Tidbit Tuesday - Feeding Your Mental Health
Hello,
Welcome to another Tidbit Tuesday where we aim to teach you something new about health, nutrition, lifestyle, training, and so much more, every week!
Today we are talking about feeding your mental health!
What you eat directly affects the structure and function of your brain and, ultimately, your mood.
Your brain is working all the time, even when we are sleeping, it hums away keeping our hearts beating, lungs exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide, and controls all our thoughts and moments.
Working so hard for us, our brain needs a constant supply of fuel to keep going and working hard for us.
So, if food is our "fuel" we should aim to give our bodies and brains premium quality fuel!
Just like a car being fed low quality fuel, gunk and grime is going to build up inside of the working mechanics and slow the efficiency of the engine. Stopping the car from operating at its top performance and potentially even putting the driver at risk.
The same can be said for our brain.
Only providing lower quality fuel to our brain is going to leave us feeling foggy, run down, and maybe even depressed or anxious.
If we are eating mostly processed or refined foods, our brain has little ability to get rid of them. Diets high in refined sugars, for example, are harmful to the brain.
Low quality food is known to worsen your body’s regulation of insulin, they also tend to promote inflammation and oxidative stress.
Our gut, our stomach through our intestines, is often referred to as our second brain. So, it makes sense that what we eat will affect how we feel, our mood and our thought processes.
Most of the serotonin released in our body is produced in our gut. Serotonin is responsible for helping to regulate our sleep, appetite, emotions, as well as inhibit pain.
The bacteria lining our gut are heavily influenced by what passes through us. The bacteria play an essential role in your health. They protect the lining of your intestines and ensure they provide a strong barrier against toxins and “bad” bacteria that could make us sick.
The health of our gut also determines how many nutrients can be absorbed by the food we eat.
A damaged and unhealthy gut won't be able to absorb many nutrients. Meaning even if you are eating a healthy diet, you may not be absorbing what your body needs.
This may sound implausible to you, but the notion that good bacteria not only influence what your gut digests and absorbs, but that they also affect the degree of inflammation throughout your body, as well as your mood and energy level, is gaining traction among researchers.
Studies have shown a 25% to 35% decreased risk of suffering from depression when limiting processed and refined foods.
Simply by eating more whole foods, limiting sugar and processed foods, and including several fermented foods to boost natural probiotics in the gut.
One of the most important building blocks for our cells, each and every cell in our body, is healthy fats.
Fat is an integral part of our structure and is important for many processes within our body.
Eating deep fried and processed foods are using some of the lowest quality building blocks for our body and our brain. It's like putting a hole in your gas tank and wondering why you never make it very far before having to refuel.
To improve your mood with food, start by paying attention to how different foods make you feel. Not just immediately after, but for the next 24 hours as well.
If you notice specific foods that seem to put you in a low mood, try eliminating them for a week or two and see if you notice a difference.
If you aren't sure what might be affecting you, you can try an elimination diet for several weeks. Then slowly introduce foods back into your diet and assess how they make you feel.
You might be surprised to find out what has been slowing you down.
Remember, you are what you eat!
