Thank you to those of you who applied to be a practice client as I begin the clinical application portion of my schooling to become a Nutritional Therapy Practioner.  I’m excited to work with these amazing clients.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month so let's dive in to how we can optimize our brain health.  Food changes brain chemistry for better and for worse.

There are 1 billion people in the world today suffering from mental health disorders:

• Addiction
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Attention issues
• Mood swings
• Brain fog

Our modern diet is damaging to our health.  Refined carbohydrates and refined fats are detrimental to the brain.  

These are what we call ultra-processed foods:

• Vegetable oils:
• Soybean, safflower, and corn oil - these aren’t found in whole foods.  These vegetable oils use solvents to be manufactured.  
• Refined carbohydrates: 
• Refined flours - crackers, chips, cereal, granola, bread, bagels, muffins, cookies, pasta
• Sugar - hides in everything: beverages, dressings, yogurt, smoothies, snack bars
• Fruit juices

The conversation for the past 75 years has been about chemical imbalances in the brain.  We’re now learning that inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance are the root causes of mental health disorders.

Over the past 100 years, we’ve included more and more of these ultra-processed foods in our diets.

When the body is overwhelmed by too much glucose the body raises insulin levels in response.  High glucose levels are toxic to every cell in the body.  High insulin levels over time rob your brain of energy.

The brain commands 20% of the body’s energy supply.  It’s an electrical organ.  The brain requires stable, smooth, high-quality energy 24/7.

Poor metabolic health from eating highly refined carbohydrates means you will not have optimal mental health. If the brain lacks the proper material to function over time your brain chemistry will be unstable.

Excess sugar in your brain sticks to all the important molecules and structures in your brain.  This turns into advanced glycation end products (AGES).  These prematurely age the brain and the cells don’t communicate well.  This causes inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain.

Eating refined carbohydrates all day long creates chronic and uncontrolled inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain, destabilizing neurotransmitter activity and creating chemical imbalances.

Psychiatrist Georgia Ede uses nutritional psychiatry to help patients.  She shared about a 70-year-old woman who struggled for 40 years with bipolar disorder with manic episodes that would hospitalize her for months at a time.  Through nutrition changes, she’s been able to come off of medications and her paranoid episodes have subsided.

Here are ways to support your brain health:

• Eat real whole foods
• Prioritize animal protein
• Healthy fats - avocados, nuts, seeds, ghee, butter
• Whole food carbohydrates: vegetables and fruit

Metabolic issues require both nutrition and exercise.  Muscles soak up glucose like a sponge.  Being sedentary requires insulin to do all the heavy lifting.

I hope this inspires you to nourish, protect, and energize your brain through eating whole real food.