The impact of food on mental health

[kestrell]

Yesterday I heard a great webinar by Dr. Uma Naidoo, MD, Director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psychiatry at MGH and a board-certified psychiatrist., speak about cutting-edge research that demonstrates the many ways foods contribute to our mental health and how a sound diet can help treat and prevent a wide-range of psychological and cognitive issues. In addition, she focused on the negative impact Covid-19 is having on the aging and the mental health of those who are already receiving mental health services. Dr. Naidoo was a brilliant speaker who packed a lot of information into a half-hour talk, and she is also author of a book, _This Is Your Brain on Food_, which I just started to read.

She also discussed the connections between gut health and cognition, and the Vegas [sp?] nerve and brain activity, including depression.
Dr. Uma Naidoo's website
https://umanaidoomd.com/

Comments

[kestrell]

Thank you for the spelling and the link. I've been a little dubious about those "eat your way to happy" books, but this doctor cited actual studies and also had recommendations for people of a certain age. Since I've had so many health issues over the past year or more, I'm ready to try some alternative methods. Also, I'm going to try to write a brief report and share it with the group that works on improving health policies for people with complicated health issues. We never talk about diet or access to healthy food, and yet it has so many considerations for our demographic.

It's a crowded field because

[jesse_the_k]

...every single bit of useful real data is automagically amplified by the bogus noise from the "eat yourself happy" folks.

AND ... my life improved dramatically when I switched to a high-protein (at least 60 g a day) diet while eliminating gluten and lactose.

So, try it out! The key is being systematic, keeping good records, and tracking every damn thing you eat for a couple months. I did some quick DuckDuckGoing and Googling and the top 100 results from both sites contained no peer-reviewed direct info. I worked with a nutritionist.