Dietary Intake, Dietary Habits, and Mental Wellbeing

Food, our dietary habits, and our dietary intake, affect our mental wellbeing. Let’s explore further.

How Does Food Affect Our Mental Wellbeing?

The relationship between food and mental wellbeing is not unidirectional. Food intake affects mental wellbeing and mental wellbeing affects food intake.

Recall a day when you were not feeling well emotionally. Perhaps you had been involved in a motor vehicle accident or a pet was sick or a family member had died or a child was struggling in school. Was your appetite that same as it is had been on the previous day, when the stressor was not present? Did you crave the same types of foods as prior to the stressor? Did you even bother to consider preparing a meal or ensuring that you had food in the house?

Perhaps you were emotionally upset because you could not afford your bills, including not being able to afford food. The inability to afford food is distressing.

Not being able to eat food impacts the ability of our body to manufacture the building blocks in our body. Neurotransmitters in our brain need to be constructed using building blocks. Neurotransmitters act at receptors to help with electrical signaling and release of second messengers and promotion of responses of cells which produce other neurotransmitters. All of these processes are important to maintain our mental wellbeing.

Dietary Habits and Mental Wellbeing

Our mental wellbeing is also impacted by dietary habits, distinct from dietary intake.

Dietary habits are developed early in our life. Of course, we can alter our habits over the course of our lives. Changing dietary habits may not be as simple as changing the timing of meals; the content of meals; and the very idea of having a meal.

Consider what formed your dietary habits.

The examples we learn from include if our caregivers prepared and scheduled meals; who participated in meal preparation; who joined the meal; when the meal was served; where the meal was served; and what dishes were served. If we were lucky, there was a family routine to meal preparation and meal serving.

Meals and meal preparation incorporate emotional responses and elicit emotional reactions.

Many people did not have the luxury of family routines for meals or anything else. Healthy routines and healthy foods are not a given in this world where many of us are financially secure and comfortable. Many people still do not have the luxury of healthy family routines and others do not even realize what is lacking in their lives.

Patterns Learnt for Mental Wellbeing

It is never too late to learn new patterns in our lives. Even our dietary habits can be modified to promote healthy living and mental wellbeing.

The operative question remains: why are we in the predicament in which we find ourselves today?

Consider the linked articles below which straddle the gamut of food quality (or lack thereof in the ultraprocessed foods available in the USA) to societal norms (counting calories promoted by a physician in the USA over a hundred years ago).

That is how we have arrived where we are today: foods promoted to cater to a salty craving; a sweet craving; a sour craving. Also, foods to make money for a company based on the Western palate which has changed over the past 200 years, in response to the changing marketplace with its glut of food products to satisfy every craving.

Addictive Food Products and Our Mental Wellbeing

Reflect on the language I employed in the above section. There are qualities to foods that lead us to crave them, high fructose corn syrup as an example. Ultraprocessed foods fall into the category of foods which set us up for craving them.

Research has indicated that cravings may not be related to nutrient deficiencies and rather may be based predominantly related to psychological cravings (Meule, 2020). Nevertheless, ultraprocessed foods do not meet our nutritional needs and can lead to other side effects, such as sarcopenia defined as loss of muscle mass, loss of muscle strength, and loss of muscle performance.

Mental Wellbeing through Dietary Intake

Please see my previous posts in which I discuss the influence of food and dietary habits on mental wellbeing.

We have options.

Consider consulting with a nutritionist/dietitian to learn more.

If money is an issue, please seek assistance from government programmes and community resources. Any food is better than no food.

Access the food pantry if you cannot afford food.

Make note that Aldi supermarket is offering a Thanksgiving Meal for 10 for 47$ (https://new.aldi.us/products/thanksgiving/k/254). Consult your local supermarket for similar deals.

Check out local Thanksgiving Day community meals.

No one deserves to go hungry, especially not in a country in which we have an abundance of food.

Mental Wellbeing, Food Intake, Dietary Habits: Share the Wealth

Remember the benefits of sharing your wealth and gifts with others. Give generously to local charitable organizations which assist persons who do not have the luxury to have access to nutritious food or maybe to any food.

Consider how it feels to be without food.

Recall how good you feel when you give and share.

Take-aways

Be well. Be generous.

Be mindful for your nutritional intake and be conscious of the needs of fellow community members: share your wealth with others.

Selected References:

Chapalkhar, Sushama. (February 20, 2024). Ultra-processed foods linked to higher risk for sarcopenia. Accessed online on July 10, 2024, at https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240220/Ultra-processed-foods-linked-to-higher-risk-of-sarcopenia.aspx

Connie, Elliott, The Solution Focused Universe. This Lifestyle Change Taught Me So Much About Therapy/SFBT Moments 407. Accessed online on August 13, 2024, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYT2fTJT3kY&t=2s

Loewy, Matias. (April 26, 2024). Managing Obesity Can Lead to Sarcopenia: A ‘Hidden’ Problem. Accessed online on July 10, 2024, at https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/managing-obesity-can-lead-sarcopenia-hidden-problem-2024a100084g

Meule, A. (2020). The Psychology of Food Cravings: the Role of Food Deprivation. Curr. Nut. Rep., Jun 2020, 9(3): 251-257. Accessed online on October 20, 2024, at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7399671/

Ribeiro, Victória. (July 8, 2024). What Is Ultraprocessed Food, and What Are Its Side Effects? Medscape Nurses. Accessed online on July 9, 2024, at https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/what-ultraprocessed-food-and-what-are-its-effects-2024a1000cjf?ecd=WNL_trdalrt_pos1_240708_etid6655662&uac=5131MN&impID=6655662

Stacey, Michelle. (June 2024). This Doctor Pioneered Counting Calories a Century Ago, and We’re Still Dealing with the Consequences. Accessed online (and in print) on June 25, 2024: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/doctor-pioneered-counting-calories-century-ago-were-still-dealing-with-consequences-180984282/

Disclaimer: The content of this post is not meant to substitute for a consultation with your healthcare team.

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