Nutrition’s Role in Mental Health

Food and Health

Eating is part of the joys in life. Food brings us together with our families after a long day, for when we go out with our friends to lunch, and overall through food, it allows us to connect closer to the people in our lives by bonding through food. But did you ever stop to think that what we eat could affect our mood? We know the basis of eating contributes to our health, whether we are trying to gain weight, lose weight, or keep our body type the same as it is. But did you ever really stop to think that the food we put in our body has an affect on our behaviors, stresses, anxiety, or emotions? Well think no further, cause it’s true!

The idea of this all starts with our gastrointestinal tract, which is also known as the gut. It is one of the most attributable parts to our health, yet we often don’t seem to realize it. We go through our day eating, digesting, resting, and feeling good after we eat. The important part we don’t often understand is the digestive part. Of course it’s not something we notice, it’s something we don’t necessarily feel, control, and can’t even physically see with our own eyes! So why would we put any thought into it as it’s our body's natural action? That important part of eating and digesting is essential to making us feel good, positive, and better. And we can actually do something to control it - by choosing what we eat.

Why Is It Important to Feed Your Gut Properly?

By providing your gut with the right foods, this will help the gut barrier become stronger and more protected, help you to least likely develop disease and common infections and colds, and help keep your metabolism up and running properly. Metabolism refers to the burning of energy your body does to help regulate itself and the systems within the body. It’s important to feed your gut the proper foods it needs so that it can also remove the proper waste from the body that needs to be eliminated. After all, the colon is part of your digestive system! 

Food and Mood

Young adults' favorite foods most likely fall into the category of carbohydrates and processed foods - something we don’t normally think too much about while we’re snacking - we’re too busy enjoying our food! Though something important to note is that sugar and hydrogenated fats, which are ingredients in a lot of snacks and common food items, increases inflammation in the body which can lead to an increase in anxiety, stress, and depression. This happens because your gut is sensitive to these ingredients. It was shown in a study that eating a diet highly based on fats showed an increase in inflammation in the body, whereas inflammation is usually the stem of other certain health complications. Overall, our goal is to steer away from inflammation as it can cause an array of negative health events.

Food and Stress

While we all know that unwanted and draining feeling of being stressed, we often try to avoid it. Although sometimes it’s inevitable, stress is unfortunately a part of life. When our bodies are stressed, it actually causes a higher demand for energy, oxygen, and nutrients. That obviously makes us more hungry and prone to give into our cravings that go hand in hand with being stressed. In addition to that, it actually increases the excretion of important nutrients from our body, depleting us even more. Who knew? 

So what can we do to combat stress during certain times? Well it has been shown though that certain foods such as vegetables and foods containing omega-3-fatty acids can help regulate our cortisol levels, which is the hormone responsible for our stress. We already know vegetables are good for us, but something you might not have known is that omega-3-fatty acids are known as the good kind of fats and help our brain function. In regards to stress, omega-3-fatty acids actually help lower cortisol levels, helping reduce stress on one’s mind or body.

Your Gut and Brain Are Connected

To talk a bit about how your gut is so powerful, let’s talk about how your gut and brain are connected. The gut has often been referred to as “a second brain.” When you’re in a certain situation that makes you uncomfortable or uneasy, sometimes you can feel it in your gut. The interesting thing is that what you feel in your gut translates to your brain through something called the vagus nerve. It turns out your gut is highly sensitive to the things you eat but it’s also sensitive to emotions. If your gut is feeling off, it will immediately alert the brain to signify even more feelings to the body to be cautious.

The gut brain connection can be extremely important regarding your mental health. Stress for example, can cause stomach aches, upset GI tract, or nausea. Your stomach can react to this after the chemical cortisol (stress) hormone is released in your brain. 

More interestingly, the food you eat affects the neurons connected to the brain. This can illustrate why it is important to keep your gut happy, as this will follow up to the brain. Happy gut, happy mind!

Note - a lot of the foods recommended are whole foods with high nutritional value, excluding items such as processed foods. Eating a diet with natural foods can help your mind and gut get right on track.

Food and Sleep

Who doesn’t enjoy sleep? 

Like food, maybe sleep can be seen as one of the joy’s in life … I mean if you look at it, if you don’t get enough sleep you could end up in a grumpy mood - Am I right??

While sleep is essential to our health, sleep also plays a role in our mental health. But how does this relate to food? 

You guessed it. What you eat (or don’t eat) can affect your sleeping habits. 

There are a few ways that food and sleep can be intertwined…

One is that it has been shown in research that having low levels of vitamins A, C, D, E, and K have been correlated to a bad night's sleep. This suggests that eating a variety of fruits and vegetables can help aid you to a better night's rest and less sleeping problems. 

Another way food and sleep are intertwined is that by eating a diet lower fat can improve your circadian rhythm, which is responsible for making you feel sleepy and ready for bedtime. 

And lastly, regarding serotonin, the sleepy hormone, plays certain key roles in your mood, sleeping habits, digestion, tissue health, and more. Something interesting is that 95% of serotonin is produced in the gut. So it’s important that within the GI we provide ourselves with “good bacteria” and food to help it stay regulated, and help us become sleepy when we need it.

While we’ve gone over different areas of how food affects different parts of our minds, emotions, and sleeping patterns, one thing we can gather would be to help keep your brain-gut relationship happy and healthy, by feeding your gut what it wants and most importantly, what it needs.