Food and emotion | the impact of diet on physical and mental health during the epidemic of new coronavirus

Food and emotion: the impact of diet on physical and mental health during the epidemic of new coronavirus (COVID-19).

Food and emotion

In difficult times and stressful environments, people can easily rely on food for emotional comfort; however, eating suboptimal food can also change a person's mental health. Here, Dr. Uma Naidoo, director of the Department of Nutrition and Lifestyle Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, made recommendations to help everyone maintain physical and mental health during the pandemic of the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

What is nutritional psychiatry and how does it relate mental health to nutrition?

People often say, "You are made of what you eat." Nutrition Theology studies the effects of food and nutrition on mental health. Scientifically speaking, because certain chemical substances will move back and forth between the human intestine and these areas of the brain, there is a physical connection between them, so food will affect our mental health. For example, there are research areas that show that following the Mediterranean diet can prevent the development of depression.

What kind of mental health problems can good nutrition alleviate?

Anxiety disorder is the most common mental illness in the United States, followed by depression. There is no doubt that these mental health problems will worsen during the pandemic of the new coronavirus. We recommend eating more fruits and vegetables, lean meat, whole grains, and healthy fats (such as olive oil and avocado) while reducing added sugars. Doing so can maintain a healthier balance of intestinal bacteria. It is currently confirmed that this can indeed relieve anxiety, stress, and depression.

What should people pay attention to when buying food?

When shopping, it is recommended that you first put some healthy food in the shopping cart. Here are some suggestions for foods that can improve mental health:

• First, look around the outside of the store, usually where the fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, poultry are located.
• Consider using sweet potatoes instead of potatoes. Sweet potato is a more complex carbohydrate, which takes longer to digest. You can even use the oven instead of french fries.
• Try to use melon spaghetti instead of pasta.
• Organic canned beans (black beans, red kidney beans, cannellini, butter beans, navy beans) or dried beans can be purchased if you know how to cook dried beans in a pressure cooker
• Frozen vegetables that do not contain salt or sugar are super simple to make and are healthy and fast.
• Choose chicken or turkey instead of beef.
• If you have a large enough freezer, frozen fruit without syrup is another good choice.

What snacks do you recommend eating at home to help you get rid of it?

Here are some suggestions for managing sweet and salty cravings:

• Eat dark natural chocolate rich in antioxidants with fresh orange or citrus. Eating chocolate without natural alkalizing agents has positive benefits for the brain. In addition, all citrus is rich in vitamin C, which is a powerful immune booster.
• Make air popcorn, then add appetizing seasonings (such as tacos spices) to make a delicious crispy snack with less oil.
• Try roasting kale slices in the oven to replace unhealthy potato chips.
• Try mixing berry salad and Greek yogurt with a little honey.

Should foods that are harmful to health/ mental health be avoided?

I call these "suspected foods" because even though we know that they are not healthy, we don't realize that they will worsen our mental health. Although we really need some pleasant enjoyment at this time, the focus is on temperance. When you eat your favorite food that is not so healthy, you can share it with your family, and you can control the amount of food. The prompt is as follows:

• Avoid drinking fruit juice with added sugar, because the sugar will increase calories. For example, it is recommended to eat oranges and avoid drinking orange juice.
• Keep away from packaged biscuits and baked goods; these snacks undergo a lot of preservative treatment, which may make people's emotions worse.
• In addition to candy, a great way to get texture and sweetness is to consider mixing raw almonds with dark chocolate chips and coconut chips.
• Avoid fried foods (you can consider oven baking or air fryers) and fast foods.

You can recommend a number of online resources?

These are the websites that I often check to help everyone maintain physical and mental health in difficult times. 

• Nutrition Channel of Harvard TH Chen School of Public Health
• Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letters
• Mediterranean diet, improving health, published by Harvard Health Press

Finally, Dr. Naidoo recommends that you choose one day a week, and let the whole family share one or two relatively unhealthy foods. In this way, you can both enjoy proper indulgence and maintain physical and mental health.

Credit By- Dr. Uma Naidoo, Director, Department of Nutrition and Lifestyle Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital.

https://www.who.int/behealthy/healthy-diet