The Key Foods For Mental Health

Dr Uma Naidoo, Harvard Nutritional Psychiatrist Shares The Key Foods For Incredible Mental Health
(Last Updated On: July 18, 2022)

Many people want to know what are the key foods for incredible mental health. How does the diet, nutrition influence our emotions and mental health? Does the diet significantly affect emotions, behaviours, or mental wellbeing? What is the connection between diet, nutrition, and mental health? What are the steps you can take today to walk on a path towards proper brain health? You can find answers to most of your questions in this article.

Dr Uma Naidoo, Harvard Nutritional Psychiatrist Shares The Key Foods For Mental Health

Dr Uma Naidoo, Harvard Nutritional Psychiatrist explains about the key foods for incredible mental health. If you are struggling with mental health problems and seeking a powerful alternative to the never-ending cycle of prescriptions, this article is for you. Continue reading and also watch the video talk Mr. Tom Byleu had with Dr Uma Naidoo.

If you don’t understand that the brain and the body are connected then you are in for a world of hurt, you’ve got to really understand how to make those work.

Tom Bilyeu

Mind & Body – Dr Naidoo shares her journey to focusing on nutritional psychiatry

When did you come along to the nutritional element and what exactly is nutritional psychiatry?

The way that I came to this was that I grew up in a family that was all about love and food and nutrients and a lot of cooking. And so it was always fond of food and want to know more and it was also a family, a physician, so I knew. I was headed to medical school and I always just wanted to know more about food. And when I began to have conversations with patients in residency. So I sort of brought or tapped into my background and really raised in a household where there was meditation, mindfulness-practice, understanding of the mind-body connection, ayurvedic principles and I didn’t use those specifically.

But I really brought that mindset to practising with my patients and I began to say things to them like, well, if you’re taking this medication are you doing any form of exercise? Are you doing any kind of movement? What what are you doing? What are you eating? And it grew at the interest grew and I began to have more of that conversation. So that existed in the way that I was practising. But separate to that my passion trip was to culinary school. That was just because I went because Julia Charles is my food hero and I wanted to be like her. So I wanted to learn more and that kind of fitted together in a cool way with everything else.

Anxiety – Foods for mental health

Anxiety - key foods to avoid
Anxiety – The Foods To Avoid

The connection between your diet and your mental health

What are some of the major triggers and then how do we begin unwinding that?

For anxiety one of the things I often start talking to people about is the foods to avoid. Generally, I talk about a whole food diet and ask people to incorporate foods rather than give them up. But in anxiety, we notice there’s a correlation with gluten. It’s always about the source of the gluten you have. If you’re having a shelf-stable loaf of bread from the supermarket that sits on your counter for three weeks and looks perfect you have to ask yourself. That’s not the bread we’re speaking of here. Gluten had an association with elevated anxiety as did sugar as sweetness.

Read How To Cope With Anxiety And Depression?

Key Foods For Mental Health – Biomechanism

Can we get into the bio mechanism like what is going on why are those is everything going to come down to the epithelial lining of the gut and this is a leaky gut problem or is it something else?

The mechanisms tend to differ but I think the overall major mechanism that runs through every single diagnosis is the gut-brain axis, the preponderance of inflammation that these substances drive like sugar, and as the leaky gut and the intestinal permeability gets set up. There’s also the dysbiosis that is happening because the bugs are just not getting the right foods that they need to thrive. So you have dysbiosis being set up. Then they’re not able to form things like the short-chain fatty acids that they need and the butyrates to really help the gut thrive. So sugar is one of them. Artificial sweetener is another, stevia was found to have. Even though stevia and erythritol if you are going to use the sweetener separate to all of this, maybe better options. But in anxiety, it was not, processed vegetable oils.

Read Mood Boosting Foods To Improve your Mood

Sweeteners – The effect of sweeteners on your mental health

What is this sort of dysbiotic response?

