What is Mental Health?

The term ‘health’ always includes mind and body. The state of ‘being healthy’ has various definitions according to WHO, Webster, Oxford, and Perkins, but all of them explain a similar concept of disease, normality, and health.

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of the disease or infirmity.” - WHO (Health and Well-Being, n.d.)

Mental health is always assumed to be a detached concept from physical health, but they run parallel to each other, contributing to the disease and normality.

Mental health issues can be called systemic diseases because they influence the pathophysiology of all the biological functions in the human body.

Depression is the second major leading cause of disability globally. (Sotelo & Nemeroff, 2017)

Depression and mental health issues are related to stroke, diabetes, cardiovascular health, and cancer.

Research also shows the link between depression and inflammatory responses in the body, leading to elevated serum CRP (C-reactive protein) levels.(Miller et al., 2002)

Learn more about the Gut-Brain connection from Nutritionist Aditi Prabhu

Gut – your Second Brain?

The gut is always called the second brain for a reason, and this statement better explains the relationship between our brain, digestion, and eating habits.

The vagus nerve connects the enteric nervous system to the central nervous system.

The gut has the largest division of nerves that regulate your gastrointestinal behavior.  (The Gut and the Brain | Harvard Medical School, n.d.)

The enteric nervous system controls not just digestion but also our eating behavior.

Have you ever observed that when you fall sick, your digestion becomes slower, and signs like constipation, fatigue, nausea, pain, and lack of appetite are common?

The reason is a bidirectional information flow between the ENS and CNS and the connections from the enteric system to 400 million neurons distributed throughout the body, especially the intestines, stomach, pancreas, and liver.

And thus, the mind and the body are always connected. (Furness et al., 2014)

Let us understand Nutritional Psychology

Nutritional Psychology discusses the ‘How & Why’ of human eating behaviors.

Have you ever wondered why we crave or hate certain foods?

Food and Mood are two major variables elaborating the study of Nutritional psychology.

Studies have linked a healthy diet with a much better mental state. (Firth et al., 2020)

Some studies have also shown how junk food can negatively influence the brain. (Malmir et al., 2023)

Food and Mood have cyclical effects on each other; good food leads to better hormonal functioning, while unhealthy food can disrupt the hormones.

Eating fried food can pacify the mood temporarily because of the taste enhancers, but what makes it worse is the impact of junk food that leaves a scar on neurological functions. 

Caffeine, salt, sugar, and fats are the primary foods that alter eating behaviors.

These foods have a major influence on the nervous system.

Consumption of foods rich in fats, salt, sugar, and caffeinated beverages is addictive due to the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Dopamine is the feel-good hormone and is vital in your brain as a motivating/rewarding system. 

Food Nostalgia and Childhood Conditioning

Food nostalgia refers to the sentimental longing or affection a person feels towards a certain type of food, often associated with their childhood memories.

It is believed that an individual's food preferences and habits are shaped by their upbringing and conditioning during early life.

Emotions play a huge role in instilling our eating patterns and behaviors. 

We have seen an increase in the rates of cardiovascular dysfunctions, diabetes, depressive disorders, and many metabolic and auto-immune diseases in the recent past.

The last few decades of the younger generation have shown a different meaning to food nostalgia.

Younger generations relate their food nostalgia to having food outside the home, packaged food, fried foods, desserts, etc. (Espinoza-Ortega, 2021)

Childhood conditioning concerning the reward system and discipline has changed in the last few decades, and junk food has taken a front seat from pacifying a toddler to treating an adult with emotional imbalances.

Studies have seen positive and negative emotions influence their choice of food and purchases, while negative emotions heavily influence food habits.

A sad person is more vulnerable than a normal person in choosing highly palatable and energy-dense food in search of a pleasurable response from the brain.

Dopamine is released after junk food is consumed, and this becomes a cyclical pattern for individuals to reach out to highly palatable energy-dense foods during their vulnerable state of mind. (Fuente González et al., 2022)

Food Nostalgia is picked up by adults owing to their childhood conditioning.

Stress and Gut microbiome

The keystone for disturbed mental health is stress, and the gut becomes an immediate prey to stress.

Emotions, anxiety, and depression have a negative impact on gut bacteria.

A bad diet and lifestyle can modulate the gut microbiome, showing signs of constipation, flatulence, acidity, regurgitation, piles, fatty liver, belly fat, and insulin resistance.

An unhealthy diet and stress can prevent the gut bacteria from producing SCFA (short-chain fatty acids), propionate, and butyrate, leading to digestive issues. (Madison & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2019)

The gut bacteria plays a major role in connecting with food and releasing acetylcholine, serotonin, cortisol, and norepinephrine (essential neurotransmitters that regulate stress).

