I was meditating about the link between eating and emotional state when the early morning view from my office window derailed my profoundly philosophical and serious approach to this topic by elevating my mood to a state where I could no longer sit typing about angst and sorrows. 

I mean, just look at the deep blue of the water in the picture.

I  went outside and looked over the railing down at the water. 

The glorious sunshine reflecting off the waters of False Creek was mesmerizing - how do you capture the light energy in a photograph?

The sun was calling to me "come out, come out, wherever you are and enjoy my warmth and light, and get your all-natural skin-manufactured daily dose of Vitamin D, the latest wonder vitamin."

Well, I exaggerate just a little bit.  The  "come out, come out, wherever you are" was just me missing my little grand-daughter and her games of hide and seek . And as for the all-natural  vitamin D bit - well that was my all-natural cynical response to the plethora of health claims for "natural" foods that I see daily in newspapers, maganzines and malls.

But sunshine is tempting and it is amazing how quickly a bright day can elevate the mood of a relatively even-tempered person like me.  Almost as quickly as my absolutely  - sinfully good for you - bran muffins which I found myself baking late the other night to drive away a temporary dose of the blues. With whole wheat four, wheat and oat bran, wheat germ, flax seeds, eggs, oil substituting for butter, golden raisins and apricots; these muffins are moist and delicious. One bite into a muffin, still slightly warm from the oven and I felt almost as euphoric as after an hour of chachacha and jive in my gym. The only problem is while dance uses up calories, my muffin by my calculation generously provides me with about  300 calories. Hmmm - dance?  eat?  lose?  gain?  maybe that's the answer- balance.

Anyway that's why I was musing about food and why for some people, the response to stress or sadness is to eat. I suppose others drink to excess, smoke or do drugs so maybe bran muffins are not so bad a cure for the blues after all. Let me know if you want the recipe.