One of the things is that there’s an elevation in the level of sweetness. So a tiny packet of a sweetener is super sweet. So in one way, it’s impacting your brain because you are now expecting this super sweet flavour. Then the actual substances are gut disruptors. And the third mechanism is that they are not, and that’s why I mentioned stevia and erythritol they have a better mechanism related to insulin. And so in addition to the brain problems that things like artificial sweeteners set up for us by driving anxiety they disrupt the gut and our brain gets used to this hyper-hyper sweetened taste. Because often patients will say that you want me not having sugar-sweetened beverages. So I’m going to have the diet soda of some kind.

Sweeteners key foods for incredible mental health -
The effect of sweeteners on your mental health

But what noticed is that sometimes they crave more sweet, sweet foods and often those foods are carbohydrates. So we talk about almost trying to either heal your gut or help your gut along so that the bugs in your gut are working for you and not against you. And you know sugar basically sweeteners just are doing the opposite of what we need them to do. Sugar on the other hand has an actual, there’s actually an actual correlation between depression. Several trials linking depression and sugar intake the added sugars and also related to the level of anxiety.

So you know sugar works in a slightly different way, in the sense that initially you might have this you know good feeling. Someone has a bowl of ice cream and like I can’t understand why my doctor tells me not to eat this, I feel good what’s wrong with her. But the truth is that you know over time what happens is that if it affects your neurons. You know the sugar is not good for us. It may make you feel emotionally good in the moment but it’s really not good in the longer term. We talk with nutritionists and we talk to our doctors about I have a family history of diabetes, how should I be eating. But we don’t link the use of nutrients or food with our emotions.

Read What Is Depression?

Foods to Avoid for better mood and mental health

In our avoid list that we just went through specifically as it relates to anxiety and a little bit depression, Gluten, Artificial sweeteners and Sugar. What are there other sort of major things or those like are big to avoid?

That processed vegetable for anxiety processed vegetable oils. It might be that a restaurant look they tend to be oils that are less expensive. In the restaurant industry and in fast food chains these are the oils that they use and reuse. And it sets up a huge level of information about it because what changes are it flips the ratio of our omega-6 to our omega-3 fatty acids. And this is not good for us because what that does is drives inflammation in the body.

Key foods for incredible mental health - Avoid processed oils
Key foods for incredible mental health – Avoid processed oils

Here’s a great example I have a few clients who travel a lot for work. And contrary to what you might think during the pandemic they start to have a lower level of anxiety. And we noticed this specifically. And I was puzzling me at first and then I realised just taking more and more information and asking them I realised that they were eating more meals at home. So even though they had been trying to pursue a healthy diet following the guidelines and they had an improvement in anxiety. They had a significant improvement by eating meals at home because they know the oils I’m going to suggest to them.

Suggested oils for mental health

Extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil and one of the things that people don’t realize that is super helpful in conditions like anxiety is to up your fibre game. Because fibre, fibre-rich foods break down in your body, breakdown you know in a more complex way and more slowly so you don’t have think of the sugary doughnut. People have this sugar crash and first, they have a sugar high then they have a sugar crash. It’s all about insulin bouncing all over the place. When you include simple things like having more fibre your instrument is even, your blood sugar is even. So people who have anxiety don’t have these highs and lows.

Caffeine can drive anxiety

Other things about anxiety are things we know caffeine can drive anxiety but it’s the amount of caffeine, it’s how your body tolerates it, it’s also caffeine withdrawal. I have had people present with extremes of anxiety because they come and saying doctor I’m giving up caffeine and then they have caffeine withdrawal and they super anxious hydration.

You know alcohol someone imbibes a little bit too much alcohol on a holiday weekend and the next day somewhat dehydrated can present with severe anxiety.

Alcohol someone imbibes a little bit too much alcohol on a holiday weekend and the next day somewhat dehydrated can present with severe anxiety.

Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia is another one. Someone who recently in my practice was trying out a type of fast. I’m not against the type of fasting. I think it always has to be discussed with their doctors but didn’t realize that they hit a very low blood sugar level. So they were hypoglycemic and had panic attacks. Our physiology is all interrelated. You can’t do one thing without affecting something else.

Panic – The connection between anxiety and being hypoglycemic

Why would be hypoglycemic put you into a panic attack? Is it? When I was really debilitated by anxiety one thing that I found was if I was cold then my anxiety would spike hard because the physiological response to being cold and being anxious for me are almost identical. And so it almost put it on my mind if that makes sense and so my brain just didn’t differentiate between I’m cold or I’m anxious.

That’s a great example actually. Because with hypoglycemia, people haven’t have saved skipped a meal or haven’t eaten or something has happened they dropped their blood sugar. And one of the symptoms of hypoglycemia is sort of feeling nervous or jittery because actually, your body is craving it needs to be fed. And what happens is that I’ve just seen people have the spike of anxiety or panic and what I’ve said to them is are you eating regular meals, you may be taking other medications for other conditions, and exactly what are you doing? Are you drinking enough water?

The Key Foods For Mental Health - Panic
Panic

It’s a similar it’s I love the example you gave because it’s a similar type of thing the body perceives it in a certain way and the way that the brain interprets that is I’m feeling anxious, I’m feeling anxious, but actually what the body is asking for is to be fed. That means that we need a nutrient.

Keto – The ketogenic diet and its relation to improved anxiety

This stuff all gets super complicated but when I think about let’s pretend for a minute that our audience is more they’re like you, they are diet agnostic. So they just want the best. When you were describing hypoglycemia as being a problem I thought would a ketogenic diet which I’ll call sort of the king of flatline where your just whole relationship to food is different. Your relationship to hunger is different because you don’t go on that wild ride because your body just dips into stored fat. And so you feel pretty even keel all the time is that the most anti-anxiety diet or is there something even better.

I don’t think there’s something even better but what I will say is some studies that are more recent have shown a correlation between kindergarten ketogenic diets and improved anxiety. So I think that if someone is following that diet and it helps the anxiety and they’re otherwise under the care of a doctor. And why do I say that, because simple things that we tell people to eat like grapefruit can interact with multiple medications through liver enzymes. So I’m not saying that globally to say oh you should always talk to your doctor. I am saying if you’re assuming a different diet and you’re changing things up you know just run things by someone who knows your overall conditions, your medical history and what you might be taking but there’s been some good evidence. So I would say if it’s working for someone and they’ve noticed a lowering of anxiety, definitely try it out and have your doctor review the literature with you.

Brain Health – The ‘brain diet’ and the best foods for our brain

What we can do to avoid brain fog cognitive decline? What would that sort of ideal cognitively optimized diet?

I like people to embrace are starting with turmeric, with black pepper. It’s a spice that not only hits the high notes in several conditions there’s a definite association with cognition. So if it’s something you cook with or not a quarter at least a quarter teaspoon a day with a pinch of black pepper, paprine activates the curcumin makes it more viable by a very huge per cent to both the body and the brain tip right there. And for those people who don’t cook with it add it to soup or smoothie or tea, these are good options for you. It turns out that the polyphenols and olive oil became more available when they were used in a sofrito preparation. So different cultures have different types of fruits.

Read 11 Foods To Boost Memory

What’s that sofrito? – Key Foods For Incredible Mental Health

Sofrito is the base for, it could be the base for a gumbo, it could be the base, but it’s basically onions, garlic, some cultures have chilli pepper, it’s different varieties of that. But a particular study showed that this reaction made the polyphenols more available. So I say if you’re going to cook use the good olive oil, use that gentle simmering temperature. Use those ingredients because onions, garlic they are great prebiotic foods good for your gut. Feed the good bacteria why not throw them in and then you know there are also other spices things like cinnamon, saffron, rosemary, ginger and sage, that had some good results, in a good data in association with just protecting cognition.

