I’m a Harvard Psychiatrist — and I went to Culinary School, too.
To me, the phrase “we are what we eat” takes on a whole new meaning.
Dr. Uma Naidoo, MD
We are what we eat.
As a Nutritional Psychiatrist, I am dedicated to understanding the inextricable relationship between diet and mental health, and furthermore, to educating the medical community and public how food contributes to mental health. At the first glance, these may not seem like related fields. But the prevalence of these twin epidemics of nutrition-related chronic disease, as well as mental health disorders, cannot be overlooked — and the science is now reckoning with the indubitable interconnections between diet, the health of the gut, and the health of the brain and mind. Studies are increasingly bringing to light the profound impact of diet upon mental health conditions from ADHD, to depression, and OCD, dementia, and beyond. Plainly speaking, mental illness or wellbeing begins right on our plate. As I write in my book, This Is Your Brain On Food, “a dearth of good dietary choices leads to an increase in mental health issues, and mental health issues in turn lead to poor eating habits. Until we solve nutritional problems, no amount of medication and psychotherapy is going to be able to stem the tide of mental issues in our society.” (p. 4)
