ExplainerMore fruits, nuts and seeds, less alcohol and sugary treats: why what you eat can affect your mental health
- The emerging field of nutritional psychiatry – a mix of nutrition, dietetics and psychology – uses whole foods and nutrients to improve mental well-being
- ‘Gut inflammation is brain inflammation and what’s good for your gut is also good for your mental health,’ one specialist says
Nutrition specialists have been making a connection between food and mental health for several years. Depression in particular has become an issue of concern, affecting more than 264 million people across the globe, according to the World Health Organization.
The emerging field of nutritional psychiatry that criss-crosses nutrition, dietetics and psychology uses whole foods and nutrients to improve mental well-being and our mental fitness.
Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist Dr Uma Naidoo is a professional chef and nutrition specialist, and author of the bestselling book, This is Your Brain on Food.
“This field is nascent, but booming,” Naidoo says. “Focusing on nutrition to optimise brain health and, in doing so, preventing and treating mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] and fatigue is the key.”
The idea of food as medicine is the key to nutritional psychiatry, and does not exclude the use of prescription medications. A recent study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, has outlined positive and negative associations between diet and depression.
“With around 40 trillion microorganisms, the gut is the largest endocrine organ in the body,” Naidoo says, “and by communicating to the brain via the vagus nerve [the largest nerve in the autonomic nervous system], regulating hormones and influencing inflammation, the gut can impact mental health.