Change Your Brain Every Day - How to Calm Your Anxiety Through Your Diet, with Dr. Uma Naidoo

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

Due to the pandemic, anxiety prescriptions have more than doubled. Although people are more anxious than ever, the choice to start taking anxiety meds is a big decision and comes with its own set of side effects. Luckily, there are some natural ways to treat your anxiety, and it all starts in the kitchen. In the second episode of a series with “This is Your Brain on Food” author Dr. Uma Naidoo, she and the Amens discuss which foods will help you feel better and relax, and which ones will cause your anxiety to skyrocket. For more info on Dr. Naidoo’s new book “This is Your Brain on Food”, visit https://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Food-Indispensable/dp/0316536822

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back. We're having so much fun with Dr. Uma Naidoo. She is Harvard and Cambridge trained psychiatrist and professional chef. I can't even think of a

better combination. It's so much fun talking about all of this. And she has a new book out that we're talking about. This is your brain on food comes out August 4th. And I love this. I actually like the timing. I know no one wants to have a book coming out right now because of the timing, but I like the timing and I'll tell you why we talked a little bit about it in the last episode. So welcome back doctor. And I do, but the last episode, we talked a little bit about, um, why this is actually a good time because people are more anxious, more depressed, but also I practice martial arts. And one of the reasons I practice martial arts is because I like the empowerment as someone who felt disempowered as a child. I like doing something that makes me feel empowered. Well, right now people are more

anxious, more depressed because they don't feel empowered. They feel out of control, but you're home and we're calling it the COVID-19, the 19 pounds, right? You can do something right now. You're home. So this is a great time to start getting control of your diet. And we'd love to just talk to you about what are some simple things people can do to get started on your program? Well, and also the foods to really treat anxiety. Because they're a little different, right? Exactly. Whenever you learn, post it on any of your social media sites.

And you can pre-order this book. Go to Uma Naidoo N-A-I-D-O-O N-A-I-D-O-O N-A-I-D-O-O So Uma, U-M-A-N-A-I-D-O-O N-A-I-D-O-O N-A-I-D-O-O-M-D dot com. N-A-I-D-O-O. So Uma, U-M-A-N-A-I-D-O-O. M-D dot com.

All right. Enough for all of it. Thank you so much. These are great questions. You know, thinking of the name of your podcast, I think that we all, like you just said, you know, we kind of have to pull out the worry in ourselves and see that's with an A and not an O. Because if we worry, that doesn't help. But we can actually use, you know, food to really build up our armor. For example, a couple of things that have happened over COVID, that anxiety, people who weren't previously anxious are now quite anxious, even wanting to see a doctor for medication. Zoloft is on shortage in certain

dosages. And so the one of the pharmaceutical, I think it was one of the prescription companies did a survey and the prescriptions for anxiety have doubled or quadrupled. So we understand that people are struggling. And so I think that if we can embrace certain foods just to help lower anxiety, that could really reduce our stress levels. And things I like to suggest to people are things like turmeric with black pepper. You can add it to a smoothie, you can add it to any food. If you don't cook with it, put it in your soup, you know, make a tea with it. Or even in, like I said, like in a smoothie, the black pepper we understand activates the curcumin, which is the active ingredient in turmeric,

by a huge percent and makes its absorption better. So that's a great and easy tip that if you can purchase that in the supermarket, it's quick and easy to do. All you really need, you know, is a quarter teaspoon a day. You can have more. It's not going to be toxic by, you know, it's a very a day, you can have more, it's not going to be toxic by, you know, it's a very large range of the amount you can eat, but really, you only need a quarter teaspoon a day with a pinch of black pepper. Now with omega three supplements, they've been around

for a while. And I love to people to embrace that through food, because I think that well, you know, well sourced salmon, mackerel, herring, some of those, those types of seafood really contains some good omega threes in it. And the cool thing is that you're also going to help out mood symptoms. And you know, it's going to target anxiety too. So so that's, that's always a good way to go. Then, you know, the other suggestion is vitamin D. It's been shown in trials to help anxiety so i try to ask people to do that but then i also think like you you know mentioned about how we've outlined it in the book it's helpful for people to know what to avoid too

and the things are the unhealthy fats so things that are going to get that ratio of the omega-6 and omega-3 out of whack. So, you know, the oils that we try to avoid, the highly processed foods, also foods with gluten for anxiety were found to be slightly problematic. So those are things you want to stay from and also artificial sweetness. So a lot of the artificial sweetness can actually drive anxiety the wrong way. And so I try to give people just a little cheat sheet around some of those to start with. Which sweeteners do you like? So when I try to help people who like super sweet food or have a sweet tooth that they want to improve,

