The Relationship of Food and Mood
Nutritional Psychology is not about prescribing diets. It is to educate and empower you to use nutrition to improve your cognition, mood, and mental health.
Nutrition is fundamental to brain function and mood. What we eat directly affects how we feel.
- Nutritional Psychology is incorporated into treatment to augment the effectiveness of therapy.
- Learn how you can use food to improve your mood, stress, and mental health.
Our brain is always working, even when we are sleeping. It regulates our heartbeat, breathing, and all our senses. The brain is the hungriest organ in our body consuming 20% – 40% of the calories we eat. Every minute one quart of blood passes through our brains nourishing it with oxygen and nutrients. Without adequate minerals and vitamins our brains cannot function properly.
Think of the food you eat as fuel to run your engine, the brain. Low quality foods will result in poor performance. Our brains can also sustain damage (inflammation and oxidative stress) when we eat foods that are unhealthy.
Your Gut – The Second Brain.
Microbes in our gut produce neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. 90% of your serotonin receptors are located in the gut. What we eat directly affects the production and absorption of these essential mood regulating neurotransmitters.
Diet can help improve your:
- Mood
- Energy
- Cognitive Functioning
- Focus
- Resilience against stress
Studies show that diet is an effective and essential tool for improving mental health, and when used in conjunction with conventional treatment methods it can greatly improve the effectiveness of the treatment.
Diet alone cannot address all aspects of mental health, but it is a critical component in our physical and mental functioning. Nourishing our brains creates the foundation upon which conventional treatments are applied.
The difference between Nutritional Psychology and a Dietician or Nutritionist
Nutritional Psychology is not about prescribing diets. As a counsellor my focus is on behavioural change. My goal is to work with you to help you find a positive connection with food that will nourish your brain and optimize how you feel. It is about improving your understanding of how food affects your mood, cognition, and resilience and supporting you in applying changes to your diet and eating behaviours that support your mental health.