Your Relationship With Food Might Be Toxic

Food can affect more than just your weight

You Are What You Eat

If I was ever to become a life coach, one of the first questions I would ask every client would be, “How is your diet?” If most of your food items come from a package, your diet can affect more than just your weight. What you are eating could be affecting your mental health.

Studies have found that eating ultra-processed foods can also affect your personality including anger control. Ultra-processed foods have added ingredients like food dyes, artificial flavorings, and preservatives. Even natural flavors might cause one to become alarmed about what may be considered natural flavoring. The good thing is that beaver anal glands are hardly used anymore.

Those who eat a significant amount of processed foods might be walking around with brain hunger. You perhaps have seen someone with brain hunger on your social media news feed lately.

The increase of angry outbursts on social media could be attributed to our increased intake of processed food.

In this pandemic where we are in a mental health crisis, we need to take a closer look at the connection between nutrition and mental health. Our brain health could be suffering without essential vitamins and minerals. A micronutrient deficiency can also contribute to depression and anxiety, and the number of people who have been experiencing depression and anxiety has certainly been increasing.

“In a study of about 89,000 people in Japan with 10–15 years of followup, the suicide rate in those consuming a whole foods diet was half that of those eating less healthy diets, highlighting an important new direction not yet covered in current suicide prevention programs.” — Bonnie Kaplan and Julia J. Rucklidge, The Conversation

Making sure that healthy foods are accessible to all people of all ages could be an important step in suicide prevention that is not often considered. Questions about nutrition, besides if you have a poor appetite, are not even part of any depression screening.

What you are eating can also contribute to the structure of your brain. Any impairment could be due to your diet, especially if it is high in sugar.

“Multiple studies have found a correlation between a diet high in refined sugars and impaired brain function — and even a worsening of symptoms of mood disorders, such as depression.” — Eva Selhub MD, Havard Health Blog

So what should you be eating? Eating a whole foods diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables would be a good first step. A Mediterranean diet rich in healthy fats, whole grains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables might be something to explore for proper nutrition and brain health.

Even if you consider yourself to have a healthy diet, there could be unknown food intolerances that you may want to look into. Food intolerances can also affect your personality, energy level, and overall comfort.

An Elimination Diet Can Help You Find Your Toxic Foods

If you experience frequent joint pain, brain fog, or skin rashes then you may want to check for food intolerances, especially gluten. These autoimmune issues sometimes pop up because of food sensitivities that you were not even aware you had.

I recommend trying an elimination diet to see what foods might give your body issues. There is a connection between gluten and depression even if you are non-celiac.

The key thing when trying an elimination diet is removing the suspected food trigger for long enough for your body to notice the difference when that food is introduced back into your diet.

How An Elimination Diet Worked For Me

I have done a Whole30 diet for one month where I omitted gluten, dairy, sugar, and alcohol for the entire 30 days. The diet was one of the hardest challenges in my life, but the positive changes that I experienced were extraordinary.

Removing sugar and gluten from my diet changed my mental and physcial health dramatically.

Before starting Whole30, I would limp when first getting out of bed due to plantar fasciitis. In the first three days of this elimination diet, my heel pain was gone. Eliminating those problem foods removed all of my joint pain within the first week. I lost a whopping 20 lbs. in that month and removed tons of bloating around my stomach. The little red bumps I had on my arms (keratosis pilaris) vanished. I also no longer needed my glasses when working at my computer.

It was during the reintroduction phase of gluten that my body began to hurt again. I became very lazy and stuck to the couch much of the day the first time I consumed bread again. I never would have thought that gluten could affect my personality, but it certainly negatively impacted me. I even noticed that I had a very short fuse once gluten was in my diet again.

In Conclusion, What You Eat Really Does Matter

Your diet can contribute to your personality, health, and wellbeing. If you are feeling depressed or anxious, you may want to try eating a whole foods diet consisting of a variety of fruits and vegetables. Your brain health can also be impacted by what you eat. If you are lacking in micronutrients, it could contribute to depression and anxiety.

A lot of autoimmune conditions like joint pain or brain fog could be attributed to food intolerance. An elimination diet would be helpful to consider and see if it changes how you feel. Taking a look at your nutritional intake might be helpful for your mental health as well as your physical wellbeing.

Before my elimination diet, I never would have considered how much of an important role my nutrition played in my mental and physical health.