Eating For Mental Wealth

I'd not even made the link till this afternoon. After a week of relatively healthy eating and exercise, we had a meal planned at a Chinese buffet. It was absolutely fantastic to see people I'd not seen for a while, and I'd certainly had a hearty meal. Well, I certainly wanted to get my money's worth anyway.

Then I got to this morning. My mood had generally been high all week (whether directly or indirectly related to my good food choices and increased exercise is up for debate). And I literally felt agony all over my body, as if a truck had hit me. And my mood was very, very low; I didn't even want to get out and face the world today, compared to a week full of work and fun.

I'm not about to claim that if we all live off vegetables, wear socks with sandals and take 50 Omega 3 tablets every day all the woes of the world will disappear and we will have bright, happy, smiley faces adorned on our heads. But there is an undeniable link between things like a large sugar or caffeine intake, and the "downer" that follows the rush of these more acceptable drugs. Also, if our body doesn't have enough things like Vitamin B, Potassium as well as Water, the first things to shut down are the less urgent systems, like brain function, to make sure enough nutrients get to the heart and lungs.

Interestingly, there was a branch of psychiatry called Orthomolecular Psychiatry, with the aim of attempting to cure mental illness by solely making changes to the diet, supplementing one's intake with "Mega-Vitamins" and the like. Although the proponents started making unfounded claims of "Curing" people using just food when lacking the scientific evidence, it also seems very likely that the reason psychiatry didn't take it too seriously was because there wasn't enough money to be made from un-patented vitamins and food, compared to propriety drugs. (Interestingly, Orthomolecular Medicine seems either more beneficial, or better promoted)

There is growing evidence, however, that taking Vitamin B and Omega 3 each day can lead to an improvement for those with bipolar; which makes sense as the both of these are important to brain function. A psychiatrist I was involved with in a research project put it that there is no harm in supplementing your diet with it in terms of side effects or toxicity, in comparison to the benefits.

So take a minute to think about what you eat. Maybe choosing the banana rather than the Mars Bar will help put your body in the right frame for recovery.

And if you fancy pitching up a tent in your sandals and Couscous, I'll join you.