I think it’s safe to say that most people are aware of the heavy impact nutrition has on our physical health. We know that eating our fruits and veggies is vital for preventing chronic conditions and helps us to age gracefully. But did you also know that our mental health is affected by our diet too?
The effect of nutrition on the brain is a hot topic in research right now. The science shows a connection between eating a pro-inflammatory diet high in processed foods and mental health issues such as depression. On the flip side, if you have a diet that is anti-inflammatory and rich in certain key nutrients, your risk of poor mental health is much lower.
Unfortunately, our Western diet has an abundance of processed fare and tends to lack nutrient-dense foods. I believe that this is one of the major causes of the prevalence of anxiety and depression in our society. Many of us are not eating what our brain needs to function optimally. Of course, there are lots of other factors that influence our mental health, like pandemics, the economy, and societal issues; but when working on our mental health, we must focus on factors that are within our control. Changing our diet is a relatively easy adjustment to make. And once you’ve bolstered your mental health with nutrition, that will make it easier to weather life factors that are out of your control.
Eating your way to better mental health will involve getting certain dietary habits into place, along with integrating specific mood-boosting foods into your diet. We’ll talk about the habits I’d like you to adopt first, then we’ll get into specific foods. In this article, I’ll be talking a lot about serotonin and the nutrition factors that affect its production. Though there are numerous molecules in the body that affect our brain—when it comes to mental health—serotonin is the “it girl” of neurotransmitters. Serotonin plays a key role in our mood and regulates factors that indirectly affect our mental health, such as sleep and digestion.
DIET TIPS
Eat Regularly Throughout the Day
Before we can get into any specific nutrition recommendations, we have to cover the importance of eating at regular intervals. I cannot stress this tip enough! I have had several clients come to see me in my private practice for help with their anxiety; while each case is unique, they all had one anxiety-inducing habit in common: they skip meals.
We need to eat throughout the day to maintain our blood sugar at an acceptable level. When we go too long without eating, our blood sugar drops below the level our body needs to function properly; this is called hypoglycemia. Many of us are familiar with the physical symptoms of hypoglycemia, such as low energy, headaches, and killer hunger pangs. But there are also lots of neurological indicators of hypoglycemia, like anxiety, irritability, shakiness, and heart palpitations. This is because low blood sugar triggers the release of epinephrine in our body, the fight-or-flight hormone.
Even though it may seem like a minor recommendation, eating throughout the day has a big impact on your mental state. I often see a vicious cycle at work in my clients. They wake up feeling a bit anxious, so they decide to skip breakfast—worried that food will upset their stomach. Their anxiety increases throughout the morning, so they end up skipping lunch too. Then, their anxiety gets worse and worse until, by the evening, they’re a bundle of nerves. Though that initial morning anxiety may not have been nutrition-related, their mental state got worse throughout the day because they didn’t eat, became hypoglycemic, and the resulting epinephrine release put their body into panic mode.
Many of my clients are shocked at how much their anxiety improves when they stop skipping meals. Maintaining stable blood sugar levels will help you maintain a good mood. And if you’re already in a bad mood or stressed out, nourishing your body will prevent you from feeling worse. To help maintain their blood sugar, the general rule of thumb I give to my clients is to have something to eat within three hours of waking, and then make sure to go no longer than five hours without eating again.
Eat Plenty of Protein
Inside our body, a series of chemical reactions take place that produces the beloved “feel good” neurotransmitter serotonin. The building block of this biochemical process is the amino acid tryptophan. If we want our body to make more serotonin, we need to eat more tryptophan, which is found in protein (all protein is made up of amino acids, including tryptophan). Salmon and turkey are especially high in tryptophan, but all high-protein foods are going to contain this amino acid.
Each person’s protein needs are unique and can be determined in collaboration with a dietitian. However, as a general rule, I suggest that you include a source of protein in all your meals. Eat a variety of animal sources (e.g., poultry, eggs, fish), as well as plant-based sources of protein (e.g., nuts, seeds, lentils). And make sure you have a source of carbohydrates, vegetables, and/or fruits in your meals to ensure they’re nutritionally well-rounded.