Read  Health Benefits Of Garlic Immunity Boosting Superstar

Coffee the suggestion was, have coffee but have you know less than 400 milligrams a day because depending on the size of your cup that could be about two to three cups, have them early in the day.

Alcohol was not an entirely negative one but at the same time, it’s all about things in moderation. And if someone is drinking alcohol I generally suggest red wine because of the reserve resveratrol.

Alcohol – A healthy approach to consuming alcohol

Do you think there’s a hormetic effect to alcohol? Everyone’s going to say that there’s three macronutrients fourth being alcohol. And if you look at the order in which the body burns them it will prioritize alcohol. Now my gut instinct is that it’s prioritizing alcohol because it’s a toxin. So why would there be anything other than a hormetic effect meaning? For anybody that’s never heard that term that a little bit of bad actually gets your body to sort of push back against it become more robust and stronger. So it is a toxin but in a small enough amount, it actually can be beneficial think of working out.

I think there’s a great point. I think that’s a great point. I mean I think it could well be that what the studies basically showed was that it’s not that you have to exclude alcohol it’s about moderation and it’s the type of alcohol. Everything in moderation and why do I say that term because most individuals who come to my practice are drinking some form of alcohol. So I would rather work with them to use that in moderation and share tips like “hey if you like cocktails you’re drinking a bunch of sugar because this is what simple syrup is it’s sugar.” So here’s some tips about making that a healthier version, drinking less of it. What I find is trying to say to people don’t do something is just behavioral psychology has taught us that’s not the way to go. So it’s about giving people some healthy options within what they’re doing and then hopefully over time when they see the benefit of something they start to either tape it back or change the habit. That’s very different from someone who’s struggling with alcohol obviously.

Brain fog – Antioxidant luteolin rich foods

But you also asked me about brain fog and this is where the antioxidant luteolin rich foods came in. And there were studies that showed that if you incorporate juniper berries, fresh peppermint, sage, thyme, certain types of hot and sweet peppers these apparently are all luteal and rich foods. Celery seeds, parsley artichokes and dried mexican oregano, they actually helped with the brain fog. So I say to people if you’re struggling with that you want to kind of sharpen things up, start to in spices. One of the reasons they’re one of my favourite things is that they last a long time, they salt-free, sugar-free, calorie-free because I’m not suggesting a mix that has added sodium in it. But they hit the high notes on lots of different conditions and so it’s worth stocking up on those and it turns out that for brain fog they can certain spices can be pretty useful.

Read Unbelievable Health Benefits Of Papaya Never Known To You

Sodium – Her take on sodium and its affect on our health.

Our body needs sodium. So I think that we just have to be careful about the amount that we consume and where we consume it from. So I think that being aware of the added sodium and processed foods. Frozen vegetables can be a great option for people inexpensive so that they get their vegetable boost. But if it has a sauce or an added sodium or you know that the added ingredients are what throw it off. So our body needs sodium but it’s the amount of sodium that we consume in our diets that’s usually too high.

What happens as you increase your sodium intake?

Obviously, you hear a lot about blood pressure but I’ve heard that there’s like complexity there that people maybe aren’t acknowledging. But it’s not an area that I’m super knowledgeable about but the number of times that I’ve sort of encountered sodium in the literature. I’ve walked away going it’s really like not that big of a deal to be honest. But if I’m crazy now’s the time to tell me because I eat the most salt I think you’d be horrified.

You know a lot of people like salty food and again it comes down. Time about a month ago I was treating a woman had come in to see me for consulting. She brought her adult daughter along with her and both they each had opposite reactions to the same healthy food. And you know this speaks to uniqueness of our bodies and our microbiome which is mostly unique. So I’m it would take a lot to shock me I’ve. You know I’ve been hardened by years of practice but I think it really boils down to someone’s individual constitution. If your blood pressure is fine if you are otherwise healthy if your blood tests are okay and your doctor’s not yelling at you for something I think that’s what it is. Is it good or bad probably not great but is it having any deleterious consequences on your body it doesn’t seem like you look great, but again it comes back to you know a person following some guidelines.

