Meals for Mental Health (Gut and Mental Health Part IV)

While there are no proven “prescription” diets for mental health issues, diet changes may be beneficial for your mental health.  As discussed in previous articles, poor nutrition makes healing from anything difficult. Unfortunately you may need to use yourself as a guinea pig to figure out what works best for you, considering your personal make up and preferences.  Whatever you do, do your research and anything too radical probably is even if it has some good take-aways.

It seems there are many new diets that are advertized by a lot of people with Dr. in front of their name.  It’s hard to know which ones work.   Look for ones that have research behind them and a good list of references.  Authority Nutrition claims to have research based plans and give you 4 to start looking at to find what is best for you.

Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet may work for some but appears to be very restrictive in nature.  Buy the book here and there is a cookbook too.

The Omni diet was also created by one of my favorite brain doctors, Daniel Amen, MD and his wife, Tanya. Read a synopsis here.  Mostly plant based (70%) with 30% lean protein. Dr. Amen is another great resource for how nutrients and supplements can aid in mental health.  Start by reading Change Your Brain Change Your Life.  We’ll save a more in depth discussion of nutritional substances for a future article.

The Mediterranean Diet is still popular for its health benefits. Mostly plant based, minimal meat, higher in healthy fats.

The ever popular Paleo Diet (Dr. Loren Cordain, PhD in Health) is another one to consider.  It consists of meat, nuts, vegetables, and healthy fats. Anything you can hunt or gather.

In looking at all these diets, they all have one thing in common, whole original form foods.  No processed items, low in refined sugars.  Where they differ is the amounts/types of meat, some or no grain, and fats allowed. Whether or not you are trying to lose weight or just get healthy one of these should help you feel better.

Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) (Gut and Mental Health Part III)

In my research on nutrition and healthy gut, I came across the Gut and Psychology Syndrome.  The Gut and Psychology Syndrome or GAPS theory was developed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a neurosurgeon and nutritionist.  She has written an interesting book that you can get here.  The GAPS diet was derived from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet by Dr. Sidney Valentine Hass.  In a nutshell, “The GAPS Diet focuses on removing foods that are difficult to digest and damaging to gut flora and replacing them with nutrient-dense foods to give the intestinal lining a chance to heal and seal.”

Why is a healthy gut important?  Because all your nutrients and vitamins (not to mention the amino acids that are the building blocks to so many things) go through the gut and it should protect you from ingested toxins.  If your body doesn’t get what it needs then it will not function properly, hence the resulting mental or physical illnesses.  In theory the GAPS makes sense but is there science behind it?  All science starts with a theory that is then tested and either proven or disproven.  It seems that the Gut and Psychology Syndrome has not been fully tested but has some connections to medical and mental health issues.  I have heard many reports from people that diet changes have significantly improved ADHD or arthritis.  So far, most of the research is limited to inflammatory diseases. It might be 20 more years before the GAPS theory is proven to our satisfaction and we will already be on the next latest trend. Find the scientific articles that support nutrition as part of mental health here and here.  As recently as 2010, Marlene Freeman, MD published in the American Journal of Psychiatry an editorial discussing the lack of randomized controlled diet and mental health studies.  It does not appear that much has been published since that call for more research in this area.

The GAPS diet is just one of the many diets out there and nutritional science is always coming out with new ideas like every other science.  The point of understanding diet, gut flora, and the relationship to mental health is to be more aware of what is put in your body and try things to see what works for you.

How today’s food affects health (Gut and Mental Health Part II)

We are what we eat and the vehicle won’t run well without the proper fuel.  We must be mindful of what we eat if we expect our bodies to look and feel good.  The research keeps growing and growing about the effects of processed foods and other preparation issues on our health in general.

As our lives continue to be busy with activities and work, we look for convenient alternatives to feeding ourselves.  One hundred years ago everyone cooked their food daily that they brought home from the butcher, the baker, and vegetable seller.  Now we buy prepackaged meals and pop them in the microwave. This just doesn’t cut it as we are not getting what we need when food is cooked this way.

In addition to how we torture our food once we have it, processed foods have a lot of chemicals in them.  How else can a company make large amounts and keep them fresh while they travel all over the country?  While some may be safe, some may not be.  Have our bodies adapted to eating these chemicals without harm?  Obviously we were designed originally to eat very whole food that we could hunt or gather but we’ve had bread since we’ve had fire and nuts to grind into flour.  Surely we’ve adapted to these forms of processing but have we adapted as fast as the food industry has with its chemicals?  It should not be ignored that unprocessed foods such as fruit and vegetables can have a lot of chemicals as well in the form of fertilizers and pesticides.  I think the bottles of the ant killer at home says call poison control if ingested, don’t think I want to put that in my body.

Another hot topic is the use of hormones and antibiotics in our meats.  How does it ultimately affect the consumer? There is a bit or evidence that hormone use in meat increases cancer risk but the relationship is hard to measure.  For me I think it is just safer to no manipulate nature quite so much. As for the antibiotics, one issue is that the increased use of these drugs has just produced antibiotic resistant bacteria increasing sickness.  The use of antibiotics also disrupts your gut flora.  While this may be okay for short periods while you get over an illness, daily doses are probably not a great idea.  The next post will get into more detail about gut health and the effects on mental health.

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

This section is definitely not long enough to give all the details on issues with our food but please, educate yourself and read the links I have provided and others that you find to help you make well informed decision about what you put in your body.  It WILL affect your quality of life, both physically and mentally. This is not intended to bash the food industry as they are trying to survive as well and supposed to make a profit but we must ask ourselves at what cost? Do they really need to increase consumption through food addictions? Encourage the food industry to adapt to demands by changing what you buy.

New or old information? Gut and Mental Health Part I

You may have read my earlier post about the relationship between food and mood or how nutrition is one of the cornerstones of mental health.  There is so much more to the relationship between our food and our mental health.  This will be a 4 part series in how what we put in our bodies for fuel comes out in different ways such as behaviors, symptoms, and feelings.

This article originated because I was researching poor digestion and the resulting inflammation.  I know so many people struggling with inflammatory issues in their body.  While I have always believed in the mind body connection, I was unaware of the gut-mind connection theories that were out there.  This is not a new concept but clearly I was out of the loop on the latest information.  Historically, many scientists believed that accumulation of waste in the gut caused micro-organisms to grow, leading to all kinds of diseases including depression and psychosis.  While this was a rudimentary explanation, it was not too far off the mark.  As the microbiology industry continues to grow and identify all the microbiome interactions that occur in our gut, our understanding of neurochemicals is greatly expanded.  For example, we now know that bacteria in the gut can release neurotransmitters much like our neurons do.  Once we understand how they work then we can manipulate the system in beneficial ways.

One of the basic ways researchers are manipulating the micro-organism population is through probiotics.  We can encourage the proper levels of bacteria with prebiotics which feed them and replenish them with probiotics.

Leaky Gut Syndrome is used to describe a myriad of common digestion ailments but does it have a wider influence?  If you and your doctor have ruled out other possible causes of your intestinal distress, you might consider this as a possibility.  While there is not much discussion on how the increased permeability in the gut lead to mental health issues, just think, if the gut is leaking the over infestation of bacteria in your bloodstream then not only should it cause an immune response, but also put more neurotransmitters in the system affecting mental health.  I have yet to see someone with autoimmune disease that does not also have mental health issues.  There must be a connection.

Managing your gut bacteria is one part of a comprehensive mental health treatment plan and not designed to be used without supportive therapy or psychopharmeceuticals, but a healthy gut will make treatment that much more successful.