Nutrition

Nutrition & Mental Health

Just like other organs of the body, the brain requires a range of nutrients to function properly. These include essential (meaning they can only be obtained from the diet) fatty acids, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals and vitamins such as B vitamins, vitamin C, folic acid, magnesium, selenium and zinc and water.

Recent studies on nutrition and mental health have found that there is a link between unhealthy dietary patterns and symptoms of depression. An unhealthy diet contains mainly ultra-processed foods that have been highly manipulated and usually include ingredients such as colours and flavours, which are not used in regular cooked meals.

Other unhealthy foods include sugar-sweetened beverages, such as soft drinks (sodas, packed juices), and packaged snacks that are high in added sugar, salt, saturated and trans fats. Poor blood sugar control may harm mental health by increasing gut and brain inflammation, thus compromising mental health

Food should not be an afterthought in the treatment of mental health issues, but rather should be at the forefront of treatment.Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at the King’s College in London in the United Kingdom investigated exactly how nutrition might affect mental health. They focused their research on the effects of diet on the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is an area of the brain that generates new neurons in a process called neurogenesis. Research has linked neurogenesis in the hippocampus to a person’s mood and cognition. A good number of minerals are essential for mental health, due to their roles as co-factors for neurotransmitter-producing enzymes and their effects on neurogenesis.

In Uganda, we are blessed with foods that are considered to be in the category of healthy foods like the ones above

At Break Free we follow a well-structured menu that includes all the above foods. We purposefully avoid dietary patterns that typically lead to obesity, diabetes, and other physical/mental health problems.

Here are some of the foods to avoid:

  • Processed/canned/packaged foods.
  • Fried foods
  • Refined grains, such as white bread
  • Sugary products