How does Eating Healthy Affect your Mental Health

Eating healthy and your mental health is a topic that has graced many articles, blog posts, research studies, books, or any other form of media all over the internet due to its high relevance to your everyday life.

There is also a LOT of conflicting information on this topic, because it is so broad in many cases As a mental health therapist, I hope to help you understand the link between your food and mood, good mood foods for depression and calm nerves, as well as my takeaways from nutritional research and how does eating healthy affect your mental health by the end of this article.

Food and Mood Connection

Food and the human race go quite a ways back. As a living organism you need food to survive. Obvious, right? I am sure this fact is known by everybody who eats, yourself included!

Despite eating for survival being an obvious fact, the effects that food has on your mood is not something that you may think of when talking about what food does for you.

I will talk a little bit about how food is connected with your mood and how eating healthy affects your mental health in very specific ways, even just chewing!

The Chew Medicine

Starting with the most basic process, chewing and swallowing food actually is beneficial for your body and mind!

The actual process of eating, chewing, and swallowing causes a release of chemicals (serotonin) that activate positive mood (Ioakimidis, I., et. al. 2011) and calm you down. This does NOT mean to overeat or over-chew for a better mood and focus, but to eat consistently and intuitively.

Simply, eating in a way that makes you feel satisfied and energized is enough to fulfill this recommendation.

Keep a Tight Schedule!

Conversely, not eating enough can throw off your mood stabilization, as well as your circadian rhythm–which affects your ability to get quality and consistent sleep. Eating healthy affects your mental health in more than simply the foods you eat, but when and how much you eat.

It is important to realize that availability of food to the body and brain is a large factor in how your mood is affected by the food you eat. Therefore, a component to eating healthy affecting your mental health is how consistent you are eating throughout your day, everyday.

Keep a balanced and predictable eating schedule so that your body knows when to expect its nourishment–making you feel more emotionally stable throughout the day.

Food and Hormone Connection

Your unique hormone profile is affected by the food you eat, as well. It is definitely true what they say: you are what you eat. Making sure that you are eating healthy foods is important to affect your mental health positively.

Having said that, there is a link between certain medical conditions and your mental health that are important to note, which derives from your hormone profile.

Diabetes specifically are loosely linked to mental health disorders, particularly depression, and the acceleration of cognitive decline (Kleinridders, A. et. al. 2015) like in dementia or Alzheimer’s.

The study mentions that this is specifically because your body’s ability to release and regulate insulin may play a factor in your mood. Physical health affects mental health, especially when it comes to eating healthy.

Make sure to consult your physician or a dietitian regarding any condition you may have that may be affecting your mood. Any small realization about how your hormones are regulated can go a long way in helping improve your mental health!

As I touch on in the following section, every food you eat has a combination of macro and micronutrients that can contribute to your mood and can affect your mental health. In some cases, it is the combination of certain foods that can help these nutrients release more efficiently in your body–giving you healthier mental health results in the long run.

I will give some recommendations on foods to help combat depression and anxiety in the moment. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN ON HEALTHY DOSAGE/PORTION SIZES OF MEALS FOR YOU SPECIFICALLY BEFORE TRYING THESE RECOMMENDATIONS.

My interest in this article is helping you learn a little more about your brain and how your diet can affect your brain. However, I am not a dietitian or a physician, so I urge you to be responsible and consult with your doctor before trying any of the following suggestions out.

Good Mood Foods for Depression and Calm Nerves

70% or higher dark chocolate.

Of the over 300 substances in dark chocolate, the key ingredient phenylethylamine has the potential to reach your brain and promote a dopamine increase (Banjari et al. 2014).

This in turn can lead to an intense emotional stimulus leading to euphoria–a similar process that antidepressant medications use, without the medications!

The ingredients in this wonderful and tasty superfood come from the cacao bean (Ramsey, 7 Surprising Foods that Fight Depression and Anxiety) which houses powerhouse micronutrients such as iron, magnesium, and fiber along with the phenylethylamine–all important nutrients that support a healthy brain.

Dr. Ramsey’s book even mentions that dark chocolate is correlated with a 67% decrease of your risk of depression, as well!

