Written by: Tracy Renee Stafford, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The gut is often called the second brain. Outfitted with its own, independent nervous system, the gut actually communicates with the brain in a more egalitarian, rather than hierarchical, manner. We have known for some time how suffering from mental stress can lead to everything from making unhealthy food choices to the onset of stomach ulcers & other digestive issues. However, we now also know that poor diet & eating habits can be a contributing factor to everything from anxiety & depression all the way to cognitive decline & even dementia. With more than 1 in 4 Americans suffering from a mental health disorder, it’s worth investigating the role that our food choices can play in improving our mental health.
To better understand the effect of our eating habits on our mental health, it’s helpful to understand more about our gut.
The Gut Microbiome & the Hormones of Happiness
While the gastrointestinal tract (aka, the gut) includes the whole length of the digestive tube from the mouth to anus, more commonly, the term refers to our intestinal tract, where the increasingly famous ‘gut microbiota’ lives. We have approximately 37 trillion human cells throughout our whole body, but we have more than 100 trillion bacteria cells in our digestive tract alone, with an average of 500 different species. The ‘good’ bacteria are responsible for breaking down our food, regulating our immune system (it is said that up to 70% of our immune system is actually developed in the gut), fighting off the ‘bad’ bacteria, and for producing some of our essential nutrients, such as some of the B complex vitamins, & vitamin K.
These ‘friendly’ bacteria are also responsible for up to 90% of the production of our serotonin, the hormone that regulates feelings of happiness & well-being, and for up to 50% of our dopamine production, the hormone of pleasure, motivation, drive, focus, & memory. Maintaining a healthy microbiota is increasingly being recognized as a key factor in maintaining good mental health.
Leaky Gut = leaky brain
Our intestinal walls, only 1 cell thick, are responsible for regulating what nutrients can pass into the bloodstream. When this wall is damaged, we develop ‘high intestinal permeability,’ aka Leaky Gut. In this scenario, larger, undigested particles of food and other toxins can enter the bloodstream, leading to a host of inflammatory responses, including auto-immune disorders & food sensitivities. Leaky Gut has also been linked to mental health issues, such as brain fog, poor memory & concentration, extreme mood swings, anxiety, and depression.
What causes a leaky gut? There are several culprits: an overgrowth of ‘bad’ bacteria, yeast, or fungus in our intestines, the overuse of antibiotics & environmental toxins, stress, and poor diet.
Luckily, the solutions to keeping our gut microbiota and intestinal walls healthy - and by default improving our mental health - are the same!
Eat real food
As the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan, has famously said, we need only to eat food that our grandparents would recognize as food. We have become reliant on the convenience and unreal taste of processed food. The ability to chemically engineer food to taste better with the magical triad of salt, sugar, & fat means that more than 1/3 of the average American's sugar intake is from highly processed high fructose corn syrup, more than half of their fat intake is from highly processed cooking oils, and salt consumption is more than twice the recommended amount. Sugar, salt & ‘bad’ fat, along with the artificial flavors, preservatives, & other added chemicals that make processed food taste more exciting, are all toxic for the gut.
Our taste buds need to be reconditioned to appreciate the natural sweetness of fruit, to savor the healthy, natural fat found in nuts, seeds, avocados, & fish, and to enjoy the wide variety of herbs & spices that are packed with gut-friendly micronutrients.
Our minds also need to be reconditioned to trust that real food is always better than processed food. It’s easy to be tempted by a label of ‘low calorie, low fat, or whole grain’ and forget that real food doesn’t need a label. Even if real food has more calories than its ‘fake food’ counterpart, our body can better assimilate it, leading to better outcomes for both our physical and our mental health.
Eating a wide variety of real foods also ensures that we get a healthy amount of prebiotics, aka the food for our ‘good’ bacteria. Prebiotics are found in many fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts & seeds. A nice number of different, real foods to aim to eat in a week is 30. When our ‘good’ bacteria are well-fed, our mental health also gets a major boost.
Reduce Sugar
Refined sugar, found in pastries, ice cream, & candy, enters our bloodstream very quickly, leading to a spike in our blood glucose & insulin levels. While this does cause a short-term release of dopamine (part of the so-called ‘sugar high’), long-term refined sugar consumption leads to desensitisation, meaning that we need more sugar to trigger the release of increasingly less dopamine. Because it is hidden in so many processed foods, sugar addiction is extremely common in those who eat the standard western diet.
High blood sugar levels are also linked with higher levels of cortisol - the main hormone of stress. High cortisol levels have been linked to both anxiety & depression.
