What if how you feel mentally isn’t all in your head?

In the legal sector, long hours and busy workloads can make it easy to overlook things like eating well and looking after yourself. Nutrition and lifestyle coach, Sarah Shaw, explains how what’s going on in your gut can have a real impact on your mood and mental wellbeing.

Your gut is connected to your brain by the Vagus Nerve, part of the sympathetic nervous system – the gut-brain axis.  

You are probably aware of the nerves which connect your brain to your body via your spinal cord – which when your brain says walk, make your legs move, or if you cut your finger, send pain signals to your brain.  Signals go about 50:50 each way via these nerves.

However, 80% of the fibres in the Vagus nerve send signals TO your brain.  If you’ve ever had a ‘gut feeling’ or had ‘butterflies in your tummy’, that is your gut sending signals to your brain.

Your gut, including the 2kg of microbes which live in it (the microbiome) is known as the second brain.  And how healthy your gut is, can, to a large extent, determine how healthy your thoughts are and whether you suffer from low mood, anxiety or depression.

Your microbiome impacts the level of serotonin, the ‘feel good’ hormone, in your body, as certain gut bugs can promote serotonin production by cells in the gut wall, and some gut bugs actually produce serotonin themselves.  95% of your serotonin is produced in your gut and impacts mood by sending signals to the brain via the Vagus nerve.

Some antidepressants increase serotonin, but what if we could increase our own serotonin levels by changing our diet?

If we are constantly stressed, (and in today’s world, we are all a bit stressed!) our body slows down digestion, and as a result our gut – our microbiome – can suffer, causing low mood and anxiety due to the gut-brain axis, the Vagus nerve.

What other things might be causing this fight or flight reaction?  Is there anything you can change in your nutrition which might reduce stress and hence improve your gut health and mental health?
 

Let’s look at what you eat or drink, and how this might be affecting your mental health. 

1. Fibre

• Your good gut bugs LOVE fibre!  
• Aim for 30g a day
• Pile your plate high with vegetables, add in whole grains, nuts and seeds – both your physical and mental health will improve

2. Tryptophan

• An amino acid vital for the production of Serotonin
• Add salmon, eggs, cheese, turkey, tofu, pineapple and oats to your shopping list

3. Coffee

• Coffee is a good source of fibre, so you may expect me to be promoting drinking lots of it to feed your microbiome, and for those of you who sleep deeply for 7+ hours a night, aren’t stressed and don’t have anxiety, coffee might be OK  
• But caffeine sets off the fight or flight response, and even if you don’t realise it, may be a cause of your palpitations, rapid heart rate or feelings of anxiety  
• Caffeine may also be impacting your sleep, and poor sleep is in itself a cause of low mood
• Try decaffeinated coffee or replace your coffee with water or herbal teas

4. Breakfast

• Going without breakfast for some (often women) can mean starting the day stressed.  The body thinks there is a famine, which spikes stress hormones, causing rapid heart rate and feelings of anxiety
• Eating protein, fibre and good fat, tells the body we are safe, reducing the stress response and allowing us to start the day calmer and more in control
• Eating a protein based breakfast will also balance blood glucose for the rest of the day, reducing low mood brought on by low blood sugar

5. Alcohol

• At the end of a stressful day, which one of us doesn’t want to relax with a glass of wine?  But alcohol doesn’t help us to sleep, it sedates us, and is toxic
• It may knock us out for 2-3 hours, but then wakes us at 3am when the liver is working hard to detoxify the system, feeling anxious and probably a bit depressed
• Alcohol also wipes out our gut microbes.  Remember using alcohol as an antibacterial hand gel during Covid?  Every time we drink, we damage our microbiome, impacting our mental health
• Try limiting your alcohol to one or 2 drinks on a Friday or Saturday night, giving your microbiome 5-6 days to recover

 
Remember, better health isn’t about doing everything!  Trying to do it all will just result in more stress and anxiety!  Try any one of these and stick with it for a month to see if it works for you.  Then if you feel you can, add in another.

More about Sarah

Sarah has been working in the health and wellbeing space for over 20 years, combining her love of science (she has a biochemistry degree from Imperial College) and helping people live their best lives by making small changes to their nutrition and lifestyle.

You can work with Sarah 1:1 to improve your own physical and mental wellbeing, or she can come to your office to deliver wellbeing talks to your colleagues and staff.

Professional Wellbeing website

Sarah on LinkedIn