Alchemica Posted June 3 Share Posted June 3 Keen to hear people list off dietary/nutritional interventions they've found benefit from for mental or cognitive health. Trying to write up a more comprehensive list than what I can currently find elsewhere, early days let me know if you think of other additions https://1drv.ms/x/s!AiE8pZSRNVehlH63pwhJE5ags31C?e=y8b8zy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyzygy Posted June 3 Share Posted June 3 Plant-based diet. Fibre and anything conducive (pre-biotic) to gut health. Sunlight (or vitamin D + magnesium). Those are things that have helped with depressive symptoms, in my experience. Some of the B vitamins are probably lacking in my diet, so thanks for reminding me about those! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishmael Fleishman Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 A whole food plant based diet and I take a vitamin B-12 supplements. Processed, packed and fast food makes me feel terrible - my mood goes down and I feel flat. The older I get the more certain foods feel unsatisfying, I can tell that I become depressed if I eat them. Hot fried potato chips sounds like a good idea and you get the urge but afterward you feel just yuck and does not sit well in the stomach. The same goes for many oily and sweet foods that I used to enjoy. I feel that their is a feedback loop between food intake, and how our bodies feel and that many peoples feedback loops do not work correctly. People get stuck eating junk food and stimulating drinks and they get a temporary lift but crash so that go back to the junk to get that temporary lift again. I have found fermented foods like sauerkraut, and kefir enjoyable and helpful so much that I have make them myself. Oily fish like sardines and sprats is good I seem to feel better over the following days I seem to feel better for eating it but I do enjoy eating animals. I have been thinking taking an algae based omega-3 to see if it helps with my mood. Fasting is another things that I have found helpful. Coffee as much as I love my triple shot latte I feel that it is not helpful with anxiety and I feel it to addictive. One nutritional intervention not in you list is lithium orotate which is technically not a drug but a natural salt. I mention it because I am about to try it. Adding contraindications column to your nutritional chart would be helpful and some kind of idea of how statistically effective the intervention was a treatment over multiple studies. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyzygy Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 52 minutes ago, Ishmael Fleishman said: A whole food plant based diet The "whole food" part is an important distinction. So many new-wave "plant-based" food products are lab-grown, and saturated with salt and fat. Whole foods -- including lots of fibre -- are essential to the health of the microbiome in the gut, where serotonin is manufactured. I know the Hindu gurus often survived on cow's milk, but giving up dairy made a big change for me: for example, I quickly lost my appetite for meat. I still don't know whether it's purely biochemical, or there's something else at work: namely, being consistent with one's ethical principles, avoiding the bad karma of animal suffering, etc. The Hare Krishnas associate plant diet with higher forms of consciousness. Some of the Hindus teach that eggs cloud the judgment, but I still eat them, now and then, even though they're probably not good for the cardio-vascular system. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishmael Fleishman Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 Yes the number of vegans who live off twinkies, fried chips and, meat substitutes and vegan cheese and think they are healthy. I know many meat eaters think that is what vegan and vegetarian cooking is just meat substitutes. It is not and none of the substitutes tastes like meat anyway. The foundation ingredient in my diet is legumes cooked into soups, stew and curries. I unfortunately enjoyed milk and cheese in the past - however I try not to eat it for health and ethical reasons - in the end water is best followed by unsweetened tea. I have substituted coconut milk for cows milk in my cooking but I know that its laden with saturated far and again I try not to use it. I have made my own soy milk and oats milk in the past and I really enjoy them. I do use the commercial plant based milk but I find that I actually gain weight on them and I think all the sugar and oil in them is no good. As my pallate changes I can taste the sugar in commercial plant based milk. Even since a child I could not stand the stench of cooking eggs, and I am no fan of them these days. One boiled egg eaten fills your recommend cholesterol intake for the day. So if you want to stay under you cannot eat anything the whole day that as any cholesterol in it, this is how we got the egg industry promoting that eggs were not bad for you. They just forgot to mention the small "caveat". The one thing I did not mention in my OP was my love of spices - all spices - otherwise food is not worth eating. I feel good when I eat a spice curry with lots of flavors. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyzygy Posted June 8 Share Posted June 8 Tryptophan seems like it would be a beneficial supplement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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