Episode 40: Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo on food, mood & anxiety pills

Dr. Uma Naidoo is widely recognized as Harvard’s leading expert on the connection between mood and food. She has been called the world’s first “triple threat” in the fields of nutrition and medicine. Not only is she a psychiatrist but also a trained nutritionist and professional chef, uniquely blending these disciplines to pioneer the field of nutritional psychiatry.

 

As the Director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital—one of the top hospitals in the world—Dr. Naidoo has been at the forefront of research on how food impacts mental health. 

 

Her influence has grown significantly, fueled by the success of her New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Food and her follow-up book, Calm Your Mind with Food, which explores the link between diet and anxiety. 

 

On the Mighty Pursuit Podcast, we've explored both mental health and nutrition in depth. Today, we bring those themes together as Dr. Naidoo unpacks the latest science behind how what we eat shapes our mental well-being. In this episode, we talk about the brain-gut connection, the impact that chronic stress has on the body and whether chemical imbalances are truly the cause of mental health issues. 

 

We then dive into treatment options, discussing the effectiveness of pharmaceutical interventions like antidepressants, as opposed to using food to improve your mood. If you’re anything like us, you probably find the link between food and mood to be surprising. But ultimately what you’ll discover is that understanding this link will go a long way towards improving both your physical and mental health.

 

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:20 - Sponsor: N-2 Water
3:28 - The science behind mood & food
8:39 - How mental health affects the gut
10:26 - How food affects your mental health
13:50 - The important of treating both simultaneously
18:04 - The shocking truth about “chemical imbalances”
25:09 - The medical system is set up to prescribe pills
37:08 - Doctors don’t know why SSRIs work
42:21 - The primary causes of mental health issues
50:51 - Schizophrenia & gut bacteria
55:29 - Metabolism, immune system & mental health
1:03:06 - Can food treat serious mental health issues?
1:08:34 - Sugar puts you at risk of greater depression
1:17:47 - The Western diet is terrible for mental health
1:20:23 - Gluten & mental health
1:23:26 - A food protocol to become less anxious
1:30:41 - Food as medicine for OCD, bipolar & schizophrenia

 

Get 20% off your first order of N-2 Water with code EARLYSIPS at checkout:
https://www.n-2water.com/mightypursuit

 

Related Episodes:
Dr. William Li on cancer: https://youtu.be/4uOoilQOVAc?si=VjpjJ5dA3sR23t_q
Dr. Casey Means on the medical system: https://youtu.be/ahDzqXS0-jU?si=PIiIJ_U60TAZd93P

 

Uma Naidoo Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drumanaidoo/
This Is Your Brain On Food: https://amzn.to/3XZp3a9
Calm Your Mind With Food: https://amzn.to/3Ril9FE

 

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Nutrition Hub:
https://www.mightypursuit.com/nutrition

 

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