Nutrition and Mental Health Part 3 - Food categories

In order to understand how this started, I will probably write a series of blog posts related to nutrition, mental health, and how they are connected. This time I will speak about food categories:

We usually have 4 categories of food: fruit and veg grains, dairy, meat, fish, and poultry, and we recently added heavily processed food (fast food, sugary drinks, and sweets). We have a macronutrient level, I am talking about carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, related to how much energy your body can use from these meals ( You can read more about this in this book - The No-diet book - Eat healthily and live longer). Also, we have the micronutrient level, I am talking about vitamins and minerals ( You can read more about this in this book - The complete vitamins and minerals pocket guide).

It is a lot of confusion when we start to learn about diets and our relationship with food. The recommended amount is 45-65% carbohydrates, 20-25% fats, and 10-35% proteins (note: children need more good fats for optimal brain development). The overall calories per day are on average 2000 calories for a woman and 2500 calories for a man. Calories-based diets can be wrong, as not all calories are the same regardless of where they come from. Healthy eating guidance is needed, and these guidelines are presented often as healthy eating pyramids, for example, especially on the menu of institutions such as schools, hospitals, or prisons. This is better than focusing on calories, but putting carbohydrates, protein and fat first tends to ignore the micronutrients - vitamins and minerals. To sort this out, you need to use RDA lists (recommended dietary allowance), also named DRI (daily recommended intake) or even DV (daily values). Good luck with that (there are over 30 RDAs)!

It all started during WW2, to adequately feed the Armed Forces. We are talking here about the minimum intake required to avoid malnutrition and malnourishment. Today we define them as the quantities needed for optimal brain functioning. Some countries developed now a system to identify healthy choices, using traffic lights or a 5-star rating. But this system is wrong and can be rigged by the food corporations, as a low-calorie, low-sugar, low-fat, and low-sodium meal can get a green light or five stars, really, an empty cardboard box is all of those mentioned before, but this doesn't mean that we should eat it! Is this suspicious system just another marketing move to sell ultra-processed foods that only look healthy? Sure. Food needs to have healthy ingredients, but also requires the absence of unhealthy ingredients too. And none of them are including mental health as a selection factor.

What are the foods that are ideal to maximize the nutrient content? We had a study made between 1990-2017, across 195 countries, investigating dietary risk factors, and, not shocking at all, the conclusion is that we eat more processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages, and salt than needed, while we do not have enough whole grains, fruits, vegs, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

This was the introduction. The next few posts will talk about the nutrients relevant to brain health, focusing to understand the nutritional makeup of foods and re-focus on micronutrients (find more by reading this book - Vitamins and minerals pocket guide), brain basic needs and how to feed it, how to identify which ways the micronutrients maintain and support the body, and how to identify micronutrients rich foods.

See you around, and enjoy your day, George