Is your diet getting you down?
Food and eating as part of the mental health puzzle
If you’re striving for a more balanced mood or a better mental clarity, have you considered that what you eat can influence more than just your physical health or waistline? And that working with your nutrition and eating habits may be part of your journey to better mental wellbeing and brain health?
It’s widely understood that what we eat influences our physical health, but what’s of special interest to me at Gut Reaction is how nutrition and its interactions with the body (and the gut in particular), can also influence my client’s mental health and cognitive function, and how mood affects behaviour and food choices.
DOES mental health HAVE ROOTS in THE body AS WELL AS THE MIND?
In conventional thinking around brain health and mental wellbeing, we assume that when a person presents with psychological symptoms, such as feeling sad or down, unable to concentrate or recall information readily, or excessive worrying to name a few, that the problem resides solely in their brain or their mind.
But in fact, it’s already clear through the emerging fields of neurobiology and nutritional psychiatry, that powerful interactions exist between what we think and feel, our brain health, nervous system, our physiology and gut health, and the food we consume.
Food’s impact on the brain
Consider for a moment that a healthy brain requires a healthy well-nourished body. By providing the raw materials necessary for a healthy brain and to help support healthy cellular communication and neurotransmitter processes, nutrition can influence cognitive processes and memory. So, when our intake, digestion, absorption of critical nutrients is impaired, cognitive function may be compromised too.
As one example, certain nutrients increase the production of a protein in the brain called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). BDNF acts like a fertiliser for the brain and may promote the growth of new brain cells.
With many age-related diseases, oxidative stress leads to chronic inflammation and in the brain this plays a major role in neuro-degeneration (death of brain cells), cognitive decline, and dementia. Yet, we know a nutritious diet, rich in anti-inflammatory foods and antioxidants, may benefit our brains by helping protect against oxidative stress and inflammation. And conversely, a junk food diet can fan the flames of inflammation.
Food’s impact on mood
When it comes to mood disorders, nutrition can play a role through multiple mechanisms including blood sugar dysregulation and chronic inflammation, which is now thought to be a major contributing factor to depression, and can stem from the gut.
Neurobiologists are also continuing to build understanding of the gut-brain connection and how a diverse and thriving gut microbiome is a key player in this axis, influencing not only our physical health, but our brain health and even our mental health.
Mood on food
I’m confident most of us will relate to the idea that our mood can influence our food choices too. Sometimes a low or unstable mood can lead us to reach for pick-me-ups and comfort eat. I believe this is a totally normally response but if it becomes a default behaviour for handing uncomfortable feelings, over time, the over-consumption of too many innutritious or high sugar foods can both create negative feelings around food, and effect overall nutrient intake and lead to blood sugar imbalances affecting our energy, destabilising mood and feeding a negative food-mood cycle.
Next steps
If you need more support on your health and wellbeing journey, please do check out my Resilience programme for support with mood and energy promoting nutrition and self-care.
