12 Winter Depression Busters

Watch the Sugar

I think our body gets the cue just before Thanksgiving that it will be hibernating for a few months, so it needs to ingest everything edible in sight. And I'm convinced the snow somehow communicates to the human brain the need to consume every kind of chocolate we have in the house. We are mammals, yes, so do we think we need an extra layer of fat in the winter to keep us warm? I'm starting to think so.

Depressives and addicts need to be especially careful with sweets because the addiction to sugar and white-flour products is very real and physiological, affecting the same biochemical systems in your body as other drugs (like heroin). According to Kathleen DesMaisons, author of "Potatoes Not Prozac": Your relationship to sweet things is operating on a cellular level. It is more powerful than you have realized....What you eat can have a huge effect on how you feel."