eating, food, nutrition… and mental health

This conversation will not be completed in one solitary blog post. This conversation will not be completed in one solitary year. It is ongoing, evolving, as we learn and acknowledge more about all the different factors that influence, bidirectionally in fact, the relationship between what we consume and how we feel. One of the things that drew me to nutrition in the first place was the potential for food to influence and support mental health. Working for so long in a field that challenges that for me on a daily basis, knowing that mental illness runs in my (and many) families, acknowledging that mental health is a pain point for so many people across this fraught country probably should have drawn me to this niche a lot sooner, but we can’t all hit a hole in one the first time, can we.

If it were as simple as saying “just eat watermelon every day and you’ll never be depressed again,” we would have solved this a long time ago. It is not that simple. Daily stressors, obstacles unique to an individual’s life, access, and availability all factor in to the relationship between food/eating and mental health for each individual person. For some of us (me), it is also a feedback loop of sorts—when my mental health isn’t good, my relationship with food isn’t good, I might forget to eat, I might not want to eat, I might fall back into restricting, I might eat things that aren’t balanced or healthy. If I’m not eating for my brain, then I’m fucking with that balance, but how can I do anything about it if my self won’t let me. Does that make sense?

So I’ve started looking into the relationship between food and mental health, and I’ve started from the most basic of questions (in my mind), how can food help. Turns out a lot of different nutrients are necessary for different neurotransmitters, and correlations are beginning to surface about deficiencies and patterns of mental health. No, this does not establish causation, and no, it does not mean that you can fix your depression by eating…watermelon or whatever. BUT. It does indicate that paying closer attention to what you add in to your diet (not remove, mind you) may help support the other things you are pursuing for balancing your mental health (like meds, therapy, stress management practices, etc).

So here I go, this is what I’m going to be working on a lot.

I’m also super stoked on cortisol, since tiktok thinks “cortisol face” is a thing and I think it’s really just the new “adrenal fatigue,” both of which are super not fucking real. Anyway, I digress. Cheers motherfuckers.