“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

Hippocrates (Monti & Newberg, 2018)

Put that Cheeseburger Down!

There’s no way around it, folks. To have healthy brains, we need healthy guts. What we eat impacts our overall health and wellness. Don’t get me wrong. I love a double bacon burger with a side of cheesy fries as much as the next person. But the sad fact is, what most Americans eat (known as the Western diet—WD) adds to many of our health problems, including mental illness. The WD includes fried foods, sugars, red meat, refined grains, high-fat dairy products, processed and fast foods. Mouth-watering though many of these foods are, not only do they result in a huge number of physical health problems (obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc.), they also lead to high levels of inflammation in the body. For many, chronic inflammation results in negative, depressed moods and cognitive problems (Monti & Newberg, 2018). See the connection there? Unhealthy food choices à inflammationà mental health problems.

It all sounds pretty simple, right? But let’s take a look at it on a microscopic level…

The Gut Microbiome

The type of foods that we eat play a huge role in shaping our gut microbiome— the trillions of microbes living in our large intestines, affecting our immune systems, hearts, weight, and other aspects of health (Robertson, 2017). There are about 40 trillion bacterial cells in the body, while there are only 30 trillion human cells (Robertson, 2017). The gut microbiome contains over 1 million bacterial genes, outnumbering human genes by 150:1 (Monti & Newberg, 2018). Taking these numbers into account, it makes sense that how we feel largely depends on what’s going on inside of us, particularly within our guts.

The two largest microbe groups within the gut microbiome are Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes (Monti & Newberg, 2018). What we eat shifts the relationship between the two phyla, which, if we’re not careful, can result in health problems (Monti & Newberg, 2018). For example, when we have too many Firmicutes and too few Bacteroidetes, it may result in obesity (Monti & Newberg, 2018). It also could result in metabolic problems, which leads to type-2 diabetes mellitus and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. In terms of mental health problems, high Firmicutes/low Bacteroidetes leads to higher inflammation markers, which we know results in lower moods and cognitive problems (Monti & Newberg, 2018). See how it all connects?

All of this goes to show that, while it’s easy to take for granted that our guts “know what they’re doing,” in terms of processing what we put into them, we could really help them out by choosing nutritious options that result in healthier gut microbiomes. In the long run, better food choices will give us better overall health. So what healthy options are there that will make our guts say “thank you”?

Healthy Foods for a Healthy Body and Mind

As depressing though it sometimes feels to say no to chips and cookies, take heart. Not all healthy foods are boring foods. In fact, there are many body and brain-healthy options that don’t taste like “diet food” at all!

Let’s take a look at the Mediterranean diet. In the 1960s, researchers started noticing that there were far fewer heart-related deaths in Mediterranean countries, such as Greece and Italy, than in the U.S. and northern Europe (“Mediterranean diet: a heart-healthy eating plan,” 2019). They soon discovered that the longer lifespans directly related to the types of food people from these countries were eating. The Mediterranean diet is highly plant-based. It includes foods high in healthy fats, like monounsaturated fats (for example, olive oil) and omega-3 fatty acids (often found in fatty fish) (“Mediterranean diet: a heart-healthy eating plan,” 2019). Typical Mediterranean foods include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, poultry, beans, eggs, moderate portions of dairy products, red wine, and limited red meats (“Mediterranean diet: a heart-healthy eating plan,” 2019). The options are far from limited, but offer a sharp contrast to unhealthy WD foods high in saturated fats and sugars.

And what are the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet? In addition to numerous physical health benefits (reduced blood-clotting, reduced risk of stroke or heart failure, increased immune system), the Mediterranean diet is shown to decrease inflammation and depressive symptoms (“Mediterranean diet: a heart-healthy eating plan,” 2019). Really, no matter how you look at it, you can’t go wrong with the Mediterranean diet!

Our Food Choices Are in Relation to Our Mental Wellness

In Conclusion…

As the old saying goes, we are what we eat. While the connection between diet and physical health is more commonly understood, many underestimate just how important our food choices are in relation to our mental wellness. People struggling with mental illness who regularly eat WD foods might benefit from nutritional changes, perhaps something more in line with the Mediterranean diet (or really any diet that lowers sugar, increases fiber/whole grains, and replaces unhealthy fats with healthy ones). Healthier food choices help our guts to work the way they are supposed to, which in turn makes us feel better—physically, mentally and emotionally.

Courtesy: Gwendolyn Brown, M.S..

References

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