March is National Nutrition Month, so we are going to talk about your brain. Trust me, it will make total sense. Over the last few years, I have been involved in and facilitated many conversations about mental health. It’s gratifying to be part of a movement where people are beginning to be comfortable speaking up about their own struggles and others are eager to learn how to recognize and support someone working through challenges.

As people gain awareness and build a mental health toolkit, it gets filled with practices to reduce and manage stress. Mindfulness, breathing, journaling, and therapy, all have a positive impact on mental health. Creativity and physical activity are both magical for our minds. Recognizing and regulating emotions is a valuable life skill and once developed will enhance mental wellbeing. Laughter and high-quality social interactions are easy ways to get a dopamine hit—and who doesn’t like that!?

Noticeably absent from the discussion, however, is the topic of food. I find this fascinating, as we like to talk about food all the time—what we should eat, what we shouldn’t eat, what we are going to eat, what we just ate, etc. Rarely are we talking about it in the context of mental health.

And yet, we have some kind of feeling about nearly every food (and beverage) choice we do or don’t make. Those feelings generate beliefs, which ultimately drive our actions. And throughout the entire cycle, there are multiple impacts on our mental health.

So let’s talk about it.

Food is:

• a friend who soothes and comforts you
• entertainment when you are bored
• a delicious distraction when you don’t want to deal with a situation in front of you
• an element that helps you relive fond experiences
• something that brings joy as you connect with culture or celebration
• a reward for doing something hard
• something you can’t live without

Food also:

• is an enemy who prevents you from being your best self
• can be an obstacle to reaching your goals
• alters decision-making capabilities
• brings on feelings of guilt and shame
• is an anxiety-inducing element of social engagements
• leads to punishing thoughts and behaviors
• is something you can’t stop thinking about

We each have a unique relationship with food, and it’s usually rather complex. Exploring, acknowledging, and adjusting yours will likely lead to enhanced mental health. What to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, and how we feel about what we eat—all are important pieces of the dietary puzzle. Most of us have never been taught the basics, which makes the complicated pieces impossible to sort out.

So let’s go basic.  Eat real food.

If, in theory, you could go outside and find, it’s real food that a human body recognizes and understands how to process. These foods grow in the ground and hang off bushes and trees. You can find real food swimming in water and roaming in a pasture. Real food can take a little bit of effort to get into edible form, but it’s fairly simple to determine how it came to be what you are about to ingest.

What does real food have to do with your mental health?  Everything.

Whole foods (WF) offer the raw materials your body uses to create cells, organ tissue, muscles, bones, hormones, neurotransmitters, protective layers, micro-organisms—-and everything else an optimally functioning human needs. The alternative, what I call “food-like substances” (FLS), offer little to no quality resources and instead supply your body with a variety of components it doesn’t need and cause it harm. If overall consumption of FLS is greater than consumption of WF the result could lean toward a less than optimally functioning human, maybe even one with various health conditions.

For many years I have been pitching PFF is Your BFF® (Protein Fat Fiber is your Best Friend Forever), as well as guiding individuals toward an understanding of how to fuel a human body. It’s impossible in the scope of this article to outline all the details, so here are a few highlights.

1. Steady blood sugar. It’s the key to your health and happiness—and maybe the health and happiness of people around you. When blood sugar drops, you might get irritated, frustrated, or find it difficult to concentrate. None of which is great for mental wellbeing. There’s a good chance you’ll reach for some version of sugar—and then beat yourself up for eating that sugar. And then eat more sugar to feel better about feeling bad for eating sugar. You know how this goes!
2. Protein, or more specifically the amino acids we get from consuming foods that have protein, are used to create hormones and neurotransmitters. These are the chemical messengers responsible for operating your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
3. Fat is your friend! Despite what we’ve been fed for decades, fat is not the devil. In fact, it is a key contributor to health and happiness. I don’t know about you, but back in the day when I was afraid to eat fat, I was hungry and irritated all the time. Turns out that wasn’t just my experience as we now have plenty of research to indicate that low-fat diets can increase the likelihood of depression, irritability, and anger. Dietary fats directly affect brain processes via transmission of signals and when you recognize that 70% of brain matter is made up of fat, it’s no wonder that low intake can cause dysregulation. Of course, the type of dietary fats matter. Eat real food, with a variety of sources of fat to nourish your noggin with essential fatty acids. Avoid the ultra-processed ones that often include some type of brain and body-damaging trans fat.
4. Fiber is, among other things, food for your gut bacteria. Referred to as the “second brain” the microbiome in the gut consists of communication pathways with every system in the body. There are direct links to gut imbalances and mental health and mood disorders. Fiber comes from plants, so eat plenty of them and a wide variety to offer your gut critters options for their feasting.
5. Have you ever heard of BDNF? Brain-derived neurotrophic factor is a chemical produced in the brain that supports overall cognitive function and mental wellbeing. It’s so powerful, that many consider it a natural anti-depressant and low levels may contribute to the onset of depression and anxiety. The raw materials for BDNF production need to be introduced to the body—via food. They include a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and polyphenol compounds found in real foods. In addition, insulin resistance, often the result of a habit of highly processed food consumption, prohibits the brain from producing BDNF. Another reason to minimize FLS choices!

The message seems pretty clear—eat real food. Yes, the puzzle can be complicated, but I believe if you take time to learn the basics and gain an appreciation for the powerful impact various types of fuel have on mental health, the harder stuff will be easier to digest. Food can either heal you or hurt you. It’s determining the appropriate balance of choices, and having a positive attitude about ALL the choices that leads to a healthy attitude, not only about your food, but life in general.