the two that we suggest if you're trying to come off come off sweetness are stevia or erythritol um and that's partly related to the mechanism related to insulin yeah so um you know and if you can come off it eventually better because maybe maybe you know we might find something wrong with them in the future as you know nutritional research changes day by day. Almost any day you can find one study for and one study against something. But I think these are general guidelines. If you like sweet stuff, try those. And over time, try to move towards more natural sources of sugar. Although what you said, I don't think's going to change. Omega-3 fatty acids just make up so much of nerve cell membranes. Colorful fruits and vegetables, probably not going to change. Spices like turmeric. I'm a huge fan of oregano. Oregano, rosemary, absolutely. Well, what you're saying is basically natural

foods are medicine you're using natural foods medicine food is medicine absolutely it's poison but when you're talking about some of the um less natural forms of sweeteners i think that's what you're referring to with the studies we couldn't agree more we recommend stevia and erythritol at currently and i always tell people attached to your message be attached to the current research coming out because it changes absolutely so right now that's the best we know exactly that that that was what i meant and i i i exactly want to emphasize all of the other stuff i think that we we know is pretty static because it's tested for years exactly and with sweeteners we just you, we just want to be a little bit more cautious.

And, but I also understand that we're a nation that likes sweet food. You know, it's culturally, this is a nation that eats sweet foods at breakfast. That's not the case in all parts of the world. So, so I think that just giving people some guidelines is always helpful. Yes. Thank you for clarifying that. So in the table of contents, you have the gut brain romance. I love that.

I love that. Think about the gut all the time. Absolutely. And my patients. People actually comment on it. They're like, why are you talking about my gut? That's right. I came here to say it first. um or depression probiotics omega-3s and the mediterranean eating pattern and so there we are yeah again um and so when some people hear the mediterranean eating pattern tan and i both

love italy almost all of our best vacations are Italy. They have all this pizza and pasta. So I'm getting a sense that's not really what you mean, that pizza and pasta and the local Italian eatery is good for your brain. I'm not sure that's how the locals eat, though, all the time. If you go down the mediterranean. Exactly. I love that's how the locals eat, though, all the time. If you go down the meds. Exactly. I love that, though.

You know, it's so true. You know, I've understood, and I don't know enough about culinary history, although I'm very interested in it, that pizza is more of an American food. However, you're actually right. You know, pizza parlors, huge pasta dishes are what people associated with that would be really referring to two points about that. And I thank you for bringing it up. You know, I use Mediterranean eating pattern, because I find that the word diet to my patients indicates they have to give up something that they have to restrict something or they can't eat. And

I'm all about sharing with them how many things they can eat, because then they immediately start to feel better, like they're not going to feel deprived. And there's less of that boomerang effect of let me restrict this food. And then, you know, three weeks later, I eat two, you know, two tubs of ice cream, that kind of effect that many people experience. And it's quite, quite normal when you're trying to do that. So I use that, you know, use the eating pattern just to be easier, more easily explained to my patients. And then the second point about it is we're talking about the Mediterranean region. So a lot of the diet actually includes healthy fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, seafood, really fresh, healthy seafoods that are well-sourced.

And they enjoy. And then olive oil as the healthy fat that is used to prepare them. So even if they do eat pasta, well, we've taken two Mediterranean cruises and we've been to Rome and we've been to the, in like other parts of Italy, um, other parts of Italy are more touristy and you'll see more pizza and pasta. But when we took the Mediterranean cruises, we really did like even Greece and all those areas that I remember trying to order something else besides fish off the menu

and she kept shaking her head no she's like it's too heavy it's too hot it's too heavy why is she telling me what to eat and so they give you a salad and fish and olive oil and vinegar and that's it that's really interesting because the real mediterranean areas that is how they eat especially that is how they eat exactly especially. That is how they eat. Exactly. And I appreciate Dr. Amon giving me, you know, an easy question that I could answer this. So thank you. Thank you for setting that up so beautifully.

I was just typing on my phone. And I know we don't like the word diet because the first three letters of diet are diet. Yet, I would call this the big brain diet or is the small brain. And so I often tell my patients when they go to choose something to eat, just ask themselves this simple question. This is good for my brain or is it bad for it right and ultimately once they read your book they're going to have the clear answer to that but it's also another question i just thought of it is do i want a big brain or do i want a small brain and in large part that's genes. That's what you put in your mouth

that determines the size of your blue jeans. All right. When we come back, we're going to talk more about anxiety, but I'm going to talk about PTSD and ADHD as well. Stay with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're considering coming to Amen Clinics or trying some of the brain healthy supplements from BrainMD, you can use the code podcast10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or a 10% discount on all supplements

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