How you eat affects your mental health

In a recent podcast (episode #576), I talked about the relationship between what and how we eat and our mental health. This is a replay of a Neurolive webinar I did on my app. For the full webinar ad-free, please see Neurocycle.app.

We all know what we eat affects our ability to think and our mood. Thinking and eating are intricately connected; what and how we eat affects our mental health, and our mental health affects what and how we eat. Our mind and what we eat are so intertwined that what we are thinking about before, during and after eating can even affect the 75-100 trillion cells of our brain and body! Eating can be a highly emotional and cognitive event. 

This is why it is really important we focus not just on what we eat, but also HOW we eat. Why? Our gastrointestinal (GI) tract is very sensitive to our emotions since it is connected to the brain’s hypothalamus, which controls feelings of satiety and hunger AND deals with our emotional state of mind. Our large and small intestines are also lined with neurons, neuropeptides, and receptors (the “doorways” into cells), which are all rapidly exchanging information laden with emotional content. I am sure we have all experienced this—the gurgling emotional activity in our guts, colloquially known as being “sick to your stomach,” having a “gut feeling,” or having “butterflies in your stomach” when we feel emotional. Additionally, the pancreas releases at least twenty different emotion-laden peptides, which regulate the assimilation and storage of nutrients and carry information about satiety and hunger.

In fact, the gut microbiome - the world of bacteria living in our digestive system - doesn’t just exist to help us break down food. There is a constant conversation going on between the brain and gut, which also has its own amazing neurons, just like the spinal cord! This relationship is incredibly important when it comes to our mental health, which is both directly and indirectly affected by what and how we eat. Our mind and gut are so acutely interconnected that our emotions, like happiness, joy, and pleasure, as well as anger, anxiety, sadness, and bitterness, can trigger physical reactions in our digestive system and throughout the brain and body!

All of this means that our state of mind can have a major effect on our gastrointestinal health. If we eat when we are angry or upset, or we eat to to bury an unpleasant emotion, this will impact the way the brain and body digest and assimilate nutrients from our food. Eating when we are in a distressed emotional state, or not hungry, is like adding every spice and herb in the cupboard to the meal. All these seasonings will destroy the balance of flavors among the meal’s components. Emotion-driven food consumption adds a flood of chemical, emotional “seasonings” to our food; our digestive system, like our palate, will not know how to interpret such a conflicting range of signals.

This is especially the case when we are in a state of toxic stress. This keeps our “fight or flight” response activated, which inhibits gastrointestinal secretion and reduces blood flow to the gut, thereby decreasing metabolism and affecting our body’s ability to digest food. This state of mind also affects the heart and immune system function, which can make us feel pretty unwell and can further exacerbate our state of mind. 

In fact, toxic thinking and emotions, which lead to toxic stress, can affect the movement and contractions of the GI tract, cause inflammation, make us more susceptible to infection, decrease nutrient absorption and enzymatic output, upset the regenerative capacity of the gastrointestinal mucosa and mucosal blood flow, irritate intestinal microflora, cause our esophagus to go into spasms, give us indigestion and heartburn by increasing the acid in our stomach, make us feel nauseous, cause existing digestive issues such as stomach ulcers to worsen, and agitate our colon in a way that gives us diarrhea, constipation, and/or extreme bloating!

This is not to say that thinking good thoughts can excuse an unhealthy diet. As mentioned above, what we eat can also impact our mental state. The digestive system is a rich source of neurotransmitters, which carry signals inside the brain and body. In fact, it is estimated that 95 percent of the serotonin and half the dopamine in the body are produced in the gut. Considering these neurotransmitters are famous for their mood-calming and reward effects, learning and neuroplasticity, we should be paying a lot more attention to what we are eating, which can impact how they function, as well as our mindset is when we eat. A healthy gut promotes a calm, satisfied, and happy mind, and vice versa!

So, what can you do? Here are some easy, simple tips you can incorporate into your daily life to help you focus on eating well and improving your mental health: 

1. Eat meals together. Where possible, try to eat meals with your loved ones, which can be incredibly therapeutic. Regular family meals are associated with a decreased risk for addictive behavior and depression and higher self-esteem! Indeed, being around people who love and support you is one of the best ways to heal an unhealthy relationship with food.

1. Try to avoid eating when you are upset, angry, or very emotional. This is not always possible, as we need to eat to survive, and sometimes life can be incredibly challenging. However, try to, as much as possible, be aware of your state of mind before you reach for that snack, go shopping for food, order a meal online, or sit down to eat. This can really save you a lot of mental and gastrointestinal distress in the short and long term! 

1. Make mealtimes a happy affair. Have fun cooking and enjoying your meal! Be strict about conversations you have with loved ones or friends over meals. Keep the contentious stuff for another time, so that you don’t upset yourself or others.

1. Eat for you, not for others. Learn about your bio-individuality and what foods and ways of eating work best for you rather than just following wellness trends or fads.