For two reasons when a doctor says to you here take this prescription, as I have done as well it’s disempowering to someone you’re being told you have to do this and you have this symptom and this is what will make you better. I think that nutrition and food flips that ratio and puts a person into the driver’s seat of deciding hey I can make the choice to go to fast foods today and start to impact my gut bacteria which we know will change within 24 hours. Or I can say I’m going to aim for that healthy salad I’m going to build it up the way that it was suggested to me. I’m going to add in those lean proteins I’m going to add in as many colors of the rainbow as I can to bring back healthy phytonutrients and antioxidants for my brain. And I’m going to go in that direction and a person can feel empowered to make that decision. Now they still may choose the chips the ice cream and the fast foods but that being said that that’s gonna it’s gonna have the effects down the road.

Read Anti Aging Foods That Will Keep You Young And Healthy

Fast Food – The hidden, yet dangerous, ingredients in fast food

All right, that’s an amazing example and so I want to dive into that. So people can take all the things you’ve said now and put into how to make that choice in an informed way. So we’ll get to the salad in a minute because I really want to hear you said to build it up in the way that I was instructed to do so I want to know more about what that is because the number of people I watch build a salad and I think you might as well go have a twinkie is a lot. But so fast food I’m gonna break down why I think you would say fast food is bad and then you tell me if this is what you mean. So, in the beginning, you laid out four things that people really want to avoid and fast food has them all. So one I’ve heard you talk about which I didn’t even know is that french fries at most fast-food restaurants contain sugar.

They contain sugar you don’t taste it but the exactly the research and development I was pretty shocked when I came across these years ago that the research and development is immense for to produce hyper-palatable foods. And by that I mean this is the reason that you can’t at the drive-through you want the bigger size and when you get the biggest size of the fries you want to eat all of them. You don’t taste the sugar but it makes that enhances the flavor and it makes those foods hyper-palatable.

Sugar, Glutamates And Monosodium Glutamate

So sugar is a big one and my concept of conveying that is eat the orange, skip the strawberry. Orange juice and that’s because people think oh my doctor said oranges are good vitamin ‘C’ and the labels on the store-bought orange you say that. But it’s another helpful thing is four grams of sugar is one teaspoon because I’ve said before that our labels in the United States aren’t grams. But we cook all our recipes are standardized to ounces and pounds. So people don’t know how much sugar there is what does four grams mean. So having that simple understanding of how to break it down means that if they get a 4-ounce yoghurt but it’s fruited and it has 24 grams of sugar. Well, would you actually be adding that number of teaspoons to plain yoghurt if that’s something that you eat? Because certainly the ones with active cultures and well-sourced grass-fed milk.

Dairy yoghurts are definitely something if you eat there you can try but you know helping those little things at the tip of their fingers is empowering. Knowing that there are 200 names for sugar and if you look them up or if you look at the label of something you’re buying then there are 200 names for sugar. But literally, this is a list you can google but when you look at a food label always these are things you can take photographs on from your computer and carry them with you. So if you’re buying something you know that that’s actually hiding in sugar.

Another culprit, by the way, is glutamates and monosodium glutamate. That’s another one that not as many names but it gets couched in different ways.

Why glutamate matters what sort of disease states it impacts?

So glutamates are found to really be difficult for conditions like OCD. So it’s one of the foods that we suggest to people to really be cautious of when they have symptoms of OCD because it can really be, it can be worsened, it can be worsened by these foods and their glutamines. And glutamic acid in foods that we’re used to eating that are not necessarily bad foods but when you know that they contain glutamates that you have to be careful if you have OCD, things like parmesan cheese, oyster sauce, tomato sauce, miso. Miso is otherwise a fermented food and super good for the gut but if you’re sensitive to glutamate that could be a source that could drive OCD. So it’s about finding. You mentioned sodium and salt. It’s about finding that balance for every person.

