Ease stress with food
Outline Specific foods can boost your mood. So says Harvard-trained psychiatrist, Dr Uma Naidoo, who is also a trained nutritionist and chef. Her 2020 book This is Your Brain on Food examined disorders including ADHD, OCD, anxiety and depression and their relationship to diet.
Underline
Dr Tim Spector – the man behind the personalised nutrition app Zoe – calls Naidoo’s latest book, Calm Your Mind With Food*, ‘the antidote to stress’.
Plotline
Naidoo slices through the science of the ‘global anxiety’ epidemic with the skill of scientist and author Giulia Enders and the jovial thrust of Greg Wallace, recommending ‘antianxiety meals’ she’s cooked up in her kitchen. Her big push is to get the right macronutrients, micronutrients, bioactives and phytochemicals inside your insides: more of what makes things run smoothly, less of what makes you run into the ground.
Power line
An entire world sits in your gut. The enteric nervous system (ENS) – the network of nerves controlling gastrointestinal operations – contains the largest collection of nerve cells in the body, larger than the brain. It’s why some experts call it the ‘second brain’.
Mainline
The ENS is wired into the ANS (autonomic nervous system) which plays a big part in stress response and involuntary processes: heartbeat, breathing, pupil dilation, why you feel the way you feel. For non-boffins, this means that what goes in affects what goes on. As Naidoo puts it, ‘the power is at the end of your fork!’
Pipeline
Some foodstuffs are easy on your 4.5 metres of gut. Some aren’t.
Disruptions in the gut microbiome (the vast and fragile ecosystem of bacteria in your belly) have been linked to eczema, arthritis, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune conditions and Alzheimer’s.
Hard line The most powerful medicine for anxiety is a diet full of pickles, kimchi and other fermented foods; prebiotics, which include onions and bananas; and fibre-rich veg and wholegrains. Naidoo also gets into anxiety-busting herbal supplements and vitamins, from the obscure (ashwagandha) to the ubiquitous (vitamin C).
Lifeline Wine in moderation is fine – especially red, which is rich in polyphenols and antioxidants. It can have a rosy effect on health by regulating the release of serotonin and dopamine. Dark chocolate is good too – it’s all those polyphenols.
Slimline These foods will keep you trim, too: for breakfast, Naidoo suggests chickpea scrambled eggs, a basil-seed pudding or quinoa cereal. For lunch and dinner, Burmese chickpea tofu, crispy tikka masala tofu, masala-baked salmon or spaghetti squash noodles with walnut pesto; and turmeric in everything. Pasta lovers may want to look away – refined carbs aren’t good for anxiety. Naidoo suggests cooling your pasta, which lowers its glycemic index, according to recent research. The effect persists when it’s reheated so you can warm it right back up again!
Checkout line
Pile up those red peppers: they’re a terrific source of vitamin C, an active antioxidant in the brain that reduces fatigue and anxiety; it also improves mood. Go for cruciferous vegetables, which include cauliflower and broccoli. Salmon, nuts and seeds are sources of feel-good omega-3 fatty acids.
Bottom line
If you spend your time eating and worrying, worrying and eating, this is essential reading. I found cooking some of Naidoo’s meals enormously calming, although the taste was, due to my own cack-handedness, occasionally alarming. There is such a thing as too much turmeric.