Mental Nutrition: Foods for Mental Health

This guide explains how food and nutrition can significantly affect your mental and emotional health

Several nutritional factors can influence mental health, these including – overall energy intake, intake of the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats), alcohol intake, and intake of vitamins and minerals. Brain function can change in the absence of a single nutrient or multiple nutrients.

Given below are some examples of how does foods affect moods:

• Fluctuations in blood sugar levels
• What we eat affect our brain function as brain chemicals get affected by them.
• Deficiency of an enzyme that is needed to digest a food.
• Low level of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids can affect mental health.
• Pollution and the toxins from the environment often affect the proper functioning of our brain and our body as well.
• Artificial colours and flavours are not very healthy for our health. These things have bad affects on mental health.

You know that fast foods have extremely high amounts of calories, carbohydrates, fats and sodium. These foods lack the nutrients that we need for our body. So if you’re consuming fast foods on a regular basis then your body is not getting the nutrients it needs. On the contrary you are feeding your body with lots of unhealthy substances which contain high amount of calories. This contributes to food cravings as your body remains hungry for the nutrients it needs. Foods with high amount of carbohydrates are harmful for the brain health.

Nutrition and Mental Health

• Folic Acid is very important for our health. In the absence of proper amount of folic acid in the body can cause fatigue, insomnia, irritability, mood swings, and loss of appetite. Anyone who is experiencing any of these, make sure you have enough folic acid in your diet. Spinach, turnip, beans and peas are very good source of folic acid. For more information on folic acid you can click here.

• Iron- this is the most common nutrient deficiency. Well, there are so many foods rich in iron still we often don’t get the right foods. Iron deficiency can lead to anaemia, fatigue, and lack of energy. For instance if you are feeling lethargic that means you don’t have enough iron in your bloodstream so that your body can function properly. All the dark leafy green veggies especially spinach, whole grains, whole grain products peas, beans are excellent source of iron. You can check about the foods rich with iron right here.

• Omega 3 Fatty acids are essential for our body to perform in a right way. Omega-3 fatty acids are supposed to have a range of health benefits such as lowering cholesterol, prevent heart and joint disease and improving learning.  Oily fish such as cod, salmon and mackerel, tuna, plant sources such as flaxseed and walnuts are great sources of omega 3 fatty acids. A study showed that omega 3 fatty acids are good for brain health and improve the function our brains.

• B Vitamins are extremely important for health and a must for your diet. Too much stress or chronic stress, excessive consumption of alcohol can contribute to reduction of B Vitamins in our body. Lack of B Vitamins can cause fatigue, irritability, restlessness, insomnia, and apathy. Excessive drinking of alcohol causes the deficiency of Thiamin (a B Vitamin). Thiamin can be found in grain products, legumes, nuts, seeds, and organ meats. Any foods of animal origin like milk, meat, or eggs are very good source of Vitamin B 12.

Manganese, copper, zinc selenium – all these minerals are essential for our physical and mental health. Manganese plays an important part in proper brain functioning whole grains and nuts are good sources of manganese.

Deficiency of copper can cause anaemia and also impairs brain functioning and immune system response. Organ meats, seafood, nuts, seeds, whole grain breads and cereals are richest sources of copper.

Zinc can be found in liver, eggs, dairy products, vegetables, seafoods and in red meat. Lack of zinc in our body can cause neurological impairment. Also, zinc deficiency leads to apathy, irritability, jitteriness, and fatigue.

Selenium is needed for the synthesis of some hormones and helps protect cell membranes from damage. Seafood, liver, eggs, grains and seeds- all these are good sources of selenium.

• Lack of protein also contributes to low mood. Proteins are made up of amino acids and our body needs protein contains that have essential amino acids. High quality protein can be found in milk and milk products, eggs, meat, grains, nuts and seeds. Lack of right amount of protein in the body affects brain functioning and mood levels.

It is important to have a nutritional diet for mental and physical health and foods described above are certainly going to change your life for better- only you have to add them in your regular diet.

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