Nutritional psychiatry: Your brain on food
Posted By Eva
Selhub MD On November 16, 2015 @ 9:00 am In Back Pain, Complementary
and alternative medicine, Healthy Eating, Mental Health
Think about it. Your brain is always “on.” It takes care of your
thoughts and movements, your breathing and heartbeat, your senses — it works
hard 24/7, even while you’re asleep. This means your brain requires a constant
supply of fuel. That “fuel” comes from the foods you eat — and what’s in that
fuel makes all the difference. Put simply, what you eat directly affects the
structure and function of your brain and, ultimately, your mood.
Like an expensive car, your brain functions best when it gets only
premium fuel. Eating high-quality foods that contain lots of vitamins,
minerals, and antioxidants nourishes the brain and protects it from oxidative
stress — the “waste” (free radicals) produced when the body uses oxygen, which
can damage cells.
Unfortunately, just like an expensive car, your brain can be
damaged if you ingest anything other than premium fuel. If substances from
“low-premium” fuel (such as what you get from processed or refined foods) get
to the brain, it has little ability to get rid of them. Diets high in refined
sugars, for example, are harmful to the brain. In addition to worsening your
body’s regulation of insulin, they also promote inflammation and oxidative
stress. Multiple studies have found a correlation between a diet high in
refined sugars and impaired brain function — and even a worsening of symptoms
of mood disorders, such as depression.
It makes sense. If your brain is deprived of good-quality
nutrition, or if free radicals or damaging inflammatory cells are circulating
within the brain’s enclosed space, further contributing to brain tissue injury,
consequences are to be expected. What’s interesting is that for many years, the
medical field did not fully acknowledge the connection between mood and food.
Today, fortunately, the burgeoning field of nutritional psychiatry
is finding there are many consequences and correlations between not only what
you eat, how you feel, and how you ultimately behave, but also the kinds of
bacteria that live in your gut.
How the foods you eat
affect how you feel
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep and
appetite, mediate moods, and inhibit pain. Since about 95% of your serotonin is
produced in your gastrointestinal tract, and your gastrointestinal tract is
lined with a hundred million nerve cells, or neurons, it makes sense that the
inner workings of your digestive system don’t just help you digest food, but
also guide your emotions. What’s more, the function of these neurons — and the
production of neurotransmitters like serotonin — is highly influenced by the
billions of “good” bacteria that make up your intestinal microbiome. These
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; they limit inflammation; they improve how well you absorb nutrients
from your food; and they activate neural pathways that travel directly between
the gut and the brain.
Studies have shown that when people take probiotics (supplements
containing the good bacteria), their anxiety levels, perception of stress, and
mental outlook improve, compared with people who did not take probiotics. Other
studies have compared “traditional” diets, like the Mediterranean diet and the
traditional Japanese diet, to a typical “Western” diet and have shown that the
risk of depression is 25% to 35% lower in those who eat a traditional diet.
Scientists account for this difference because these traditional diets tend to
be high in vegetables, fruits, unprocessed grains, and fish and seafood, and to
contain only modest amounts of lean meats and dairy. They are also void of processed
and refined foods and sugars, which are staples of the “Western” dietary
pattern. In addition, many of these unprocessed foods are fermented, and
therefore act as natural probiotics. Fermentation uses bacteria and yeast to
convert sugar in food to carbon dioxide, alcohol, and lactic acid. It is used
to protect food from spoiling and can add a pleasant taste and texture.
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. The results so
far have been quite amazing.
What does this mean for
you?
Start paying attention to how eating different foods makes you
feel — not just in the moment, but the next day. Try eating a “clean” diet for
two to three weeks — that means cutting out all processed foods and sugar. Add
fermented foods like kimchi, miso, sauerkraut, pickles, or kombucha. You also
might want to try going dairy-free — and some people even feel that they feel
better when their diets are grain-free. See how you feel. Then slowly introduce
foods back into your diet, one by one, and see how you feel.
When my patients “go clean,” they cannot believe how much better
they feel both physically and emotionally, and how much worse they then feel
when they reintroduce the foods that are known to enhance inflammation. Give it
a try!
Article printed from Harvard Health Blog: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog
URL to article: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626
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