Nutrition and Mood

Food-Nutrition-Brain health. Nutritional medicine is getting more attention now in the field of mental health. More evidence shows good quality nutrition promotes brain and mental health while eating low quality food (e.g. processed food and refined sugars) can promote inflammation and oxidative stress and therefore, damaging our brain cells and worsening mood disorder. Food we eat can affect how we feel. Studies also shows that nutrients link to brain health include B vitamins, omega 3 fatty acids, choline, iron, zinc, magnesium, vitamin D and amino acids.

Probiotics also has been shown to reduce anxiety, perception of stress and mental outlook. Mediterranean and Japanese diet contains higher portion of vegetables, fruits, unprocessed grains, and seafood. These diets are found to have a lower risk of depression than typical Western diet as per researchers.

What do we learn from these studies? Be aware of what we eat can affect how we feel long term. Cutting down on sugary and processed food, replacing with unprocessed and wholesome foods will have positive impact on how you feel. Adding probiotics and nutritional supplement of good quality will enhance the overall general well being.

Food for thought: ‘healthy food-> positive thought; Unhealthy food -> negative thought’

Reference:

www.worldhealth.net

Nutritional psychiatry: Your brain on food http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626

Jerome Sarris, Alan C Logan, Tasnime N Akbaraly, G Paul Amminger, VicentBalanzá-Martínez, Marlene P Freeman, et al.  “Nutritional medicine as mainstream in psychiatry.”  The Lancet Psychiatry, January 25, 2015.

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Omega 3 & your eyes

Do you have dry eyes? What about macular degeneration (progressive loss of central vision), cataracts and or glaucoma (increased pressured inside eyes)?

We need 'good oil' to keep our eyes healthy.

Studies showed that omega 3 fatty acids can help lowering pressure inside eyes and help preventing macular degeneration from getting worse.  Research also indicates 4 benefits of achieving adequate level of omega 3 fatty acids in eye health:

► Reduce inflammation related dry eyes

► Reduce the risk of developing glaucoma

► Reduce the oxidative stress of our eyes

► Reduce the risk of  developing macular degeneration      

Good oil is important for our eye health.   Fish and seafood contains omega 3 fatty acids. Supplementation of qualitied Omega 3 fatty acids is also a good option.       

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Don’t scare of ‘healthy’ fats.

There are still lots of myths about eating fats. People who are on a diet to lose weight always try to eliminate not just carbs but all fat in their diet. Eating more good fats (unsaturated fats) instead of bad fats (saturated fats) and carbohydrates is beneficial to our health. For those who want to lose weight, good fat is needed to help boost the metabolism. Also, a meta-analysis study reveals that replacing carbs and saturated fats with healthy fats (mono or polyunsaturated fats) lower blood sugar levels and improves insulin control. For each 5% of dietary energy that was switched from carbs or bad fats to healthy fats, researchers found that a drop of around 0.1% in HbA1C. HbA1C indicates how well blood sugar control long term. 

Choose and consume the right type of fats is important to health especially heart health and weight management. Some of the good fat sources: fish (e.g. salmon, mackerel, trout) are rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Other good fats sources include nuts, olive oil, avocados. Pure omega 3 supplement is also a good choice. 

Don’t be afraid of ‘fats’. Choose wisely and eat healthy fats is essential in maintaining long term good health. 

Reference: 
www.worldhealth.net

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