Almost 30

564. This Is Your Brain on Food: Connecting Mental Health & Nutrition with Dr. Uma Naidoo

11.29.2022 - By Krista Williams & Lindsey SimcikPlay

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Our guest today is the brilliant Uma Naidoo, MD, a Harvard board-certified psychiatrist, professional chef, author, and nutrition specialist. Dr. Uma's book is called This is Your Brain on Food. It's a full guide to the surprising foods that fight things like depression, PTSD, ADHD, anxiety, OCD, and more. 

We go super cutting edge in this one as we talk about the undeniable relationship between our mental health and diet/nutrition.

We start with her own health journey and integrated practice before getting honest with a few familiar faces in our cupboards at home – coffee, alcohol, sugar, seed oils, etc. – myth busting and truth telling on what’s good, and what isn’t, for our mental wellbeing.

We all know the difference between feeling good after eating good, and feeling bad after eating poorly. Listen in to get the science on why that happens, and how we can design our diets (not restrict them) to unlock our best selves. 

We also talk about:

Relatively new field of nutritional psychiatry 

A lesson from a patient 

Uma’s cancer diagnosis and treatment

Precision-based integrated nutrition 

Connection between mental health and food

Toxicity of a leaky gut (and fixing it)

The brain chemistry of stress and sugar

Fast food and marketing messages

The serotonin hypothesis

Pros and cons of coffee

Nutrition in schools, then and now

Gaps in the current medical system 

Eat the rainbow 

Resources:

Read: This Is Your Brain on Food

Website: umanaidoomd.com

Instagram: @drumanaidoo

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