How Critical Nutrients That are Commonly Deficient Lead to Mental Health Issues
“Mental illness” is not a phrase people typically go to right away when they think about disease. It is a difficult concept to understand and accept because we have trouble seeing it. Its outward appearance is often elusive. Nonetheless, mental health issues are a disease and one that can be linked by a number of maladies. Symptoms of sadness, anxiety, depression, insomnia, mental decline, and decreased alertness are just the most common examples - but they range far between. Some of the above listed are more severe than others, however, the introduction of critical nutrients into your body can combat these symptoms by strengthening the brain and gut connection.
The Standard American Diet
Sodas, fried foods, red meat, pre-packaged foods, and foods laden with sugar; don’t feel bad if you’ve indulged in any of these - they taste great and that's by design. The road to better gut health, in addition to moderation, is to incorporate certain groups of foods that lead to more sustainable nutrition and provide an overall healthier impact on our body.
The Key to Positively Restoring That Balance is Through Food
The food you eat is broken down in your gut and the nutritional components (both healthy and not-so-healthy) of these digested materials travel all throughout the “super highway” which we know as our circulatory system - or bloodstream. For example, the production of the chemical serotonin happens almost entirely in our gut. The outcome of this process is then carried into the bloodstream where it travels to the brain. It is here where those chemicals of serotonin interact with other neurotransmitters (such as dopamine) and in conjunction with many of the other nutritional components released via digestion, to make their impact on a microscopic level of the brain.