Take Probiotics
Did you know that 95 percent of the serotonin in our body is made in the gut? Where does all this serotonin come from? The microbes that live in our gut make it! When we have a healthy balance of bacteria in our intestines, this boosts serotonin production, improving our mental health. However, many of us have an imbalance in our microbiota, where the bad bacteria outnumber the good serotonin-making bacteria. This causes serotonin levels to be low, resulting in poor mental health.
Luckily, you can improve the health of your microbiota by taking a probiotic and/or eating probiotic foods; a “probiotic” is a source of healthy bacteria. Ingesting these bacteria will impact the balance and diversity in your microbiota, which will ultimately have a positive impact on your mental health.
If you are taking a solid or liquid probiotic supplement, be sure that you are not taking it with hot food or beverages. I see a lot of my clients making this mistake. An effective probiotic should contain live bacteria; if you take it with something hot, the heat will kill the bacteria, making the probiotic ineffective! You can also incorporate fermented foods into your diet like kefir, sauerkraut, pickles, or kimchi. Fermentation is carried out by microbes, so these foods will contain helpful bacteria—just make sure you buy these products from the refrigerated section of the grocery store. It’s important to note that the food preservation process also kills bacteria, so shelf-stable products will not contain live microbes.
SPECIFIC MOOD-BOOSTING FOODS
There are no foods that contain serotonin, but there are certain nutrients that are known to be required for the chemical reactions that make serotonin. Therefore, eating foods that contain the nutrients needed to make serotonin can help improve our mental health. Below is a list of the key nutrients involved in serotonin production, along with foods that are great sources of those nutrients.
Magnesium
- Leafy greens: spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, bok choy, etc.
- Whole grains: whole wheat, brown rice, oats, quinoa, etc.
- Legumes: beans, lentils, split peas, nuts, seeds
Zinc
- Oysters and other shellfish
- Nuts, especially cashews
- Organ meat, such as liver
- Beef
- Eggs (the yolk, specifically)
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
- Eat 2–3 servings of fatty fish per week: mackerel, salmon, cod, tuna, herring, anchovies, sardines, trout, pollock, mussels
- If you don’t like fish, take a daily omega-3 supplement offering 250–500 mg of combined DHA and EPA. *Be sure to stay below 3000 mg per day.
B vitamins
- Leafy greens
- Green vegetables: asparagus, avocado
- Fish/seafood
- Legumes
- Nutritional yeast and brewer’s yeast
- Fortified breakfast cereals (be mindful of added sugars)
- Liver and other organ meats
- Red meat: beef and pork
- Eggs
- Dairy products: milk, yogurt, cheese
*If you cannot tolerate dairy, choose a legume-based alternative
ANTIOXIDANTS
Scientific research has found a link between having low levels of antioxidants in your body and having mental health issues such as anxiety. Antioxidants are compounds that neutralize free radicals and prevent inflammation. Studies suggest that chronic inflammation plays a causal role in people who have poor mental health. So, eating a diet rich in antioxidants helps to decrease inflammation in the body; less inflammation, in turn, translates to better mental health. Here is a list of antioxidant-rich foods:
- Beans: pinto, black, kidney, etc.
- Deeply coloured fruits:
- Red Delicious apples
- Sweet cherries
- Red and/or black plums and prunes
- Berries: blackberries, strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries
- Red grapes
- Nuts: walnuts and pecans
- Vegetables:
- Leafy greens like spinach and kale
- Brightly coloured veggies: peppers, tomatoes, beets, carrots, etc.
- Other veggies: broccoli, artichokes
- Colourful spices: turmeric, ginger, paprika, etc.
- Green herbs: parsley, mint, basil, oregano, etc.
- Teas: especially green tea and matcha; however, all teas are rich in antioxidants
If these nutrition recommendations seem like a lot, don’t stress. We are trying to improve your mental health here—not make it worse. I suggest you pick ONE thing to start with (yes, only one). Start with whatever is most doable for you in the next few days, and make it simple. For example, you might set the goal to start eating yogurt each day to get probiotics into your diet. Or you could pick one of the foods from the “B vitamins” list to put on your grocery checklist. If you struggle with skipping breakfast and lunch every day, you could set the intention to try to eat lunch this upcoming week. Start small, and once you’ve achieved your goal, set the next one. Before you know it, you’ll have all these nutrition tips in place and your mental health will be better than ever!
