How's Your Gut?

By Rebecca Patterson, MSMFT

One of the best books to come my way in the last few months is Uma Naidoo’s This is Your Brain on Food. Brilliantly categorized into the various mental health struggles we as humans face, This is Your Brain on Food explores the relationship between the food we eat and our ability to cope with the various mental health cards we as humans are dealt. It’s packed with fascinating information about the food we eat and the way it makes us feel in addition to easy tips on how to experiment with shifting one’s mood through the power of food. Most importantly, it in no way reads like a diet book and instead inspires a new way to mindfully migrate the world of food through the lens of nurturing mental health. 

Specifically as a clinician, it made me reflect on how rarely we discuss food habits outside of assessing and intervening on disordered eating. Naidoo challenges this by offering researched based reasons we all can and should be paying more attention to our gut. I’ve often asked clients, ``What does your gut say?” as I believe wholeheartedly that our body gives us imperative feedback about how we’re doing that often is illusive to the mind. My go to question was validated and encouraged as I learned that early in our in-utero development, the cells that evolve into the brain and the gut respectively begin as the same entity. Long before we even are capable of thought, let alone mental health struggles, our brain and gut are building a cellular communication chain that exists within us all.

Fascinating insights like the origin of the mind - gut relationship make it easy to feel inspired by This is Your Brain on Food. The message of mindfulness within its pages is simple - start reflecting on how you feel when you pick food proven to reduce the negative and increase the positive. The numbers and straightforward tone of Naidoo’s writing make it easy to feel like a healthier, happier mind and gut are only a grocery store trip away.