Wow! Who knew your diet could affect your mental health so much. How important nutrients and vitamins are. We don’t need the drugs that doctors so willing prescribe to us if we eat correctly and take supplements.
I’ve always known that a good diet is crucial to ones physical health but what I didn’t realise is how important it is to ones mental health. Did you?
Before we get started I have to say that I am by no means a nutritionist but due to months of research into nutrition for mental health I decided to share what I have found. I also suggest that you go and see a nutritionist to find out what your body is missing and in need off. If you are interested in taking what I have suggested below you can ask your nutritionist to test the supplements to help find the best brand to match what your body needs. I have taken one brand and had a bad reaction to it, when I got it tested I found out that it doesn’t suit my body at all, I tested another brand of the same vitamin and it agrees with my body and doesn’t give me bad side effects.
If you can eat correctly and take supplements to strengthen yourself from the inside out then you no longer need to go to the doctor. Natural healing is not about avoiding doctors. It is about not needing to go to doctor. A dentist is not upset if you are cavity-free. A doctor would not be upset if you are healthy. Rather than give a synthetic drug to block or mimic the body's chemical neurotransmitters, it is possible to nutritionally encourage the body to make its own natural ones.
If we are what we eat, then our nerves also depend on what they are fed. There is tremendous potential for the improvement or even erasing of depression, anxiety and many other related disorders. Unfortunately in todays world we have over farmed our land. We can no longer get all of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that we once could just by eating. However, organic our land is, we must supplement our diet to receive what we can no longer get from eating the correct foods.
To help improve your depression I would suggest first off to eliminate processed foods and highly refined carbohydrates, then I would reduce your sugar intake. You can do this one day or week at a time. I understand how difficult change can be. I would suggest that you increase your intake of healthy natural fats, to eat more seafood and more prebiotic fiber.
Now for vitamins and nutrients. If I were you I would get hold of these and add them into your diet as soon as possible, what harm can they do? There are physicians that give large doses of vitamin C that have had outstanding success in reversing depression. It is also a remarkably safe approach to try, the only side effect is that taking too much Vitamin C can cause diarrhea. I started on 3,000mg per day and have upped it to 6,000mg; I am aiming for 8-10,000mg per day. That is what they call a high dose.
I also take Lecithin, which is found in egg yolks and most soy products. Taking Lecithin has no known harmful effects whatsoever. In fact, almost one-third of your brain is lecithin. How far can we go with this idea of simply feeding the brain what it is made up of? You can take lecithin in liquid, granule or capsule form; I’m not a fan of the first two so I take the capsules. If you’re going to eat it, for maximum benefit eat the yolk lightly cooked (such as in a soft-boiled egg, my favourite).
The Amino Acid L-Tryptophan, which I also take, is made into serotonin. You need to eat plenty of carbohydrates to help it travel to the brain. Carbs help it to cross the blood-brain barrier. Poultry, especially the dark meat, is a rich source of tryptophan. Other foods to consider trying are: beans, nuts and seeds, grains – wheat germ, cheese – but not all cheeses, you’re looking for your hard cheeses like cheddar and parmesan, eggs and brewers yeast. Most meat is generally regarded as a good source of tryptophan, organ meats supposedly being the highest.
If you want to try other things as well as supplements here is a list of herbs that can help improve depression:
Nutmeg
Oregano
Rosemary – I drink this as a tea
Saffron
Sage
St. John’s wort
Lemon balm, it’s an anti-inflammatory for the brain – I would also drink this as a tea
I know that I have mentioned some foods already but here is a list of some other foods that I would recommend adding into your diet:
Coriander
Spinach
Walnuts
Wild blueberries
Oranges, great one for depression of any kind, as it’s high in Vitamin C
Sprouts
Avocadoes
Hemp seeds, fantastic food to overcome depression.
Hawaiian spirulina, not spirulina from other places.
I hope you have found this useful. If you’re interested on where I have found out this information, some of it has come from various TED Talks and documentaries and other bits from various websites. I highly recommend looking at two in particular: http://doctoryourself.com/ and https://www.medicalmedium.com/