Five Ways Nutrition is Related to Mental Health
The relationship between our nutrition and mental health has been well-established in the scientific literature. The days of seeing the individual body systems in isolation are going away and being replaced by an understanding that health must be viewed by considering the whole person and the way that all the body systems talk to each other – including mental health.
Here are just 5 (of the many) ways nutrition influences mental health:
Food = materials for creation
Before you can embark on a project you need supplies. If you are making a pie you need flour, sugar, fruit, etc. If you are an artist you need paper, paint, brushes, etc. If you are making a house you need wood, concrete, shingles, plumbing, electrical, drywall, etc. You can not make something out of nothing.
Your body is a complex organism that creates, breaks down, and repairs itself every day. In order to keep you going, the body requires a steady stream of materials to do all of the above. The materials are found in our food. As we eat all the various materials required to keep the body going are absorbed through our digestive tract and distributed to the rest of the body.
When it comes to mental health, your brain, like every other organ in the body, requires materials to do its job. We need protein from our diet so that we can make neurotransmitters. We need minerals and vitamins to help the assembly line of changing one material into another. When we are deficient in these materials our brain will make do with what it does have or will go without.
What happens in the gut does not stay in the gut.
There are pathways that connect the brain and the gut. What is surprising is the gut is doing 90% of the talking to the brain (1). We have great respect for the brain as the operational captain of the entire body, but the brain does not operate without feedback from the rest of the “team.” In fact, there are many researchers who suggest the gut may be at the helm calling the shots in the body (2). What this means is that when the gut is in distress the brain is going to know about and be affected by that distress.
Gut Microbiome
Another way that the gut influences mental health is through the microbiome. Our bodies play host to trillions of microorganisms. While the thought of living with tiny microscopic beings may seem a little unhygienic, the truth is we need these little guys to keep us healthy. It is a symbiotic relationship. We give them a home, they do things for us.
In your gut, the microbiome lives in your digestive tract. When it is healthy it is helpful. It helps to repair the walls of its home (the cells of your GI tract), makes useful products that your body needs (like vitamin K), and assists with digestion. When the microbiome is not healthy, it isn’t able to be productive or to repair the walls. So your GI tract suffers and as we already discussed, it lets the brain know things are not okay.
Stress and Digestion
Stress has interesting effects on the body. One of which is that it impacts gut health (3). During stress, our body shunts blood away from the digestive tract and pushes it out to our limbs. This is known as the fight or flight response. If you were needing to fight or flee this is a great thing to have happen. However, in our modern society, we are typically not facing physical stress in this way. Rather, we are facing long-term or even chronic stress.
Many things can stress the body and mind. Some are positive like exercise. Some are negative, like not eating enough food. Many stressors are psychological, like needing to get that project done before the deadline or trying to figure out what to get your mother-in-law for her birthday… then Christmas…oh, and now Mother’s Day.
When the stress keeps coming the body doesn’t know that we aren’t running from tigers. The body only knows one response to stress. Therefore, digestion becomes ineffective as we continue to eat, but the body isn’t relaxed enough to effectively digest our food. We aren’t activating our rest and digest response often enough or effectively.
This will not only slow down how well we absorb nutrients through the gut, but it will alter the gut microbiome over time leading to more disruption of the gut. And, as we already know, when the gut isn’t happy ain’t nobody happy.
Relationship to food
When people discuss the relationship of nutrition to mental health they often focus on the physical things like how nutrients help the body operate or how the health of the gut directly impacts the rest of the body. While that aspect of nutrition is awesome and important there is another important component of mental health: your relationship with food.
I get people in my office every day worried that they are hurting themselves or causing their symptoms because they aren’t eating perfectly. I have clients that can’t eat out of fear of doing it wrong. I have clients who eat erratically and then spiral into massive amounts of shame. I meet people every day who are struggling and stressed out about food. As we just discussed, stress is not a great thing for your physiology or mental health.
What I commonly see in my office is that people really care about their health, but they are so confused about what they “should” and “should not” eat that food has become complicated and a serious cause of stress in their lives. I’ve lived this too. I went to school to become a nutritionist in part because I was so confused.
Making peace with our bodies and food is excellent for your mental health. It may be easier said than done, but think of all the energy spent on worry over food. What if you had all the time, energy, and brain space back? It’s pretty awesome for you mental health.
Take away message:
What to do with all this information? First of all, pick one thing that seems accessible and do that first. It is best to not try to tackle everything all at once any time we are making lifestyle changes. Here are 5 things you can choose from:
Be sure to eat enough food (most of my clients, no matter their body size, are not eating enough)
Eat often throughout the day – bodies like to have a steady supply of calories rather than all their calories all at once for the day
Eat a variety of foods and colors of foods (especially fruits and veggies) – keep your microbiome happy
Slow down when you eat! Turn off distractions. Put your food on a plate. Sit down in a chair. Then take a deep breath. Slowing down to eat helps prep the body and turn off stress to help better digest your food.
Relax! Your body is amazing. Listen to what your body likes and does not like to eat. Then do that. If you need help with your relationship with food – please seek help.
Ultimately, what we eat and how we eat can impact our mental health. You can take small steps to improve your nutrition and relationship with food that will add up to big impacts. If it feels overwhelming or too much, reach out for help. Your mental health is worth the effort.
References:
Breit, S., Kupferberg, A., Rogler, G., & Hasler, G. (2018). Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain-Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders. Frontiers in psychiatry, 9, 44. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00044
Rutsch A, Kantsjö JB, Ronchi F. The Gut-Brain Axis: How Microbiota and Host Inflammasome Influence Brain Physiology and Pathology. Front Immunol. 2020 Dec 10;11:604179. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.604179. PMID: 33362788; PMCID: PMC7758428.
Tomasello G, Mazzola M, Leone A, Sinagra E, Zummo G, Farina F, Damiani P, Cappello F, Gerges Geagea A, Jurjus A, Bou Assi T, Messina M, Carini F. Nutrition, oxidative stress and intestinal dysbiosis: Influence of diet on gut microbiota in inflammatory bowel diseases. Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. 2016 Dec;160(4):461-466. doi: 10.5507/bp.2016.052. Epub 2016 Oct 26. PMID: 27812084.
Warmly,
Melanee
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