Dr. Drew Ramsey's Guide to What to Eat When You’re Depressed & Anxious
Photo by Gabriel Gurrola on Unsplash.
“There is no health without mental health. There is no having heart health or gut health or endocrine health. None of us function as well when our mental health is challenged.”
When I interviewed Dr. Drew Ramsey, a board-certified psychiatrist, about the impact of nutrition on our brains I was excited to talk to him about traditional dietary patterns. My experience with Ayurveda, both personally and professionally, has led me to the conclusion that traditional dietary patterns are the most health-supporting. The fact that there is data and thousands of hours of clinical experience from colleagues like Drew, validates my conclusion further.
You’ve probably heard people who profess “clean eating”, talk about how much better they feel. In fact, hop online to research almost any dietary fad and you’ll hear miracle stories about mental health. And while it’s important to be cautious about what you find online, scientific studies are uncovering an important relationship between the food we eat and how well we feel.
The food you eat changes your brain function.
I’ll start by saying that the science here is complex. As Dr. Ramsey said, “there are researchers untangling what's causal and what's correlational.” But there are some patterns we can examine and see relationships between what we eat and what’s happening inside our brains.
Let’s take iron, for example. When you eat shellfish, beans, liver, and dark leafy greens, you’re getting increased iron. Iron is a mineral needed by our bodies for hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout your body. A deficiency in iron translates to inadequate oxygen delivery via the blood, which then results in symptoms of fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath, poor appetite, and more. Just the symptom of fatigue can impact our overall function, influencing everything from our physical bodies to our relationships and emotional well-being. Fatigue is one of those tricky symptoms that can both result from and contribute to depression and anxiety.
Check out the interview for the full discussion of specific nutrients and what they do for our brains. Dr. Ramsey had so much to share!
Nutrition is more than the food you put in your mouth.
Dr. Ramsey warns us to be careful of being too strict in the name of eating well. He shared a great story from his own life where he went out for pizza with his family and some friends. He reflected that while staying home and eating wild salmon was technically better for his brain health, connecting with loved ones was better for his mental health.
I love this story because I completely agree. In Ayurveda, nutrition comes from many sources including our relationships, environments, workplaces, and more. Our systems must digest all of these inputs, sorting through the ones that are health-supporting (nutritious) and health-weakening (toxic). I’ve written about this before on my blog.
Try these 3 tips to eat for your brain health.
Dr. Ramsey focuses on increasing nutrient density in the calories we consume. This means packing powerhouse nutrients in fewer calories to make the most of your meals. But he emphasized that it’s important to make changes that make sense with your cultural background and current dietary patterns and preferences. If, for example, you’re a vegetarian you don’t have to eat meat just to increase iron in your diet.
Dr. Ramsey shared these 3 easy ways to increase nutrient density in your food:
Oven-roast your vegetables. Pick your favorites and try an assortment of colors to get that rainbow range of nutrients.
Add seafood for omega-3 fatty acids. If you’re not a fan, taste from a friend’s plate when you order out. For vegans and vegetarians, add chia seeds or seaweed/algae to your diet.
Add a nutrient-dense “special sprinkle” to every dish. Find small ways to increase the nutrients of your favorite dishes. Here are a few examples:
Add a few microgreens to your favorite pasta dish.
Chop up pumpkin seeds for your salad.
Switch out regular flour for buckwheat flour in your pancakes.
And remember, it’s important to make changes that work for you!
I hope you enjoyed this exploration of plants as medicine with Dr. Drew Ramsey. You might enjoy my other posts on plants as medicine including:
Be well,
Avanti Kumar-Singh, MD