Where do you come down on animal protein and it probably makes sense to touch on red meat as well versus vegetarian

Mediterranean – Breaks down the Mediterranean diet and its benefits

What I find is that of the different diets the Mediterranean eating pattern has consistently shown the best results for depression and anxiety. It’s based on the Mediterranean lifestyle and the Mediterranean region in the world and it’s basically a diet that’s rich in healthy fats such as avocado, olive oil, lean protein. So whether it’s you know chicken or seafood it’s very heavy in safe food but good sources of seafood and then beans, nuts, legumes, healthy whole grains, chickpeas those types of ingredients. And it’s consistently shown in studies to have helped individuals with mood and anxiety. So I think that’s important for people to know.

Is it the perfect guide? Maybe not for everyone but it’s a good guideline. Because my feeling about this time is that if people are consuming, for example, there’s a study that showed that eating trans fats is associated with aggression. So once again we come back to if you’re eating these foods you might have problems with these behaviours and if you are or if you get worsening of symptoms you may want to think about cutting back on that. I feel like it’s a stepwise pathway to well-being and mental well-being because if someone’s just eating the wrong type of diet how can I encourage them on toward a healthier path because I think it’s hard when you either pull out your prescription pad or you. In my version of the work I do in nutritional psychiatry I say well you have to eat this. So I try really not to do that. My method is really about what is it that when you come in to see me are the steps that I think you can try and that you feel you can commit to because if you’re not going to do them then you’re just going to leave my office. It’s like going to a physical therapy appointment and not practising the exercises your injuries it’s not going to get better.

Easy Steps – The ‘easy wins’ you can implement into your diet

what are some of those early sort of easy wins that people can do? I know that it’s going to be so specific and so I’m just sort of pitching right to the middle of your sort of average person that comes to see you. I’m guessing they have anxiety or they have depression and they’re not going to want to give up all the lovely things that they eat. So what are some easy switches or swaps or however you approach it?

Exactly. So I like the prebiotic foods because we those are easy to include things like the alien family onions, garlic, leeks off the top of my head Chicama and a few others. I’m speaking about mental health because that’s what I care about the most but the truth is by balancing your gut bacteria or your gut bugs because it’s not just bacteria in a good way you’re also taking care of your immunity which is largely housed in the gut and you’re doing your body good because you’re fighting down inflammation. Yes, inflammation drives mental health diseases and mental well-being but you’re also helping the level of inflammation in your body. So it’s just a good basic starting point. Fermented foods, kefir, miso, kimchi, any of those add back a great gut element for you. Another thing is eat the rainbow.

Why do we talk about the colors of vegetables?

Because by gamifying it and I say to my patients how many colors of you know vegetables can you eat in a week or in a day, however, you break it down. And did you know that red bell peppers have some of the highest levels of vitamin ‘C’ and that’s really good for you? So making that something that becomes a pillar of what they do you know prebiotics, the color of the rainbow and why and telling them the reason why this helps your gut bacteria. It reduces inflammation, it adds back antioxidants just simple pillars like and then, of course, I love to go into the spices and try to introduce them to more interesting flavors but also good brain benefits.

Magnesium – The importance of magnesium in our diet

I want to go into some of the micronutrients you’d mention at the top you’ve got magnesium, vitamin D which we haven’t talked about but I know that you have pretty extensive understanding of the importance of that. Talk to me about magnesium. What is its importance? Can we get it in diet? Do we need to supplement what is?