Caffeine

Depending on when you dose it, a cup of tea or coffee can have great effects that can increase your mood. Caffeine works to release hormones in your brain that increase metabolism and signal fatigue (Banjari et al. 2014).

So what this means for you is that when you drink a serving of caffeine your brain is able to focus with more clarity and intention on tasks that you have set for yourself. When your are in a depressed mood, a common feeling is of feeling that fatigue, or sluggish, feeling.

A small cup of coffee or tea can help clear your mind to get you going, which in turn can help you feel a bit better in as little as 15 minutes!

Dark leafy veggies

Spinach, bok choy, kale, and collard greens all contain a micronutrient called methyl folate, which was studied to be used as an adjunct treatment (long-term) in major depressive disorder (MDD) (Businaro et al. 2021).

Let’s face it, we can all use some more veggies in our lives. Why not throw in some of these leafy greens for some extra support to combat depressed mood?

Protein-rich foods with a good amount of (complex and some refined) carbs

Protein-rich foods with a good amount of (complex and some refined) carbs for serotonin release (Banjari et. al 2014) can help with stabilizing anxiety.

The trick here is to have enough carbohydrates paired with your protein to get the right amount of serotonin to calm your nerves. Evidence shows that the best results are when you have more carbohydrates than protein to help your body more efficiently absorb the nutrient tryptophan–which helps in calming your body.

Personally, based on my own past nutritional experience I interpret that as 2-3x the grams of carbs as protein. Either way, your best bet at finding this mix is to chat with your physician or a registered dietitian, so please consult a nutritional expert before making this change in your diet.

Make sure to take into account any nutritional allergies or medical conditions you may have. This may affect the specific foods you are able to include for using this suggestion.

Conclusion

Eating healthy can, indeed, affect your mental health. No matter where you go on the internet in search for the “right” food recommendations, I can promise you one thing: you will find a claim for any opinion you may want validated with evidence of some sort. Because of this, I urge you to research with caution. It may not seem like it, but interpreting research articles is NOT something I recommend folks do if you are not trained to interpret them in an academic setting.

This may seem like I am placing a label on you of “not worthy” or “smart enough” to understand peer reviewed research. There is nothing further from the truth. You are absolutely worthy and deserve to know all of the information out there! No one out there is better at making decisions for you than you, and I mean that whole-heartedly. However, articles on the internet and even research studies are often times written with a certain “slant” to get you to believe something–whether there is evidence to support the claim or not. It can be incredibly confusing to read 4 different articles on the same topic with the same data and get 4 different valid claims from those articles. I want you to be able to best understand how eating healthy affects your mental health.

Please hear me when I say that if you do decide to look at academic research articles, present these articles to your physician, dietitian, or therapist and have them go over it with you to make 100% certain that the claims are supported in the research that you are interpreting. If this sentiment is unclear, please feel free to contact me with the button below and I am happy to discuss with you via phone call or email my intentions with this recommendation.

Otherwise, if you are in Michigan and are interested in learning about therapy and how it can help you and your nutritional goals, contact me with my contact form!

References

Banjari, Il, & Vukoje, I., & Mandic, M. L. (2014) Brain food: How nutrition alters our mood and behaviour. Hrana u zdravlju i bolesti, znanstveno-stucni casopis za nutricionizam i dijetetiku. 3(1): 13-21.

Businaro, R., & Vauzour, D., & Sarris, J., & Munch, G., & Gyengesi, E., & Brogelli, L., & Zuzarte, P. (2021). Frontiers in Nutrition. 8: 1-10. DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2021.669846

Ioakimidis, I., & Zandian, M., & Ulbl, F., & Bergh, C., & Leon, M., & Sodersten, P. (2011). How eating affects mood. Physiology & Behavior. 103(3-4): 290-294. DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.01.025

Kleinriders, A., & Cai, W., & Cappellucci, L., & Ghazarian, A., & Collins, W. R., & Vienberg, S. G., & Pothos, E. N., & Kahn, C. R. (2015). Insulin resistance in the brain alters dopamine turnover and cuases behavioral disorders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 112(11): 3463-3468. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1500877112

Ramsey, D. 7 surprising Foods that Fight Depression and Anxiety.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *