It is fascinating to me how often we prioritize physical health at the expense of our mental health. Awareness of the importance of good mental health is more talked about than before, yet we often think of physical and mental health as two completely separate entities, but they are intricately connected.
What Causes Poor Mental Health?
Mental health is influenced by a myriad of factors: biological, psychological, and social. Researchers have been using a Biopsychosocial model to explain health.
Nutrition is only one part of the factors influencing your mental health, but it is one that we have some control over.
Nutrition influences our mental health in a few ways that we will discuss in more depth:
- Food aka What We Eat
- Inflammation
- Gut Health
- Stress Hormones
Mental Health & Food: How and What We Eat
How often do you stop to plan out your day of eating? For many of us food is a secondary consideration–almost a nuisance that must be dealt with. We plan meals around events like holidays and birthdays, but outside of special occasions food can be hard with all the planning, shopping, cooking, and clean up involved.
If this sounds like you then this section will be particularly useful for you to dive into. When we have erratic eating patterns–like skipping meals or eating everything for the day in one sitting–we give our body the impression that food is scarce and we are not safe.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you eating enough food (most of my clients are way undereating while thinking they eat too much)?
- Are you too rigid with your food rules?
- Do you eat enough protein (protein is needed to make neurotransmitters)?
- Do you eat the rainbow getting in your vitamins and minerals so you can make energy?
- Do you have enough Essential Fats in your diet?
Eating Enough
We start with the question of are you eating enough for a very specific reason–without enough food to begin with, the rest of the questions don’t matter. You have to have enough first.
Not just enough food, you need to eat at regular intervals throughout the day. This is important to balance your blood sugar levels and avoid insulin resistance. It also signals safety to the body, lowering cortisol levels which in turn helps reduce chronic inflammation.
Aim to eat a meal or snack every 2-4 hours. Definitely tune in to your subtle signs of hunger fullness (not waiting until you are ravenous) to guide how often and how much you eat. If you are accustomed to waiting long periods of time before eating, use the clock to help until your hunger/fullness cues are more reliable.
Variety of Foods
In addition to eating often we need to eat a wide variety of foods to get all the nutrients needed to produce our “feel good” chemicals. Again, it is easier to get a wide variety of nutrients when we eat enough food throughout the day.
I’m going to nerd out for a bit and show these 2 slides from a presentation I give on nutrition and mental health:
As you look at these images, you can see how involved our nutrients are in brain function.
Some of the nutrients critical to healthy brain function include:
- Protein that can be broken down into Amino Acids (tryptophan, phenylalanine, etc.)
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B1
- Zinc
- Calcium
- Vitamin B3
- Vitamin C
- Magnesium
- Iron
- Copper
We get these nutrients from a wide array of foods. In addition to producing chemicals, you need energy to run these pathways which incorporate more nutrients. We also require fatty acids to keep our brains healthy.
In a nutshell, you need to:
- Eat all your macro groups
- Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
- Eat the rainbow
- Many of the nutrients above are in our colorful foods
- Don’t skip breakfast
- Coffee doesn’t count!
- Include protein in your morning meal
- Eat fats
- Fatty fish
- Avocados
- Olive oil
- Flax seeds
- Chia seeds
Mental Health & Inflammation
Inflammation is definitely a good thing when we twist an ankle or cut our finger. We want the immune system to respond and clean up the area allowing things to heal. Inflammation only becomes a problem when it is chronic and never “turns off.”
Inflammation is caused by a myriad of different factors:
- Some medical conditions
- Adverse childhood experiences
- Loneliness and isolation
- Socioeconomic disadvantage
- Social determinants of health
- Marginalized identity (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Larger Bodied, etc)
- Smoking or alcohol abuse
- Sedentary lifestyle OR excessive exercise
- Toxins
- Chronic stress
- Foods
- Infections
So how do we go about calming down our overactive inflammation? It helps if we have some clue as to what is the cause. For example, if you have experienced trauma, a skilled therapist would be a great place to start.
Here are a few other important things to help both lower your inflammation and improve mental health:
- Seek out clubs/groups that are of interest to you
- I’ve recently connected with a lot of other plant lovers in my area and have made amazing friendships. What interests you?
