Health is often referred to our physical bodies. Mass majority of individuals move their physical bodies most days of the week to achieve their definition of health. Maybe they do it because they want to, maybe for their sport, maybe because their doctor told them to, maybe for stress relief?
I am the latter, I always feel the need to move my body because it is my outlet, my me time, my creative thinking space, my “solve the world’s problem” time, where I can let my mind run wild, and obviously I am doing it for the “physical” health aspect.
There’s no denying moving your body is good for the body, MIND, and soul but no one, until recently, focused on the MIND part. Lately, more individuals are taking care of their minds. The mental health aspect of their life– this needs to be “exercised” as much as physical exercise.
There are so many wonderful professionals out there in the world willing to help find the best tools for your mental tool box. Now let’s start building the bridge from nutrition to mental health. In this blog post, I’ll discuss briefly some small aspects of nutrition and mental health. This, in no way, scratches deep into these areas nor only happens around nutrition. October happens to celebrate World Mental Health day and my profession happens to encompass nutrition.
Let’s start with eating disorders; yep, we are going there. There are several different disorders that develop in a thousand different ways but put simply, are eating behaviors developed to deal with problems and could have nothing to do with food. What someone believes as a coping mechanism turns into a ripple effect on their eating behaviors. The eating disorder “voice” starts to get louder and louder as the behaviors become more frequent. It is NOT the individual’s fault and an individual cannot “just fix it”. In my experience listening to stories, eating disorders slowly evolve over time starting from a comment from a friend, family member, coach, teammate, or random person on the street bullying them about their body. It can take years for individuals to seek help because of the “fear” that is present. Again to put simply, the actions taken in the eating behaviors are a way to control an aspect of their life and he or she may believe these actions are through food. Ever hear the saying, “you control what you put in your body”? Maybe it should be “you control what you put or don’t put in your body”…
Relative energy deficient in Sport (RED-S) is a new-ish term presented by the IOC in 2014 but health professionals have seen this for years. It is often referred to as the female athlete triad. Relative energy deficiency is a syndrome of impaired physical functions i.e. metabolic rate, menstrual function, bone health, immunity etc., and psychological can precede or be a result of RED-S. Oh and RED-S includes men, meaning men suffer from similar physical and psychological affects.
So let’s back up and explain what energy availability is and then maybe the “energy deficient” term in RED-S makes more sense. Energy availability is the amount of energy left over and available for your natural body functions (heart pumping, blood circulating, menstrual cycle) after the energy expended from workouts minus the energy you consume from food. So if you do not consume enough energy from food then it only covers your work outs (if that) and doesn’t allow your body to function efficiently. But what if I don’t work out? Using your brain (literally) takes energy so again, if you don’t consume enough energy from food for your body to utilize for normal daily living, you can be affected. Lacking available energy can happen over time, your body will adapt to keep you alive, and will start to show you signs such as stopping your menstrual flow, decrease sex drive in men, affect bone health, growth and development, and blood work.
How does this play a role in mental health? Lacking available energy can increase depression, irritability, and decrease concentration and judgement. Stress levels rise and all of the side effects start to consume you. Depression is a risk factor of an eating disorder, as is skipping a menstrual cycle for 3 or more consecutive months along with other symptoms that can lead down a rabbit hole towards mental illness. Remember, there’s always a ripple affect.
I say that to say this… there are some people that have NO idea they are not providing their body enough energy and go years without symptoms which triggers the question, “is this normal?” I see this in athletes all of the time. It’s not their fault. It is my job to help educate and influence healthy relationship with food, explain the energy availability process, and help pull them away from that rabbit hole. RED-S focuses on sport but you can easily take off the “-S” part and apply to anyone. That is why it is important to listen to what your body is trying to tell you!
This leads us to Intuitive eating- a 10 principle process that helps people integrate attunement of mind, body and food. Intuitive eating allows you to trust your body to tell you when it’s hungry, based on hunger cues, allows you to know when you are full, challenge the food police (there’s those voices again), make peace with food to flourish a healthy relationship with food, cope with the emotions, respect the body you have, and move you towards gentle nutrition. Before you start your next diet, check out this book. How does this play a role in mental health? Majority of the principles have nothing to do with eating until the last one. This is a great resource to become attune to your body, MIND, and soul.
Taking care of your mind through active mental health resources is not weak; in fact, it can only make you stronger when change happens, during times of the unknown, or a global pandemic happens.
Reaching out and assisting meals (and minds). ROAM free.