Stress, Sleep, and Immunity

Mental health alters your circadian rhythm and vice versa.

Irregular sleep cycles can put an individual under stress by increasing their cortisol and delaying serotonin.

This individual is more vulnerable to purchasing an unhealthy diet rich in fats, sugars, and salts.

This leads to an increased production of inflammatory cytokines in the body, leading to decreased immunity and susceptibility to metabolic disorders.

Stress, sleep, and immunity are always interlinked with our food habits and lifestyle. 

Signs and symptoms of disturbed mental health:

• Fatigue
• Lack of interest in daily activities 
• Lack of motivation (Anhedonia)
• Loss of appetite or irregular/extreme eating patterns
• Insomnia
• Weight gain, insulin resistance, fatty liver 
• Inflammation in the joints 
• Constipation, hemorrhoids, acidity

How to Train the Brain?

While we discussed in this article that mental health is the second leading cause of disability globally, one should also know how to tackle issues related to mental health and depressive disorders.

Choosing a healthy lifestyle is not easy, and healthy habits are never built overnight.

Consistency and accountability of what we put inside our bodies must be practiced every day by considering the following steps as support:

1. Start slow, one step a day, and set goals for longer durations.
2. Avoid extreme diets, fad diets, or crash diets.
3. Get at least 7 hours of sleep at a fixed time every day. 
4. Engage in hobbies and physical activities to avoid emotional vulnerability and increase the production of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.
5. Involve in social skills and meet family and friends to improve social psychology. This reduces the risk of depression.
6. Seek professional help in case of severe stress and emotional conditions.

The root cause for many diseases goes beyond biophysical functioning, and Mental health is linked to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and other endangered eating behaviors.

The overall well-being of an aligned mind, body, and spirit is best defined as the state of being healthy, and when individuals use their full potential to resolve the issues related to stress, they are said to have a normal state of mind! (Malla et al., 2015)

References

Espinoza-Ortega, A. (2021). Nostalgia in food consumption: Exploratory study among generations in Mexico. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, 25, 100399. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJGFS.2021.100399

Firth, J., Firth, J., Gangwisch, J. E., Gangwisch, J. E., Borisini, A., Wootton, R. E., Wootton, R. E., Wootton, R. E., Mayer, E. A., & Mayer, E. A. (2020). Food for Thought 2020: Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental well-being? The BMJ, 369. https://doi.org/10.1136/BMJ.M2382

Fuente González, C. E., Chávez-Servín, J. L., De La Torre-Carbot, K., Ronquillo González, D., Aguilera Barreiro, M. D. L. Á., & Ojeda Navarro, L. R. (2022). Relationship between Emotional Eating, Consumption of Hyperpalatable Energy-Dense Foods, and Indicators of Nutritional Status: A Systematic Review. Journal of Obesity, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4243868

Furness, J. B., Callaghan, B. P., Rivera, L. R., & Cho, H. J. (2014). The enteric nervous system and gastrointestinal innervation: integrated local and central control. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 817, 39–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0897-4_3

Health and Well-Being. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16, 2024, from https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/major-themes/health-and-well-being

Madison, A., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2019). Stress, depression, diet, and the gut microbiota: human–bacteria interactions at the core of psychoneuroimmunology and nutrition. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 28, 105–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.01.011

Malla, A., Joober, R., & Garcia, A. (2015). “Mental illness is like any other medical illness”: a critical examination of the statement and its impact on patient care and society. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience : JPN, 40(3), 147. https://doi.org/10.1503/JPN.150099

Malmir, H., Mahdavi, F. S., Ejtahed, H. S., Kazemian, E., Chaharrahi, A., Mohammadian Khonsari, N., Mahdavi-Gorabi, A., & Qorbani, M. (2023). Junk food consumption and psychological distress in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutritional Neuroscience, 26(9), 807–827. https://doi.org/10.1080/1028415X.2022.2094856

Miller, G. E., Stetler, C. A., Carney, R. M., Freedland, K. E., & Banks, W. A. (2002). Clinical depression and inflammatory risk markers for coronary heart disease. The American Journal of Cardiology, 90(12), 1279–1283. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-9149(02)02863-1

Sotelo, J. L., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2017). Depression as a systemic disease. Personalized Medicine in Psychiatry, 1–2, 11–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PMIP.2016.11.002

The Gut and the Brain | Harvard Medical School. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16, 2024, from https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/gut-brain