It had been a dark winter. Not early-sunset, cozy-sweater dark. I mean the black-hole variety. I spent much of this December and January trapped in an emotional vortex, shuffling around in sweats (âathleisureâ is too generous), crying at random, and snapping at my spouse. I baked cookies. I made pasta. Both helped, but only temporarily. In other words, Iâlike an outsized proportion of Americansâfelt depressed. On a frigid, blank-skied afternoon in mid-February, I forced myself on a walk. When I passed the local library I noticed a book, This Is Your Brain on Food, in the window. The book was all about the connection between food and mood, written by nutritional psychiatrist and trained chef