Healthy Diet, Healthy Mind!
Nutrition is a key component to maintaining your health. This is because the nutrients, vitamins and minerals we get from our food play an important role in ensuring our organs are functioning and healthy.
We often hear about foods that are good for the heart, or good for the eyes. However, it is important to remember that the brain is also a vital organ. The brain plays a critical role in allowing us to think, speak and move. Thus, we think it is important to stay mindful of foods and nutrition that can keep the brain healthy.
Recent studies have shown that food and nutrition can directly impact an individual’s mood. Experts say that improving your mental health and physical health can be greatly aided by a healthy and nutritious health.
Having a diet with a low intake of processed sugar, sweets, caffeine, alcohol and complex carbohydrates has been correlated with decreasing the impacts of anxiety, depression and mood disorders. Talking to a professional regarding your nutrition and finding ways to improve your diet can not only help in elevating your mood, but also your motivation in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Payal Khanwani, one of our specialists, states:
“ Eating and nourishing our bodies and mind is essential in building resilience in the body and the mind, so that when challenging times do come up, we have the physical, mental and emotional strength to find meaning and effectively digest those experiences. Digestion is both physical and emotional, and both are closely linked. Leaning into natural and healthy whole foods not only nourishes our body but also our mind.The quality of the foods we consume needs to be our top priority if we want to live healthy, joyful and peaceful. ”
When looking at how diet affects mental health, let’s use an example. Foods that are high in simple sugars and and unhealthy fats, our so-called comfort foods—chips, chocolate and cake—all those things which crave often or consider as rewards can temporarily increase those feel-good neurotransmitters, which is why people tend to crave them when they’re feeling bad because it gives them that instant energy or boost.
But what it’s actually doing is causing inflammation in the body (the gut) and the brain. A diet is considered to be more pro-inflammatory when we have high levels of simple sugars, fat, and salt, it can increase inflammatory markers.
There’s a lot of research to show that these inflammatory markers may cross the blood-brain barrier, which can impact our mood and the gut-brain connection. A diet which includes a lot of vegetables, fruits, essential B vitamins, Omega-3s, vitamin D, and healthy proteins is more anti-inflammatory which should be our goal.
Payal facilitates healing, change and wellbeing through Holistic Life and Spiritual Coaching as well as Mindfulness, Meditation & Yoga. She has had the grace of studying mindfulness, meditation, yoga teachers and coaches across the globe.
She has lived and taught yoga and meditation & coached in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Dubai, India and Canada over the past 9 years. Integrating the experience & heartset from 14 years of Meditation & Yoga practice off the mat into life, she brings clarity, compassion, creativity and intuition in her work with her clients.
She is of India origin and speaks Hindi & English.
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