Nutrition and your mental health.
You are what you eat! Such an overused metaphor, but not too far from the truth. Sure, if you eat a hamburger, you won’t turn into a walking Big Mac, but the food that you eat does affect your health – both physical and mental health. You don’t need to become obsessive about your food consumption – treating yourself from time to time to a Cadbury crème egg or a Lindt truffle can be great reward for effort – but a simple understanding that what you put into your body can influence things like your energy levels, mood and even behavior is good stuff to know.
Clearly some people like to know more than others. There are some professionals out there now dedicating their lives to studying the connection between diet and mental health. It has turned into such an important topic that there is now a field of study known as nutritional psychiatry, which is dedicated to researching the link between what we eat and the effects on our mental health. People much smarter than most of us are doing some heavy hitting research in this space and it is now very hard to refute the strong connection between a healthy diet and a healthy mind.
Check out some suggested dietary tips for improved mental health below.