- Eat socially
- Eat often and a wide variety of foods
- Find medical and mental health professionals that listen and help you feel seen and validated
- Experiment with different forms of movement to find what you love
- If you suspect your symptoms are related to your food intake, stay curious about which foods and in what quantities? Do other things play a role like your level of stress?
- If you suspect it’s your food you may have a gut health problem.
- Find someone to help with medical nutrition therapy
Mental Health Starts in the Gut
Have you heard about your gut-brain connection before? There is a growing body of research showing that much of our mental health is influenced by our gut health. If your gut health is compromised your ability to absorb your nutrients will also suffer.
Things that influence gut health include:
- Diseases that directly impact the GI tract
- Food poisoning (especially with persistent symptoms)
- Bacterial dysbiosis (i.e. microbiome is unhealthy)
- Not eating enough
- Fatty acids
- Foods with vibrant colors
- Fiber
- Fermented foods (probiotic foods)
- Acute and/or chronic stress
- Compromised ability to digest or absorb
- Dysregulated reproductive hormones
- Strong vagal tone (ability to go from fight or flight back to rest and digest)
- Medications
- Communication between gut and brain
- Health of the intestinal lining
Gut/Brain Communication
There are 9 pathways that send communication from the gut to the brain and only 3 that we know of that go from brain to gut. Scientists are beginning to call our gut the second brain of the body as your gut operates with its own “enteric nervous system.” Gives a whole new meaning to gut instincts.
The enteric nervous system(ENS) doesn’t function and think the way our cognitive brain thinks, but as more research is done it seems that what happens in the gut does not stay in the gut and may have profound effects on the state of our mental health. According to Johns Hopkins:
“The ENS may trigger big emotional shifts experienced by people coping with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional bowel problems such as constipation, diarrhea, bloating, pain and stomach upset. For decades, researchers and doctors thought that anxiety and depression contributed to these problems. But our studies and others show that it may also be the other way around. Researchers are finding evidence that irritation in the gastrointestinal system may send signals to the central nervous system (CNS) that trigger mood changes.”
Therapy and other modalities of treatment are critical to help our mental health, but considering gut health is also an important avenue that should be explored.
Microbiome
Have you heard that our human body plays host to trillions of microorganisms? It can sometimes leave us with a creeped out feeling, but before you bath in sanitizer, let’s talk about the importance of the micro community on and within us.
We give these microbes a home and in turn our microbiome takes care of us. Within your gut your microbiome produces important things like short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and vitamin K. SCFA directly nourishes the cells of your intestinal lining. Those cells are responsible for digestion and absorption. We need them to be healthy.
Additionally, your microbiome helps boost the immune system helping us fight off more problematic microbes that want to make us ill. The microbiome protects the intestinal wall and helps with digestion.
When we experience disturbances in our microbiome (aka dysbiosis) it can have systemic effects on our body. Meaning it may impact other areas in the body like our brains, joints, cardiovascular system, etc.
To keep the microbiome healthy we need to follow the advice from above – eat the rainbow, include a lot of fiber in our diet regularly, eat fermented foods, and eat regularly throughout the day.
Dysbiosis
Food sensitivity tests are growing in popularity. I find these tests to be mostly problematic. They are notoriously inaccurate and they prompt restriction.
If you find you are reactive to food it may have less to do with the food and more to do with the status of your gut and microbiome.
For example, if I have a paper cut and keep squeezing lemons. It is not the lemon’s fault that it hurts, I need to heal my finger. Sometimes the cut can get infected and require treatment to recover. That is where working with a functional nutritionist can help.
As you improve the health of your microbiome the foods you were sensitive to tend to be less problematic. We are quick to blame the food for our problems, but forget that there is more going on with digestion including how that food is eaten (i.e. were you under high stress when you ate?), the health of your gut, and if your microbes are working for or against you.
Mental Health & Stress
You have likely heard of your sympathetic nervous system (the fight, flight, flee, fawn system) and your parasympathetic nervous system (the rest, digest, repair, procreate system). These systems are meant to trade off throughout our day responding to the external world around us.