To Your Wellbeing,

The MINES Team

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1) Breakfast – We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but let’s not forget that it is what we eat in the morning that really counts. Some quick and easy items are: cold cereal, low fat milk, juices, whole grain waffles, and fruit.

2) Group Physical Activities – Plan a few weekly events with friends, family, coworkers, fellow students, or neighbors. This could be a weekly walk around the neighborhood, weekend swimming time, a family bike, or a camping trip.

3) Move – If you’re moving you aren’t standing still. Find a way to spend 5-10 minutes of every hour getting up and doing something physical. This may include climbing the stairs, stretching, or walking around the block or office building.

4) Healthy Snacks – Snacking throughout the day doesn’t have to be unhealthy. Try eating carrots, broccoli or whatever your favorite raw vegetable is during the day. This will help boost your energy, keep you full, and will help you acquire the daily servings your body needs to maintain a healthy diet.

5) Work Out – There are ways to get a good workout without having to buy an expensive gym membership. Do some research on at-home workouts, check out your television service offerings, get online, or find books or videos at your local library. They are key to a good workout and working up a sweat. Overall, simply find a way to get your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes a day.

6) Vegetables and Grains – Try to eat more vegetables and grains. Whole wheat pasta or breads like pita can taste good and are good for you. These will give you complex carbs for energy, as well as fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

7) Balanced Diet – Too much of anything can be bad, right? Try to balance out your food choices over the day and week. Pick different snacking options and have breakfasts and dinners with health variety. This will allow you to get all the nutrients you need to stay healthy. Plus the variety will keep you going.

8) Have Fun – Try a new activity or sport. Participate with friends and family. Eating right and getting exercise doesn’t have to be a burden. If you have the right outlook it can be a joy. Making eating right a fun and balanced part of your life while setting realistic, short-term goals.

Ian Holtz,
Manager, Business Development

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Visit our Website Past Newsletters	What’s the Deal with Gluten? March 28, 2011
	This week’s introduction is written by Timothy Browning, a member of MINES HealthPsych Team.   Towards the end of her high school years, my sister started becoming very ill. She began to have trouble digesting food, her weight dropped to under a hundred pounds, and nobody in the medical community seemed to be able to diagnose the problem. She received a myriad of possible explanations including Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, lactose intolerance, and one doctor even suggested a tapeworm. Unable to digest food, she spent months living off of fruit juice and vitamin supplements. Several of her teachers had approached her guidance counselor worried that she had become anorexic. After about 6 months, she slowly began eating solid food, but the problems persisted. The food would cause her body to become swollen, and she experienced gastrointestinal problems every time she ate. Eventually, after 5 years of constant pain and countless medical visits, she started to believe through her own research that she may have Celiac Disease (CD). Celiac Disease is an autoimmune condition that causes damage to the small intestine and prevents the proper absorption of foods. The biggest enemy to those affected by CD is gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center states, “The average length of time it takes for a symptomatic person to be diagnosed with celiac disease in the US is four years; this type of delay dramatically increases an individual’s risk of developing autoimmune disorders, neurological problems, osteoporosis, and even cancer.” This may have been the case for my sister, as the ailment may have contributed to her intolerance to casein. Casein, like gluten, is a protein, which is found in nearly all dairy products. Even when gluten-free food options became more commonplace, just because something was gluten-free didn’t automatically make it safe for her to eat. I was recently treated by my friends to a birthday dinner at one of my favorite places, a steakhouse. While everyone else was enjoying salmon, shrimp and steak, unfortunately my celiac disease-affected sister ate, essentially, a packed lunch. I remember many years ago after she was first diagnosed, she would spend 4 to 5 times the amount of money for a product that the average person would, only to throw away the whole thing after a few bites because the taste was atrocious. There were times when she would be in tears because she was so frustrated with the lack of availability of food that she could eat without going to the hospital. A 10-minute shopping trip for most people could take at least an hour, as the labels had to be scoured for a long list of obscure, sometimes unpronounceable ingredients that could be life-threatening. Sometimes I would try to pick something up for her at a grocery store, and received strange quizzical looks from people as I’m squinting at the label, product in one hand, cell phone in the other, stumbling my way through ingredients like hydroxypropyltrimonium or stearyldimoniumhydroxypropyl. Eventually, she created an index card that I could use to cross reference ingredients to make sure I was purchasing a celiac-friendly product. It has been wonderful to see the infusion of gluten-free products in grocery stores in the last five years. While there were gluten-free products like soy sauce, pasta sauce, and pre-packaged items like pizzas in the past, there was still a void of items to create meals with. Without gluten-free pasta to go with the sauce, the array of possible dishes was severely limited. Gradually, the array of substitute products, combined with plenty of crash-and-burn kitchen experiments, have allowed my sister to replicate just about any item, without losing the original flavor and character of the particular dish. She has invented her own recipes for alfredo sauce, macaroni and cheese, “breaded” chicken strips, and even hosted a complete gluten-free (and casein-free!) thanksgiving meal with all the usual staples of the holiday. Had it not been for my sister, I would probably be clueless about Celiac Disease. I would probably have written off the gluten-free revolution as just another diet fad that was sure to pass, never knowing how much someone affected with CD would have to alter their life. I would like to help expand the knowledge and understanding of the disease, in hopes that the accessibility and convenience of food that most of us take for granted will continue to increase for those affected by Celiac Disease. People who want to read more about my sister’s experiences and view some of her recipes can do so at http://www.gfreeconsulting.com.
	Read more on this topic here…
	Britney Kirsch Account Manager

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