Nutrition’s Impact on Mental Health

By The Well Staff

As someone who has struggled with mental health, I can attest to the fact that nutrition has a substantial influence on our mental health. I formerly struggled with my mental health and how I felt about myself for many years. I felt like something was wrong with me and that, no matter what I tried, my depression would only deteriorate until all I could manage was lying in bed while doing nothing productive.

During that period, I consumed whatever I could find and did not consider the impact of a proper diet on my physical and mental well-being. I would eat fast food frequently, devour large quantities of red meat, and drink soda instead of water. The marginal exercise I got was walking around my neighborhood or taking the bus to work. All this led to me gaining weight and prompted feelings of fatigue and exhaustion. That only made me feel worse about myself.

I think there must be a solution to all of these problems. I couldn’t so much as concentrate on my studies because my head was constantly throbbing. I couldn’t achieve anything worthwhile in my life because I would sit and experience overwhelming lingering hopelessness for no reason whatsoever. When I finally acknowledged how bad things were, I knew I couldn’t go on like this. To be under the constant weight of wanting to accomplish and yet unable to do more was excruciating.

After some time had passed, I decided that it was time for me to make some changes to help improve my mental health as well as physical health so that I could live without suffering from low energy and constant headaches. In my journey to find the answers for myself, I found a book called “Unlimited Power” by Anthony Robbins.

Through that book, I began learning about the benefits of eating the right foods and how they affect our mental health. I realized how important nutrition is to our bodies. I also discovered that when we ate nutritious foods, our bodies would be able to heal themselves.

How eating the right foods affects how we feel

The impact of nutrition on mental health is a hot topic right now, and for a good reason: it’s known that the foods you eat can affect your mood, sleep patterns, immune system, and even your pain tolerance — all of which can have a significant impact on how we feel about ourselves and how we interact with others.

If you’ve ever felt down after eating pizza or ice cream or felt like you couldn’t get out of bed after eating fast food — you might be surprised to learn that those sensations are pretty standard. But this isn’t limited to you. Scientists constantly study foods’ impact on the body. Researchers have found that certain foods change how we feel physically and emotionally. Moreover, they’ve observed that as people modify their diets — such as adding healthier fats and fiber — they often report feeling better overall.

How our body feels is all attributed to our digestive system. When we come to think about it, the digestive system is pretty incredible:

• It’s one hundred million neurons strong.
• It helps digest food.
• It makes sure that nutrients absorb into the bloodstream, where they keep the body running smoothly.

Gut health plays an incredibly vital role in our overall wellness.

When we’re not digesting properly, everything else suffers. For example, sleep quality decreases, while headaches or stomach aches make it hard to focus at work or school. Further, I notice that I sometimes feel more depressed or anxious than usual. That sensation is because the symptoms are all connected through serotonin production in our gastrointestinal tracts (GI tract).

In addition to regulating sleep and appetite, serotonin mediates moods and reduces pain. Our GI tract produces about 95 percent of our body’s serotonin, and its lining contains millions of nerve cells (or neurons). With this in mind, it only makes sense that the inner workings of our digestive system not only help us digest food but also guide our emotions.

A healthy digestive system comes from eating healthy foods, which will eventually help with the wellness of our mental state.

A recent Swedish study found that eating a diet rich in vegetables and lean proteins can help reduce the risk of depression by 25%.

The study compared traditional diets, like the Mediterranean and traditional Japanese diets, to a typical “Western” diet. They found that people who ate whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, unprocessed grains, and fish had lower rates of depression than those who ate more processed foods and sugar. In addition, many of these unprocessed foods are fermented — which acts as a natural probiotic — and therefore helps promote healthy gut bacteria that will eventually help you feel better overall.

But what can we all DO to feel better moving forward? Stay tuned for part 2 of this examination of what steps we can take to enhance our mental well-being through nutrition!

(End part 1 of 2)