It turns out that magnesium people are very frequently deficient in magnesium and magnesium is associated with high levels of depression and high levels of anxiety. So one of the things I will do is if someone comes in with those symptoms I will check a magnesium level. But it’s an easy thing to replenish and if someone is super anxious it’s best to try out supplementing it while they also up their game in terms of their diet. If you find you’re deficient in magnesium or you’re feeling anxious it’s an easy thing to start to increase in your diet as well.

Salads – The dos and don’ts of building a healthy salad

In fact, there’s we have to close the loop on that salad thing. So salads are something that when I think of okay eat the rainbow. Amazing advice putting all this stuff together but then you can ruin it depending on what sauce you put on it or what are some of the things. So somebody that I know well will make a salad but then they’ll put like crushed like nacho chips in it and so they do things that is like you were doing good right until the end.

So a few things I’m laughing because it’s so true in this country like we think oh I’m gonna get a healthy lunch and then there’s all these toppings on them which are like tons of calories right there. And not calories in the good way I mean I’m not one I’m not a big one for counting calories. I think it’s much more about the whole food but that being said that’s an excellent point. We need to kind of take a step back from the ranch and figure out easier better healthier dressings to do so. I’ve even taught our medical students this is the way to make a vinaigrette. I have healthy fats an acid that you like salt pepper shake it in a mason jar because it’s going to save you money. It doesn’t have all that added sodium and preservatives that and stabilizes that as a salad dressing and sugar that salad dressings have.

Eat a diversity of greens

I start with a mixture of greens. I try to have people eat a diversity of greens because the folate has been there’s a particular bacteria that has actually been shown to be super helpful in terms of folate. So there’s a reason that I ask people to add more greens to their diet and I even like people to add things like herbs like parsley. It’s another green to your diet things that diversify the flavour make it interesting to your dandelion greens, cut up some bok choy into your salad. It’s not it doesn’t have to just be lettuce, spinach is a great option. And then the colours the cut I like to go for colours and texture. So colours are all the types of sweet and sweet peppers bell peppers are great for you and cucumbers super low-calorie vegetable great crunch good flavour all of these have vitamins.

So think about the nutrients and vitamins that you’re bringing back and I like radicchio different colour different texture different taste. I love arugula for that peppery bite and then nuts and seeds adding in chickpeas great source of plant-based protein and we’re talking. Quarter cup for the whole salad you can throw in black beans, you can throw in white beans, you can build it up even a simple thing if you don’t want to make a vinaigrette squeeze of lemon, salt, pepper and some lemon zest on the salad is delicious.

The other herb I love to add is basil. The more that you can kind of build a salad I had practised this one once and actually more than once at different patients but the one that I remember is how much it helped her diabetes and I’ll explain why she was eating. She was taking meals to work but she was taking relatively unhealthy meals that were not filling. It was impacting her blood sugar. Her Dexcom monitor kept going off. She was then reaching for unhealthy snacks at work. Her break room had peanut butter crackers or something and she’d grab that because she knew her blood sugar was lower. But by just by adding in a healthy wholesome salad she would actually. She’d call me up the next week and she said I’m so full every day at lunch that I’m feeling so much better.

Just from greens what I’m describing. It wasn’t anything and she might add a little bit of chicken, sometimes she added a small piece of salmon but she really was eating through those greens stabilizing her blood sugar feeling better. She lost weight, not within a week that took time but it. There’s a lot to be said for the filling ingredients which are fibre-rich which are bringing back those positive ingredients. So I kind of laughed to myself in some roles as if I say salad but I’m saying it for many other different reasons and for important reasons related to brain health.

Supplements – The supplements most people can benefit from

What made me rethink about the salad thing is just the notion of micronutrients and making sure that you’re getting sort of this wide array of things are there. Is there a basic suite of supplements or anything you recommend? My entire life I basically tried to avoid it. So D3 is sort of the only thing that I’ve ever consistently supplemented with. I have recently started doing magnesium in k2. But is there anything else is there a suite of things that you just know the average person isn’t getting enough of?

