon. But lemon is a kind of universal cura all flavor that resets the brain. So if coffee's not a thing, or smelling coffee, you just have to open the bag of coffee and let somebody smell it. Just like they have in you know perfumeries and places like that where you purchase a fragrance and you smell lots at once. They put out coffee so you can re-regulate. Coffee can be really good when you're angry as well. A lot of people drink coffee when they're angry, actually. That's alright. Now, what about fear? Lastly, we're gonna talk about fear and oh fear. Fear is an emotion of lack of knowledge. You're like, what? Okay, let me put it this way. Let's just say that you're afraid of spiders, right? So you've avoided spiders your whole life. Fine, not a problem. But you do know things like Charlotte's Webb and so on and so forth, and Spider-Man and all that. So you like spiders in a way, but basically, if you ever saw one, you'd freak out. You follow? Okay. Well, what if just potentially you went and studied up on spiders? You spent two weeks to learn everything you could ever learn about spiders, and then at the end of the two weeks, you do some exposure therapy where you go into a pet shop and you hold a spider, which sounds at the beginning of the two weeks absolutely awful. But once you've learned about it and studied up on it, it's not so scary anymore. Also, fear is eradicated through experience. So the more times you do something, the easier it'll get to you. And then the fear subsides because you feel confident that you can handle something. So fear is driven by the brain's alarm system, and it shows it that's the amygdala, and it's shown as things like shakiness, stomach discomfort, sudden hunger. Also, sudden hunger is very common with fear. You want to eat something to just feel better immediately. So fear is kind of the fear of the unknown, and it's reduced through knowledge. So the more you know about, the more you know, bing, bing, bing, the more you know about something, the less fear you're gonna have about it in the future. Now, specifically to foods, a lot of people don't like broccoli, which I think are like little trees and they're so cool, or cauliflower, or usually some kind of vegetable, or but if you're gonna try new food, I mean why not? You're just gonna try it. There's no reason to be afraid of eating something new. Just give it a shot. And if you don't like it, well, at least you had the experience. It's a food adventure. So don't be afraid of food and give it a shot. I've I found that I love things like Indian food and all kinds of stuff that I, if I didn't take a chance and try it out and get away from my little sad pasta noodles that I usually eat or breakfast burritos, how would I have known? So you gotta expand your comfort zone. So, fear, the more you learn about something and what's the ingredients or what have you, the easier it'll be for you to try it. So I wouldn't want anybody to avoid something in life so much that they just have a fear of something and never try to fix it. But grounding protein-rich foods are especially important to help stabilize the blood sugar and definitely to calm the amygdala of the nervous system. So you can do things like eggs, nut butter, toast, trail mix, pasta, hardy snacks, things like that, you know, trail like check's mix type of stuff. Sometimes fear also can come from low iron. Low and iron deficiency can do really weird things to you. I've I've been there, I've had to have iron infusions before, and I was really weird. So it's a thing. Vitamin B12 and magnesium are also often linked with fatigue and heightened stress, so that can be a thing. So sometimes the fastest way to calm fear is to simply eat. Just eat something. And because fear can trigger hunger, just eating something is a good idea. So there you go. Those are a few things that perhaps you can try that can help you along the pathway to being more emotionally regulated in the new year. Now, remember, this is a two-part, so the next episode we're going to be talking a lot about anxiety and all the good ones embarrassment, envy, and boredom. So we're going to talk about them. Also a little bit about disgust. So disgust kind of goes with fear in a way. So I'll leave that there. Please visit our website, msmarypoppins.com. That's Ms. MaryPoppins.com. Say hello to Steve. He's got some photos up in the photo album. He's very excited. He also got a new cartoon image of himself. So I'm sure he's thrilled. Yeah. Anyway, but visit us at our website, check out the episode guides that we'll be posting in the next couple of weeks. And I certainly look forward to part two of this. How good is it going to be? Can't wait. We'll see you soon. So stay clever, little foxes.