Yet, most of us are not fighting lions, most of us are dealing with more mundane stressors like deadlines, scheduling kid’s activities, finances, etc. These stressors do not have a clear stopping point like fighting a lion would (either you won or you…didn’t).
With these constant background stressors adding up, more and more people are finding they are nearly always living with their sympathetic nervous system in charge. This system isn’t designed to deal with deadline stress, it is designed to help you fight or flee.
Therefore, blood is shunted away from your core into the muscles of your limbs. Digestion slows, heart rate speeds up, your eyes dilate. You are in a constant state of readiness for explosive action.
Consequences of long-term stress include:
- Fatigue/Exhaustion/Adrenal “burnout”
- Frequent illness
- Feeling “tired but wired”
- Brain fog
- Exacerbation or creation of chronic medical conditions
- Hormonal dysregulation
- Increased inflammation
- Gut problems
Interestingly, stress prompts 75-90% of doctor’s visits. Stress impacts us in profound ways. This is important to consider when we have stomach issues. Could stress be making it harder to digest your food? Probably.
I hear what you are saying though, there is no way to get rid of this stress. I get it. So much of my stress comes from my kids. Getting rid of those kids isn’t a very viable solution. If we can’t eliminate stress what do we do?
I highly recommend you work to improve your vagal tone (see handout). Your vagus nerve is where the action of moving back into our rest/digestion system happens. As we improve our vagal tone we are able to better “turn off” stress giving our bodies a much needed break.
Here is a great exercise to try:
Practice these exercises regularly in your life. The more you practice the more you can implement them in times of high stress to get you back into a state that is better able to respond to said stress.
Get out in nature, take time in a sauna, and meditate. Find ways to unplug from your stress and give yourself a little breather, even if it is just for a few minutes.
The Role of Food
Before eating, try to calm down and bring yourself into your parasympathetic nervous system. Then consider how you eat. Eating on the go isn’t very restful. When possible set aside time for meals and snacks away from the stress.
Also, how we eat circles back to our first topic…you need to eat regularly.
When we eat at regular intervals, we signal safety to the body. We don’t add the stress of “starvation” to our already stressed body. You may know that you *could* stop to eat any time, but all your body knows is that it has been too long and your stress hormones will increase as your body tries to get your attention.
Eating regularly is one way to contribute to hormone regulation. We keep our insulin at happy levels. This helps avoid the increase in testosterone in women. Eating regularly keeps cortisol at happy levels.
Most of us notice an increase in anxiety as we get hungrier and hungrier. Eating regularly helps your brain to function at its best. You have the energy, ingredients, and safety you need for excellent brain function.
Nutrition Does Influence Your Mental Health & It’s Something You Can Have a Say in Too
Nutrition is one avenue that should be considered when working on improving your mental health. It plays a critical role in your brain function, gut function, stress, and inflammation – which all influence your mental health.
Start improving your mental health right away by honoring your hunger, eating regularly, and eating a wide variety of food. Seek out support systems to make this more doable. Your brain will thank you.
Get Help if You Feel Overwhelmed, Detached from Food, or You Struggle to Eat Consistently
If any of the things we have talked about are areas you struggle in, it is a sure sign that you need help to navigate nutrition, food, and your mental health. I encourage you to reach out and get help. You really don’t have to navigate this all alone. Find a connection with loved ones, seek connection to others who share your interests, and find affirming practitioners.
If you are ready to look deeper and to be fully supported. I am here to help you on your journey. I meet you where you are, I listen to you, believe you, and we are going to focus on practical shifts so that you can have what you need from a functional, and nutritional approach.
Ready to work on your nutrition to support your mental health? Schedule your free consultation and we can talk through what you need and a program personalized to you.
References
- Lehman B, David D, Gruber J. (2017) Rethinking the biopsychosocial model of health: Understanding health as a dynamic system. Social & Personality Psychology Compass. 11(8): e12328.
- Rogers G, Keating D, Young R, Wong M. (2016) From gut dysbiosis to altered brain function and mental illness: mechanisms and pathways. Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 19 April 2016; doi:10.1038/mp.2016.50
