The quality of the food you eat can impact your overall well-being. But the way you eat your food can also have an effect. Learn more about how you can eat in a way that supports your mental health—and still satisfy your sweet tooth.
In this article:
How healthy eating helps
Key points
Healthy eating helps your body and mind:
Eating nutritious foods gives you energy, helps your brain work better, and can even improve your mood. A healthy diet may lower your risk of depression and support brain areas that control memory and emotions.
Smart food choices make a difference:
Eating a mix of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy proteins keeps your body strong. Avoid too much sugar, unhealthy fats, and caffeine. Eating regularly and choosing good snacks, like nuts and whole grains, helps keep your energy steady.
Plan your shopping for better nutrition:
Making a grocery list and focusing on fresh, whole foods can help you eat healthier. Frozen vegetables, whole grains, and budget-friendly options like canned fish and beans are good choices. Some key nutrients for mental health include folate, Vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids.
How healthy eating helps
Eating a balanced, nutritious diet can:
- Boost your energy
- Lower the risk of developing certain diseases
- Provide fuel to your brain
- Counteract the impact of stress on your body
- Affect mood-related body chemicals
People who eat healthily have lower chances of developing depression and other mental health conditions. Studies show that even one portion of fruits and vegetables per day can reduce the risk of depression in adults.
The food you eat can even change your brain. Diet is linked to the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in learning, memory, and mental health. People with healthy diets have more hippocampal volume than those with unhealthy diets.
The basic ingredients
Following some basic suggestions can boost your energy, mood, and overall wellness. We can’t cover all the elements of nutrition here, so we’re offering a few morsels:
- Take a look at MyPlate, a framework created by The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which says a healthy diet:
- Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat dairy products
- Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts
- Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars
- Don’t skip meals. Eating consistently throughout the day provides your brain and body with steady energy. It also prevents your blood sugar from dropping, which can cause nervousness, irritability, and other problems.
- Snack well. Keep up your energy throughout the day by packing healthy snacks. Try to have some nuts, whole or dried fruit, or other portable food with you. This can reduce the likelihood that you will overeat later because you have the nutrients you need.
- Eat a variety of foods. Your brain needs a healthy supply of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins to perform functions that affect your mood and thinking.
- Don’t over-diet. Strict food rules usually backfire, and excessive dieting can be dangerous. If you or someone you know seems at risk of an eating disorder, professional counseling can help.
- Slow down. Do your best to eat slowly and mindfully. Enjoy the texture, flavor, and smell of your food. You can also pause before eating to be thankful you have access to food. Enjoying food away from your desk and with people you care about can also make the experience of eating more pleasurable.
- Be carb smart. Carbohydrates can boost the body chemical serotonin, creating a relaxed feeling. But sweets and other refined carbs (where most of the fiber has been removed) can cause your blood sugar to rise and drop. This can lead to irritability, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and difficulty focusing. Choose carbs that enter your system slowly and evenly, like whole-grain breads, fruits, and veggies.
- Reduce saturated fat and cholesterol. Your brain needs a strong blood supply to function well. Saturated fats and cholesterol can narrow your blood vessels, so watch out for too much red meat, egg yolks, butter, and whole milk. Look for healthy fats like the ones found in fish, avocados, olive oil, and nuts.
- Limit alcohol. If you’re stressed out, alcohol may seem to offer relief. However, it actually adds stress to your body and causes problems like disturbed sleep and poor judgment.
- Cut back on caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant, so it can make you nervous and restless and disturb your sleep—even if you drink it hours before bed. If you’ve been drinking a lot, cut back slowly, or you’ll risk withdrawal.
Nutrients to keep in mind
Some nutrients have a greater impact on mental health. Here are three important nutrients to keep in mind:
- Folate (folic acid, vitamin B9): Folate is especially important for pregnant women, but everyone needs folic acid for healthy hair, skin, nails, eyes, liver, and red blood cell production. Leafy green vegetables like spinach and kale, fruits, nuts, beans, and whole grains have high amounts of folate, or folic acid.
- Vitamin D: Lack of Vitamin D is thought to play a role in seasonal affective disorder. Vitamin D is needed to help the body absorb calcium for strong teeth and bones, the health of muscles, and the immune system.
Most foods do not naturally have Vitamin D, but many are “Vitamin D fortified.” Fatty fish like salmon and tuna have the most naturally occurring Vitamin D. Other foods like milk, orange juice, and breakfast cereals have Vitamin D added.
Our bodies also produce Vitamin D from being in the sun. Getting outside can help you get the Vitamin D you need, but supplements may be used in the fall and winter months.
- Omega-3 fatty acids: Some studies suggest that omega-3s may be helpful in the treatment of depression and seem to have a mood-stabilizing effect. Omega-3 essential fatty acids may also help boost the effectiveness of some antidepressants and help young people with ADHD.
Omega-3 fatty acids are also thought to be important in reducing inflammation, the primary cause of conditions like arthritis and asthma, and play a role in heart health by reducing triglycerides (blood fats).
Oily fish (salmon, trout, mackerel, anchovies, and sardines) are the most highly recommended sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and the American Heart Association suggests eating two servings of fish per week. Omega-3s can also be found in walnuts, flax (or flaxseed oil), olive oil, fresh basil, and dark green leafy vegetables.
Tips for the grocery store
When you’re trying to balance everything in your life, it can be tempting to reach for what’s easy, like fast food or other processed snacks. Here are some tips to simplify your grocery shopping and help you make healthy choices:
- Make a shopping list. Plan out a few meals you’d like to make for the week and list all the ingredients you will need. A list will help keep you on track. If making a plan can be challenging for you, try using goblin.tools to help you generate a shopping list.
- Try to keep your shopping around the outside of the grocery store where the fresh, refrigerated, and frozen foods are, rather than in the center aisles where less healthy foods like chips, cookies, and candy can be tempting.
- If fresh veggies tend to expire before you get a chance to eat them, buy frozen ones instead. Stores carry an assortment of steam-in-bag vegetables that keep well in the freezer and cook in the microwave in a matter of minutes.
- Choose whole-grain pastas, breads, cereals, granola bars, and snacks instead of those made with white flour. Whole grains are a good source of fiber, which promotes digestive health and provides folate (or folic acid).
- A healthy diet doesn’t need to be expensive. Save money by choosing canned or frozen vegetables and fish, and dried fruits and beans. These are nutritionally similar to fresh foods, stay good longer, and are usually less expensive!
MHA resources
- Through the eyes of a kid, what is it like growing up in a food desert? (Blog)
- Understanding avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder as a mother (Blog)
- Digestive and gut issues in recovery
- Eating disorders
- I can’t stop stress eating!
- Impact of food and nutrition on mental health (PDF)
- Becoming kids’ role model for positive food relationship and healthy body image – even if you haven’t figured it out for yourself (Webinar)
- I don’t know how to talk to my child about food and body image (Webinar)
- What is an eating disorder?
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