Mental health professionals are now beginning to look at the foods a patient eats, to determine if a change could help improve their mental and emotional health.
INDIANAPOLIS — With the state of the world, mental health and discussion of self-care are a trending topic.
Many experts mention therapy and exercise, but experts also say there should be more discussion about how the food we put in our bodies actually affects our minds.
Nutritional psychiatry is a term you may or may not have heard before. Mental health professionals are now beginning to look at the foods a patient eats, to determine if a change could help improve their mental and emotional health.
“Nutritional psychiatry—more psychiatrists are really looking at what people eat—so it’s not just about how we handle situations or our social systems, or what medication is needed—it’s also about what someone eats on a day-to-day basis. to see how that might be affecting their mental health,” said registered dietitian Karman Meyer.
Eating healthy foods isn’t a new recommendation from doctors, but truly understanding how good and bad foods can affect your mind and mood is a more recent discussion.
“How we eat those foods is important. Eating a well-balanced diet, including foods from all the different food groups, focusing on more whole, unprocessed, and less refined foods, and eating routinely,” according to registered dietitian Garrett Swisher of Community Health Network.
If you’re looking to improve your diet and your mental health, dieticians say you need to approach the diet as a whole. Don’t go long without eating. Eat whole fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy products, and lean protein.
“The brain and the gut are obviously interconnected. Foods that make us feel bad will make us miserable, and they won’t be fun to be around,” Swisher explained.
It is also recommended to be aware of your alcohol consumption. Although a little red wine in the diet has benefits, alcohol can have a negative chemical reaction in the body. Basically, that could affect your hormones, which we know are directly related to your mood and energy levels.
Dieticians and mental health experts also focus on your sleep patterns.
“Sleep can be critical when it comes to mental health. So yeah, it comes up quite often,” Meyer said. “As we go through discussions of those chronic diseases, sleep and stress management is part of the conversation because they’re so critical. So if we can address some of the sleep issues, including mental health and mood, that may lead to better eating patterns.”
