"The act of nutrition has been proven in research to have a direct correlation with the improvement of mental health" - Eva Selhub, MD from Harvard University, nutritional psychology expert.
Many researches show how food directly impacts our mental health. Here are a few tips on how to create your own bespoke "mental health" diet:
1) Find your healthy diet:
The way we digest food is not just physiological but also emotional, social, religious/ spiritual and psychological. All information we receive from the food we eat impact our metabolism and our global level of energy:
is it compliant with our beliefs' system (vegan, halal, kosher, etc.)?
is it positive and valued in our culture and social group (meat at every meal, friends criticising some diets, etc.)?
is it respectful of our values (e.g. organic, fair trade, etc.)?
is it familiar?/ what we grew up with?
is it associated with positive memories and emotions?
is it in line with who we want to be?
When that information - emotional, psychological, social, etc. - is difficult to process or is not compatible with the food available around us, we start having difficulties digesting or absorbing nutrients. We waste a lot of energy trying to metabolise - not just physically but also emotionally and mentally - food we don't agree with.
Have you ever had to eat familiar food when living abroad, in order to "fix" your metabolism? Have you every felt more energised eating a new diet shared with like-minded friends and/ or inspiring personalities?
Reflect on what you were eating growing up, how you would like to eat and what food truly energises you. Identify potential negative connections between some types of food and some bad memories or negative emotions (you can add a food intolerance check).
Find your diet: what works for you - not anyone else around, just you?
2) Practice mindful eating:
Many of us are lucky enough to have access to food whenever we are hungry. Many of us also often swallow lunch in front of a computer or can't remember what was served with yesterday's drinks.
Mindful eating is about reconnecting our bodily sensations and senses to the act of eating: seated without screens, chew slowly and savour. Do you like it? Do you like it, just not today? Is your body relaxed, happy? Look at your plate, the colours, the presentation.
You can do that with a simple burger or in a Michelin 3-star restaurant; even with a take-away coffee.
Remember that when you eat, you are putting food inside your body. It might be something we do 2-4 times a day but it is not a trivial act.
3) Celebrate what nature offers:
Have you ever heard the sentence "eat your rainbow"?
The idea behind the "eat your rainbow" rule is that food colours indicate different types of nutrients: the more colours you eat, the more healthy nutrients you get.
Dr Hyman, founder of functional medicine, often talks about how we have reduced the diversity of food sources in our modern diets. We went from eating lots of different vegetables, grains, fats and proteins to beef/ gluten/ potatoes and apples. I am exaggerating here but if you look at some corporate events and school canteens, the menu is hardly ever creative.
Why should we only choose from a small list of ingredients when nature offers so much?
All theories on how to manifest our dream life talk about the importance of feeling good and creating a feeling of abundance: since nature offers abundance and we eat every day, why not celebrate all we receive from nature in our plates?
In Japan, having 5 different colours at every meal is encouraged. Each colour represents an element:
earth element - brown/ beige,
metal - white,
water - blue/ green/ black,
wood - green and all flowers' colours,
fire - red/ orange.
(more on the "rule of 5" here).
One of the colour can be non-edible (such as a ceramic plate or a food tray): the idea is to enjoy abundance visually first.
And you, how will you celebrate nature's abundance in your next meal?
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