Nutrition and Mental Health
Have you ever noticed that your mental health seems linked to how well you’re eating?
If you have, you’re not alone - it’s the reason I became a nutritionist.
In my late teens and early 20s I found myself feeling low much of the time. To me, this looked like being irritable with my family, socially anxious, and feeling emotionally low. I just thought this was the ‘new me’.
Then I noticed a correlation
I started watching what I ate because I’d been emotionally eating for a while and put on some weight, and while it wasn’t the healthiest mindset, it brought with it not just weight loss, but a positive shift in my mental health. Around this time a friend of mine told me what a nutritionist was (I’d never even heard of one), and the rest is history.
Once I noticed this pattern I was able to use food to set myself free from these feelings, and whenever I slipped back into these old feelings there was always a common denominator - my diet.
My personal triggers
I notice negative effects on my mental health when I have certain foods in anything more than moderation, such as:
- caffeine (big one that people underestimate)
- alcohol
- refined carbohydrates e.g. too much bread
- ultra-processed foods such as chips, lollies, fast food, muffins
- foods rich in unhealthy fats e.g. pizza, fries, fried food from restaurants
My studies have caused me to see food differently to just a source of fuel - I now see food as biological information. It communicates with you on a cellular level, transmitting information to your brain via the gut-brain axis and altering your state of mood.
There are several key nutrients that have been identified in mental health issues (such as zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, the B vitamins, and more) that are depleted in the modern diet, with many studies examining the positive effect of a whole foods diet on mental health.
Final note
Mental health is of the utmost importance to me as it’s the medium through which you live your life and connect with the world. I would love to help you find the right foods for you - everyone has individual needs and so must have treatment tailored to fit them.
Gasmi, A., Nasreen, A., Menzel, A., Benahmed, A. G., Pivina, L., Noor, S., Peana, M., Chirumbolo, S., & Bjorkland, G. (2023). Neurotransmitters regulation and food intake: The role of dietary sources in neurotransmission. Molecules, 28(1), 210. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28010210
