September is Mental Health Awareness Month. This article will address the connection between poor mental health and nutrition. While not all mental illness is related to a person’s diet, there is an undeniable connection between diet and the brain. Since all emotions are brain-related, it’s important to understand the correlation between diet and mental health.
Our brain is part of our nervous system, and the central command center of our entire body. Our brain needs constant energy and uses about 20% of energy from food every day. The food we eat goes into our digestive tract which sends absorbed nutrients into our circulatory system where the heart pumps those nutrients throughout the body and into the brain. What we put into our bodies has a direct relationship to our physical and mental health and energy. For our brains to work best, we should eat a balance of legumes, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acids (i.e., fish oil, walnuts, canola oil, and chia seeds).
When we eat the wrong foods or lack the right amounts of healthy food at the right times, our moods and mental health are affected in multiple ways.
Blood Glucose (Sugar)
According to the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, research has shown that some mental health problems may be misdiagnosed and directly related to unstable blood sugar (glycemic highs and lows) and that refined carbohydrates and sugar have an adverse effect on mood and mental health.
When there is too much sugar in your blood (hyperglycemia/high blood sugar), you can feel lethargic or emotionally low and can suffer from frequent urinary infections, unintended weight loss, and skin infections. Too much sugar causes a spike in your insulin (an increase in energy) followed by a drop (a decrease in energy). Too much blood sugar can also cause hardening of the arteries, resulting in heart attack and stroke. To prevent high blood sugar you must stop eating processed sugar and unhealthy carbohydrates like bread and pasta and replace them with sugar-free beverages and balanced, nutritious, unprocessed carbohydrates like sweet potatoes and vegetables.
If you don’t have enough sugar in your blood, (hypoglycemia/low blood sugar), you’re likely to feel anxious, and agitated. To prevent low blood sugar, you must eat a balanced diet of the healthy nutrients mentioned above, at regular intervals. Otherwise, you are at risk of feeling depressed and anxious or a combination of both.
Both conditions cause swings in mood and energy and are easily remedied by nourishing your body in the way it was intended.
Gut Health
Most people don’t think of their digestive tract as having a direct relation to their mental health, but recent research shows otherwise. Your gut has its own nervous system which sends signals to the brain and an unhealthy diet can cause depression, anxiety, and even delay healing from trauma, and can explain why people who suffer Crone’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and ulcerative colitis also suffer depression.
Eating a healthy diet with fiber and getting enough probiotics (like yogurt, kimchi, and sauerkraut) can help heal the digestive tract. Serotonin, the feel-good hormone is produced in the gut and explains why people feel happy after they eat.
Processed Foods
Our diet should include as many natural foods as possible. Studies show that highly processed foods like refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and foods that contain preservatives can produce anxiety and depression. You can eliminate most processed foods by eating foods that aren’t canned or packaged.
Processed foods are made to taste better and trigger the desire for more. That’s all the more reason to avoid them since the ingredients like fats and sugar are what cause cravings in the first place.
If you view your body as sacred, you can learn to treat it differently. It doesn’t need treats and substances that it wasn’t designed to assimilate. If you nourish it with vitamins, nutrients, and minerals that are abundant in natural foods, you will provide it with the ingredients it needs for maximum efficiency. You will have the physical energy you need, but also a keen mind and balanced mental health as well. If you want to look and feel better try it out for yourself. Convert your stress and poor habits into eating healthy and exercising for two weeks and see what happens. You’ll be able to emerge from the toxins you didn’t know were affecting you and find the real you full of energy and a better mood.
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Donna Marks is an educator, licensed psychotherapist, and addictions counselor in Palm Beach, Florida. She has worked with over 6,000 clients. Donna’s struggle with addiction brought her to a worldwide search for healing. She became licensed as a Mental Health Counselor in 1987. In 1989, she earned a Doctorate Degree in Adult Education, then became Certified in Addictions, Gestalt Therapy, Psychoanalysis, Hypnosis, and Sex Therapy. Donna developed an award-winning addiction training program at Palm Beach Community College. She co-owns an outpatient treatment program and serves as a consultant to treatment centers. For 36 years, she has taught A Course in Miracles.
Donna is the author of three books: the multi-award-winning title Exit the Maze: One Addiction, One Cause, One Cure, and Learn, Grow, Forgive: A Path to Spiritual Success, The Healing Moment: Seven Paths to Turn Messes into Miracles of Love, and her latest fiction, Fortis & Sapiente – A Tale of Two Lovers Who Successfully Navigate the Murky Waters of Love. Donna is a public speaker and has shared her methods with millions of listeners on podcasts and radio shows.
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