In this episode, Sam links cravings and unhealthy eating habits to her worsening anxiety when she stumbles upon old research from episode #21: Gut Health 101. Turns out, the connection between your diet and your mental health runs wayyy deeper than just blood sugar spikes and crashes. So she explores the role of your microbiome, your vagus nerve, glutamate, GABA, and more to uncover the truth about food, anxiety, and depresion.

Listen to this episode if you've been eating like crap lately!

Key moments:

08:19 The truth about burnout

13:20 The gut-brain axis, explained

13:38 What is your enteric nervous system (ENS)?

16:12 How the gut-brain axis affects your emotional state

16:20 Which neurotransmitters are produced in your gut?

17:41 How the bacteria in your gut can cause depression, stress, and anxiety

18:25 The link between IBS and clinical depression

19:52 The vagus nerve’s role in the gut-brain axis

20:19 What does the vagus nerve actually do in your body?

23:44 WTF is glutamate, and what does it have to do with your mental health?

24:38 What does glutamate do?

26:48 Foods that have high glutamate

27:43 WTF is GABA?

29:10 How does our diet affect glutamate/GABA balance?

31:35 The vicious cycle of unhealthy eating, glutamate and GABA production, and mood disorders (spoiler: they all feed each other)

33:16 Other ways your diet causes depression or anxiety

36:15 The impact of alcohol on glutamate and GABA production

38:54 How to change your diet to improve your mental health

39:28 What is vagal tone and how do you improve it?

39:52 Symptoms of poor vagal tone

40:10 5 things you can do RIGHT NOW to improve the health of your vagus nerve

42:36 Foods and eating techniques to beat anxiety and depression

44:00 HOW to eat (not just WHAT to eat)

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Resources for this episode can be found here.

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