Nourish Your Nerves

There is a direct and proven link between the food you eat and the health of your nervous system and therefore your mood. Choosing the right foods in tasty meals can have major, and rapid, effects on your nervous system and how you feel.

- Meg Thompson

We have known about the connection between the gut and the brain for a little while now but more recently there has been an explosion of research into the effect of your diet on your mental health. Perhaps you instinctively know that what you eat affects how you feel — for instance, that when you eat plenty of vegies and are well hydrated, so too are you energised and balanced. Alternatively, when you go a little crazy on the sugar, you might see that reflected in your behaviour, your mood or your digestion.

What we have not had until recently, though, is solid evidence that diet can directly affect mental health, supported by specifically designed intervention trials. It is therefore wonderful to see this evidence published, shining a light on this relationship that is so important.

What you can take from this is that what you eat is just as important as what you don’t eat. The issue at large is that for many people their current balance is out and we are, as a population, eating too much of the food that is not beneficial to us and not enough of that which will nourish and sustain us. The effects of this are visible in our own health and in that of the entire food system and the environment.

The gut-brain link

So what can we eat to support our brain, our mental health and our entire nervous system? One prominent study from 2017, the SMILES trial, showed that participants experiencing depression who ate diets rich in vegetables, fruit and wholegrains, with a focus on oily fish, legumes, extra virgin olive oil and raw, unsalted nuts and seeds, noticed a significantly improved mood. In some cases the participants in this 12-week trial went into complete remission, no longer experiencing any depressive symptoms.