From: rpattree2@gmail.com   
      
   This Is Your Brain on Food: The Link Between Eating Well and Mental Health   
   Research suggests improving nutrition can help those with cognitive disorders.   
      
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   April 03, 2014 By Steve Holt   
      
   Steve Holt writes about food for 'Edible Boston,' 'Boston Magazine,' 'The   
   Boston Globe,' and other publications.   
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   Should the Hippocratic maxim "Let food be thy medicine" apply to mental health   
   care? Absolutely, says Dr. Bonnie Kaplan, a professor at the University of   
   Calgary and a pioneer in a resurgent field of research on the role diet and   
   nutrition plays in the    
   health of the brain. She says the medical and psychiatric community is   
   rediscovering the many connections between food and mental illness after more   
   than a half century of depending primarily on prescription drugs for relief.   
      
   "From around 1950 or so, there was an explosion of research on medications,"   
   she says. "Big pharma took over the treatment of psychiatric illnesses, and we   
   lost centuries of knowledge."   
      
   Before that, we knew better. Kaplan points to the 1855 edition of The People's   
   Home Library--a standard on the bookshelves of homesteaders across North   
   America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In it, author T.J. Ritter   
   diagnoses the cause of    
   most psychiatric conditions as "imperfect nutrition." Ritter asserted that for   
   most people, improving one's diet could help improve one's mind.   
      
   But 20th century mental health care providers too often missed the point   
   Ritter--and Hippocrates long before him--were making, Kaplan says, by treating   
   the mentally ill with supplements of one nutrient or mineral at a time.   
      
      
   "They were seeing mixed results, because that's just ridiculous," she says.   
   "We need [the nutrients] all together in proper balance."   
      
   We may soon see psychiatrists prescribing produce rather than Prozac, however,   
   thanks to a fairly recent body of academic research showing food's powerful   
   effect on mental health. Kaplan has been a leader in this area, publishing   
   several studies linking    
   nutrient intake with improvement in mood disorders in both adults and   
   children. In a 2012 study with colleague Karen M. Davison, Ph.D., R.D.,   
   published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, the authors recruited 97   
   adults diagnosed with a mood disorder    
   to record their diets and moods (how they felt throughout each day) over a   
   three-day period. At the end of the study, Kaplan and Davison found that   
   participants' vitamin and nutrient intake was "consistently and reliably"   
   associated with better moods and    
   mental health.   
      
   Other studies have shown similar results and even pinpointed specific diets   
   that appear to be associated with a healthier brain. Epidemiological studies,   
   for instance, have linked a Mediterranean diet of mostly vegetables, fruits,   
   nuts, and plenty of    
   olive oil with better brain function. But the diet of good mental health   
   doesn't start and end with rabbit food. In a 2011 analysis of more than 5,000   
   Norwegians, Michael Berk, a professor of psychiatry at the Deakin University   
   School of Medicine in    
   Australia, and his collaborators found lower rates of depression, anxiety, and   
   bipolar disorder among those who consumed a traditional diet of meat and   
   vegetables than among people who followed a modern diet heavy with processed   
   and fast foods--or even a    
   health-food diet of tofu and salads.   
      
       
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   "Traditional diets--the kinds of foods your grandmother would have   
   recognized--have been associated with a lower risk of mental health issues,"   
   Berk told The Washington Post.    
      
   Let's be real, though: A holistic approach to mental health care is necessary,   
   and there are times when those living with various disorders need a pill (or   
   three) alongside a plate of whole foods. But with a new, strong body of   
   research in her corner and    
   even a newly formed international research society, Kaplan dreams of a day   
   when we've restored a proper balance between medical and nutritional mental   
   health care--something Hippocrates would more easily recognize.   
      
   "In my ideal world, diet and nutrition is the primary treatment," she says.   
   "And medication is used as supplements."   
      
   For more on this topic, consider participating in an April 9 Webinar--"Food on   
   Our Minds: Diet, Mental Health, and the Role of Community Food Programs"--that   
   will feature Davison and Kristyn Dunnion, who runs a community food center for   
   those struggling    
   with mental illness and poverty.   
      
   related stories on takepart   
      
   Mediterranean Diet May Receive U.N. Cultural Heritage Protection   
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   49 Million in U.S. Lack Access to Nutritious Food   
      
   get more   
      
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   http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/04/03/powerful-connection-b   
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)