Brain Energy and Metabolic Minds

Burning calories thinking about thinking

Nutritional psychologist Georgia Ede makes the case that the brain is part of the body. When the foods we eat don't provide needed nutrition for our bodies, our brains suffer too. (Video: Dr. Georgia Ede - 'Our Descent into Madness: Modern Diets and the Global Mental Health Crisis') [Update: Dr. Ede’s 2024 book, Change your Diet; Change your Mind.]

.Our brains, though just two percent of body weight, consume some twenty percent of body energy. So when our brain’s fuel supply is somehow constrained we are more likely to feel run down, depressed, or low-energy. It’s worth exploring. Maybe poor nutrition also contributed to other behavior problems: anxiety, impulsiveness, temper, even violence (see Better Nutrition for Federal Prisons with link to 2018 study: Influence of supplementary vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids on the antisocial behaviour of young adult prisoners).

Though more and more Americans are overweight, psychiatrists have noticed an even higher percentage of their patients are overweight. Some psychiatrists who have lost weight by reducing carbohydrates in their diet shared their experience with patients. Then the unexpected: as some patients lost weight from dietary changes their mental health improved. A lot. Chris Palmer’s book Brain Energy presents the emerging research on metabolic health and mental health.

Dr. Chris Palmer will be speaking at Low Carb Denver at the Gaylord Rockies Resort Feb 23-26, 2023. Dr. Palmer is featured in this September 2022 podcast. And also featured in this 2021 DietDoctor podcast: Ketogenic diets and mental health

To support research on dietary causes/cures/treatments for bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions: Baszucki Brain Research Fund and Milken Institute Announce Grant Recipients for Bipolar Disorder Therapeutic Research (January 2022). Baszuki Group research and videos here. More recently, further research and communications in process with Metabolic Mind, with this introductory video: Metabolic Mind: Baszucki Family and Neuroscientists on Keto and Metabolic Psychiatry

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Even the New York Times is onboard (not always a good sign): How Food May Improve Your Mood (May 6/December 20, 2021):

The findings stem from an emerging field of research known as nutritional psychiatry, which looks at the relationship between diet and mental wellness. The idea that eating certain foods could promote brain health, much the way it can promote heart health, might seem like common sense. But historically, nutrition research has focused largely on how the foods we eat affect our physical health, rather than our mental health.

This DietDoctor page surveys food and mood research: Low carb and mental health: The food-mood connection (September 30, 2022). Dr. Brian Lenzkes, in a recent podcast, mentioned that for the 2020 documentary Fat Fiction (full movie) (trailer), discussion of patients improved mood and mental health after reducing carbohydrates (especially sugar and highly processed foods), was cut from the final version. It was considered unsettled science then, but just a few years later, a lot more research has been published.

From past post, Lacking Nutrition Knowledge, 88 Million Inflamed:

Mental Health Problems from Poor Nutrition Too People metabolically inflamed from eating the wrong macronutrients suffer a range of physical and mental conditions. Americans who are metabolically unhealthy also have brains struggling to deal with poor nutrition… Consider Dr Georgia Ede's Psychology Today posts and YouTube video on "the growing global mental health crisis and the importance of nutrition in maintaining a healthy mind." (link to DenverDietDoctor.com page).’