I think it depends on the symptom. I think magnesium many people are deficient in but again being a Doctor I’m gonna say have it level checked because that’s a scientific way of us knowing whether you’re deficient or not. I think D3 is a good safe thing to do because many of us are deficient specially depending on the part of their country. And I live in the northeast and I know many of us are deficient. And I think that with others relating to the mental health symptoms for example take saffron. So saffron has a significant number of evidence for improvement of depression. But it’s a very expensive spice. You use a tiny a few threads and say biryani or a risotto or paella. So it’s not necessarily going to convert to the type of dosing you need. That might be an appropriate place where we can get a supplement.

Source: Selected video transcript

Read How To Boost Immune System With Food And Healthy Living

Selected Quotes of Dr. Uma Naidoo – Key Foods For Incredible Mental Health

When a doctor says to you, “Here take this prescription,” as I have done as well, it’s disempowering to someone, you know. You’re being told you have to do this and you have this symptom and this is what will make you better. I think that nutrition and food flips that ratio and puts the person in the driver seat.

Dr. Uma Naidoo

Having those little things at the tips of the fingers is empowering; knowing that there are 200 names for sugar.

Dr. Uma Naidoo

What I find is that of the different diets, the mediterranean eating pattern has consistently shown the best results for depression and anxiety.

Dr. Uma Naidoo

Dr. Uma Naidoo, Harvard Nutritional Psychiatrist Shares the Key Foods for Incredible Mental Health

In this video, Tom Bilyeu discusses with the nutritional psychiatrist and author Dr. Uma Naidoo. They explore the connection between diet and mental behaviours, ways to lower anxiety through diet, the effect sweeteners have on the brain, what key foods to avoid for good mental health, the ketogenic diet, what steps can take for proper brain health, the dangerous and hidden ingredients in fast food, how to build a healthy proper salad, and what supplements everyone can benefit from taking.

Watch this video and listen to their talk about the key foods for incredible mental health.

Show Notes: – Key Foods For Incredible Mental Health

  • Mind & Body | Her journey to focusing on nutritional psychiatry. [0:46]
  • Anxiety | The connection between your diet and your mental health. [2:41]
  • Sweeteners | The effect of sweeteners on your mental health. [5:55]
  • Foods to Avoid | The foods to avoid for better mood and mental health. [9:09]
  • Panic | The connection between anxiety and being hypoglycemic.[12:16]
  • Keto | The ketogenic diet and its relation to improved anxiety. [13:35]
  • Brain Health | The ‘brain diet’ and the best foods for our brain. [15:06]
  • Alcohol | A healthy approach to consuming alcohol. [17:48]
  • Sodium | Take on sodium and its effect on our health. [20:34]
  • Fast Food | The hidden, yet dangerous, ingredients in fast food. [26:12]
  • Meat | The best practices for having animal protein in your diet. [30:23]
  • Mediterranean | Breaks down the Mediterranean diet and its benefits. [32:09]
  • Easy Steps | The ‘easy wins’ you can implement into your diet. [34:02]
  • Magnesium | The importance of magnesium in our diet. [36:15]
  • Salads | The dos and don’ts of building a healthy salad. [37:15]
  • Supplements | The supplements most people can benefit from. [41:33]
  • Connect | How you can follow her to learn more. [42:54]

Read Best Doctors You Must Always Keep With You

Final Thoughts

Hope that you got an idea about the key foods required for incredible mental health. Many people do not know good eating habits are important for good health. You can control many diseases with the help of controlling your diet. Eat only what is good and required for good health. If you use the wrong quality or quantity of oils, your vehicle will not run smoothly and the engine get damaged. If you use any wrong method in your garden, plants will not grow. So, you have to follow the food suitable for your physical and mental health. If you have any disease, always consult an expert and follow their advice. Avoid foods that can damage your health. Never ignore mental health. Follow the directions of your doctor and eat the key foods for mental health.

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