What’s more, sugar is the favorite food of the ‘bad’ bacteria and the harmful yeast & fungus that can live in our gut. High sugar consumption means more of these unhealthy critters and less happiness-inducing dopamine & serotonin.
It is worth noting that the natural sugars found in real food, such as fruit, are metabolized very differently in our system because they are accompanied by fiber.
Eat more fiber
The healthy bacteria in our gut love fiber.
Our blood sugar levels don’t spike as much when sugar comes with fiber (as in fruit), meaning our cortisol and dopamine levels are more stable.
If you are eating a real food diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, pulses & legumes, along with clean sources of protein - you are likely getting enough fiber.
A fiber-rich diet contributes to greater stability in our moods, mental state, motivation, & focus.
Eat healthy fats
Unrefined, low-processed, ‘extra-virgin’ oils (such as olive oil), as well as nuts, seeds, avocados, & fatty fish (and their oils) are very good sources of omega 3 fatty acid, which has been linked not only to improved heart health but also to improved brain health. High omega 3 diets have actually been linked to a bigger-sized brain, as well as to reduced cognitive decline, improved memory, and lower rates of depression.
Include fermented food in your diet
Fermented food is packed with probiotics, aka the ‘good’ bacteria. More good bacteria in our gut means more dopamine and serotonin production and better gut health in general. Discover what fermented foods are easy to fit into your diet. Maybe you like a little sauerkraut, kimchi, or fermented, pickled veggies on the side of your plate. Maybe it’s easier to fit in yogurt, sourdough bread, or kombucha. Personally, I love the rich, earthy flavor of miso (made from fermented soybeans) and use it often as a broth for all kinds of soup.
Reduce Stress
Stress affects our mental and physical health in many ways, but one significant way is that when we are stressed, there is a reduction in our stomach acid levels. Ulcers are actually not caused by an increase in acid but rather by the stomach acid levels rising and lowering frequently due to our body’s stress response. This causes our food not to get broken down properly, leading to a leaky gut.
While we are not in total control of all the external factors that affect our lives, we can control our response to them. Meditation, exercise, and time in nature and with dear ones have all been shown to help lower our reactivity and increase our resilience so that we can better manage the inevitable ups & downs of life. Reduced stress supports our digestion, which in turn supports better mental health.
Mindful Eating
Eating slowly, at regular intervals, without a screen in front of us, and in the company of friends or family all improve how we digest our food. What’s more, up to 30% of the digestion process actually happens before we even open our mouths! This ‘cephalic phase’ occurs when we prepare, think about, smell, or see food, all of which triggers the digestive juices in our mouths & stomachs to start flowing. Eating quickly, especially while distracted or stressed, impairs this important phase of digestion. With everything that has been said here about the influence our digestion has on our mental health, we can perhaps better understand the key role that mindful eating can also play.
Slow and steady change wins the race
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Improving our food & eating habits is an important part of our mental health self-care. That said, any changes we make to our diet are best done with patience, consistency, and heaps of self-compassion. If your body is used to a diet of processed, sugary food, I encourage you to make 1 small change at a time and to stick with it for longer than you think necessary before making any additional changes. As I have been saying, our food affects our hormones, moods, energy levels, and our concentration & decision-making ability. Even improvements to our diet need to be made slowly and steadily for the body to acclimatize to the changes in body chemistry and blood sugar levels.
Track how you feel. Keep a food & mood journal. Remember that these are general guidelines only and that each person is unique (as is their gut). Stay connected with your preferred healthcare practitioner as you work towards improving your diet and connecting more deeply with your body. As you do so, congratulate yourself for investing not only in your physical well-being but also in your mental well-being.
If you are interested in more tools to manage stress, build self-compassion, & increase body connection, click here to receive the 5 Day Introduction to Fully Embodied Living. Each day includes guided stretching, breath practice, meditation, & guidance on mindful eating.
Tracy Renee Stafford, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Tracy Renee Stafford is a coach in Fully Embodied Fitness — a weave of yoga, pilates, dance, & functional exercise — and in Fully Embodied Living based on 4 Pillars of Well-Being: Connection to Body, Nourishment, Presence & Growth. Her mission is to help people discover how they can make self-care a celebration, rather than an obligation, & enjoy the body for how it feels, rather than just for how it performs or looks. She ran her own studio in the Canadian Prairies heartland for 20 very rewarding years — where she taught various forms of fitness, with a specific interest in injury prevention & rehabilitation and empowering students with information on HOW the body works best. She is a Mindful Movement, Holistic Living & Nutrition Coach, weaving together all of her expertise into her Fully Embodied Living Programs. She currently lives in Buenos Aires and keeps her passion for dance alive by studying Argentine Tango.
