Are you Craving Carbs - Is It Depression?

"Many people crave carbohydrates -- when they feel upset, depressed, or tired. "

Does a bad day at the office or a tiff with your spouse send you marching to the cookie jar or the corner bakery? Or do you find yourself at the vending machine every day precisely at 4 p.m. for some crackers or candy?

"Carb craving is part of daily life," says Judith Wurtman, PhD, a former scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of The Serotonin Power Diet. She and her husband, MIT professor Richard J. Wurtman, have long researched carbohydrates and their link to mood and depression.

The Wurtmans published a landmark article about carbs and depression in Scientific American in 1989. They are convinced that the carbohydrate craving is related to decreases in the feel-good hormone serotonin, which is marked by a decline in mood and concentration.

Other experts aren’t so sure. Some wonder if depressed mood and reaching for carbs are both related to an external event -- such as the stock market decline -- or to simply habit. Carbohydrate Cravings: What's Known? What's Debated?

Carb cravings seem to be related to decreases in serotonin activity, says Wurtman. "We discovered years and years ago that many people experience the 'universal carbohydrate craving time' between 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. every day," she says. "I suspect the tradition of English tea with its carb offering is a ritual developed to fill this need." "It's a real neurochemical phenomenon," she says.