by Ruth Verbree
There’s so much hype and information today about how good nutrition plays a big role in our mental wellness, but how does food and mental health go together?
Let’s begin by defining mental wellness, or the term I prefer, mental fitness. We all know that in order to get physically fit, we need to put building blocks in place and put in the work. The same is true with mental fitness—we can exercise, practice, and put building blocks in place to get mentally fit. Mental fitness means having a positive sense of how we think, feel, and act, which helps us improve our ability to enjoy life. So, how does food help us enjoy life?
Science has proven that food has a big impact on our overall health—good and bad—depending on what foods we eat, and we have heard that certain foods are linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, anti-inflammatory disease, declining immune systems, etc. It should not be surprising that the foods we put into our bodies also have a huge impact on our mental health and wellbeing.
There is a lot of information and research about how a healthy diet rich in nutrients can improve our gut, skin, heart, mind, sleep, mood, and more—so we want to begin to think of good nourishment as a front line defense against disease. Another way to say this is:
Good, nutrient dense foods can be our source of preventative care versus an afterthought for crisis care.
Photo by Jannis Brandt
You have probably heard it said “we are what we eat,” but another person said it like this: “We are what we absorb!” If we aren’t absorbing the nutrients we put into our body, then they are being excreted rather than utilized and contributing to the repair and nourishment of our cells.
It’s time we get back to the basics with healthy, clean eating of foods that are beneficial to our bodies instead of consuming so much of the processed, junk foods that are harmful to our bodies.
The Bible is our blueprint for living—or our roadmap for life—so let’s first take a look at what the Bible has to say as our main source of truth before we look at other sources of research:
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV) says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
Let’s dive into what it means to treat our body like a temple, so that we can build the blocks for mental fitness.
When I think of the word temple, my imagination immediately takes me to a Bible story where Jesus, as a young boy, was teaching in the temple. The temple was a holy, reverent place that was used for worshiping God. A temple was a place that was respected, honored and revered.
So, taking this verse a bit deeper, it says that our bodies are temples and, therefore, we need to honor and respect our bodies. We need to take great care of our temple as we represent Jesus to those around us.
We would not want to destroy the temple that Jesus spoke in, nor do we want to destroy the temple that this verse is speaking about. In other words, we don’t want to feed our body anything that would destroy or harm it. When it comes to food, we need to give our body good, wholesome food that nourishes our temple rather than putting a bunch of processed junk food into it that would harm us or make us sick, physically or mentally.
When we read the labels and the ingredient lists of processed food we can see the list is full of chemicals, preservatives, food dyes, and added sugars. These ingredients are not beneficial to our bodies, and research shows that they are actually harmful to our bodies. Processed junk foods do not give us the proper nutrition needed to keep us living a balanced, healthy life.
New science also connects food with mood, anxiety, and depression. Oftentimes treatment of mental illness overlooks this critical factor, so we need to become individually aware and feed our temple good nutrition for the sake of our own mental wellness.
We know from research that nutrition is very important and is one of the best sources of defense against fighting off mental health issues. What we eat can have a big impact on our sleep habits, our levels of anxiety, and can alter our moods very quickly. It is up to each individual to take a good look into how they are treating their temple, both in food for the body and food for the mind. Let’s start to look at food as a building block of mental fitness and give ourselves the best chance at being the best we can be!
Research shows that approximately 1 out of 5 people suffer with mental health issues every given year. Since this is such a high number, we need to do everything possible to improve our mental fitness and work on the building blocks to prevent the decline of our mental wellness. Research shows that nutrition is a main building block and can help improve our mood, help with good sleep hygiene, and even help improve levels of anxiety and depression. Nutrition is one of the most important levers that we have in terms of preventative care today.
If you think about the mental health continuum on a line, with optimal wellness at one end of the line and complete dysfunction at the opposite end of the line, then we are all on the line somewhere. This line is fluid and we slide up and down this line often, depending on our circumstances and life events.
Science shows us that good nourishment in the form of dense nutrients can certainly augment treatment with someone struggling with mental health concerns, but isn’t it more prudent to place good nutrition as a front-line of defense or form of preventative care to stave off mental illness, rather than think of it as an after effect?
Research shows that when we eat a more traditional diet—getting back to basics with natural, whole foods, including more fruits and vegetables, legumes and fish, healthy oils and less processed foods—this helps to prevent depression, anxiety, and stabilize our moods. Getting back to basics with whole foods is actually common sense, and it sounds so simple, but it’s really rather difficult in our Western diet culture where we are bombarded with so much processed food.
One of the main questions we must ask ourselves is this: If nutrition plays such an important role in mental health and wellness, then what foods should we be consuming and which nutrients offer us the greatest benefit to mental fitness?
Photo by Brooke Lark
Dr. Drew Ramsey is a psychiatrist who speaks out about how nutrition and mental health are correlated. He first says that our Western diet is not helpful when it comes to good nutrients to adequately fuel our mental health. When speaking of the Western diet, he is talking about processed foods like pizza, burgers, baked goods, fried foods, bad oils (e.g. corn oil), and foods with high amounts of added sugars. Consuming these foods actually double your risk of depression. That’s a pretty scary risk and makes one sit up and take note!
Dr. Drew Ramsey also has a little rhyme that is so helpful in knowing what foods are beneficial and a short enough rhyme that we can all easily memorize it as a quick reference for when we’re in the grocery store or out for dinner. “Seafood, greens, nuts and beans, and a little dark chocolate.” (Dr. Drew Ramsey) That’s short enough to memorize, right? (Click here for a free PDF of Go, Slow, and Woah Foods.)
Dr. Ramsey says we need to start with what we can enjoy in this list of foods, as these are great for brain health. He says that eating a rainbow assortment of vegetables is important, fish oils are essential, and leafy greens are crucial—like kale, Brussel sprouts, and arugula. These foods are excellent sources nutrients that contribute to brain health.
And…who doesn’t like some dark chocolate to boost their mood and help their bodies get some added antioxidants?
Science shows our microbiome has trillions of bacteria, and the type of food we eat affects our gut. How we fuel or feed our gut also fuels our brain. Therefore, food needs to be viewed as building blocks for our mental health just like it is for our physical health. Feeding our body the right fuel is something we can build on everyday so that we can improve our ability to enjoy life!
Dr. Ramsey talks about a study done with 100 students all suffering from depression. They got a box of food that contained foods to help improve their mental health. It included healthy oils like olive oil, nuts, seafood and leafy greens—all brain food. Over a period of 3 weeks their stress levels, depression, and anxiety scores dropped by 30%. Changing their diet profoundly influenced their mental health. Isn’t this hopeful preventative care worth a trial in our own lives?
Call To Action: How can you implement “seafood, greens, nuts and beans, and a little dark chocolate” into your current eating habits? What do you need to add to your diet? What can you take away, or reduce? As you use the rhyme in your weekly food choices, start to notice how it affects your mood, energy, and levels of anxiety or depression. I’m willing to bet you’ll notice a difference!
Together, let’s strive to be the best we can be and find a joyful place with food as our frontline of defense against mental illness. It’s something we all can do—and we can start today! For more information on how food can be your medicine, click here.
