The human mind is a complex organ that can be affected by virtually anything. A person’s diet, sleep patterns, toxic exposure, exercise, and more all play a vital role in our mental health. Some things people cannot control when it comes to mental health. Some of these uncontrollable are genetic links, the aging process, and our sex. Other things such as weight, exercise, the amount we sleep, and our diet, can be regulated by the individual in order to positively or negatively affect our mental health. The factor that we are going to focus on is diet and what effect it has on a person’s mental health.
Good mental health is more than just living a stress free life. It encompasses things like depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and pretty much anything else that can be linked to a person’s brain. Scientists have started to look into the role of nutrition in relation to mental health. Researchers at the World Health Institute claim that mental health issues are becoming the number one problem of the 21st century. So, why the sudden increase in mental illness?
If you go with the correlation between mental illness and the human diet, then you need to look at a cross section of the human diet across time. The makeup of our diet today is much different than it was 50 or 100 years ago. Humans, consume more calories today than they ever did in the past. For evidence to this, all you need to do is look at the statistics on obesity compiled by the United States government.
The Centers for Disease Control has compiled data over the last 20 years and just by looking at the color coded maps you can see the prevalence of obesity across the country. Other than just consuming more calories, the actual makeup of our diet is quite different than it was in the past. The American diet today consists of many refined, over processed foods, artificial sweeteners, saturated and trans fats, and even unhealthy chemicals and hormones. Americans of the past consumed more whole foods that were not polluted with unhealthy toxins to harm them.
Mental Illnesses Associated with a Poor Diet
According to The Diet Channel, “Depression, anxiety, attention deficient disorder, compulsive disorders, and other disorders of mood are affected by the health of your nervous system” (Source: Wendy Hodsdon). Depression is one such mental disorder that is starting to plague the country. Because the prevalence of depression has increased over the past decades, scientists have started to conduct extensive research on the correlation between a person’s diet and their depression. While many agree that depression cannot be completely cured, they do believe that it can managed with a well balanced diet and exercise. Dr. Andrew McCulloch of the Mental Health Foundation believes that a diet rich in essential fatty acids as well as micronutrients such as folate, zinc, vitamin B1, B2, and C can be helpful.
Steps that You Can Take
The steps that you can take with your diet and lifestyle in order to maintain good mental health are quite simple. They don’t require that you go out any buy fancy meals or give up all of the things you love to eat or drink. Making these small lifestyle changes can be done all at once or can be eased into gradually.
– Consume a well balanced diet of whole foods. This means that when you prepare your meals you should look to incorporate plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables that have not been altered drastically from their original state. Eat whole or multi grains not ones that have been enriched or fortified with the nutrients you need. Avoid processed or refined foods that are found in frozen meals and baked goods.
– Make sure that you are getting enough quality protein in your diet. This means that you should make sure to incorporate protein from more sources than just animal products. Animal products are good sources; however they are higher in saturated fat and cholesterol. Sources such as liquid protein are excellent for getting your daily requirements of quality protein. Liquid protein, such as Profect, contains 25 grams of Actinase, an all natural protein.
– Make sure to consume essential fatty acids each day. Essential fatty acids, such as OMEGA-3s are important for proper brain function as they help to protect the lining of your nerves. Essential fatty acids can be found in fish, nuts, flax, and grass fed animals.
– Limit or eliminate caffeine from your diet. Caffeine is a substance that is very plentiful and widely consumed across the country and the globe. It is a stimulant found in some of the most popular beverages consumed on a daily basis– soda, tea, coffee, cappuccino, etc. Studies displayed on the Caffeine Web suggest that some symptoms that appear to be mental illness related are actually a result of being caffeine-intoxicated. They go on to suggest that upon removing caffeine from the diet people will start to see a decrease in these symptoms and return to normal (Source: www.thecaffeineweb.com).
– Limit your alcohol consumption. Alcohol is a depressant that impairs brain function, disturbs your sleep patterns, and has an overall negative effect on your bodily functions.
As you can see, your diet plays a huge part in your mental health. What you add or restrict from your diet can affect potential mental illnesses you might get, plays a big part in any that you may be currently dealing with, and over all affects of your mood, well being, and outlook on life.
For Americans to slow down the progression of our mental illness epidemic, we need to educate the population on the importance of nutrition and how a balanced diet containing essential nutrients such as protein will promote good mental health. This topic is something that we can take charge of and control, but the only way that it is going to happen is if people take an active role in their own lives and make the lifestyle changes necessary for a healthy well being.
Protica Research (Protica, Inc.) specializes in the development of Capsulized Foods. Protica manufactures Profect, IsoMetric, Pediagro, Fruitasia and over 100 other brands, including Medicare-approved, whey protein shots for bariatric patients. You can learn more at Protica Research – Copyright