Change Your Brain Every Day - Is Your Sugar Addiction Stressing You Out? With Dr. Uma Naidoo

Episode Date: July 30, 2020

The last thing we need in our lives right now is more stress. The world has become full of uncertainties, and how we respond will play a big role in dictating our emotional health. But what if the stress is coming from within? In the fourth and final episode in a series with “This is Your Brain on Food” author Dr. Uma Naidoo, she and the Amens discuss how certain foods (especially sugar) are affecting your brain and leaving you feeling stressed out. 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 are having so much fun with Dr. Uma Naidoo and her book, This is Your Brain on Food, of course. I think we're having fun with this

because this is right up our alley. You can pre-order her book. It comes out August 4th at Dr. Uma. No, it's Uma Naidoo MD. So U-M-A-N-A-I-D-O-O-M-D.com. So having so much fun. This is just so in tune with us. And right before we get started, as we get started, Dr. Naidoo, Naidoo, I'm saying it's Naidoo, correct? It's Naidoo, but I don't know either. So as we get started, I love what you said about the substitutions. Like we mentioned the Greek yogurt for dinner or for dessert. I

switched it out for coconut yogurt. That's a big one. For people who are totally dairy or sheep's milk yogurt. Yes. Those are other options. So we need you to be thinking outside the box. When you were trying to do this, people get really stuck on, oh, I can't do this program because it doesn't fit whatever my issue is. But you can just be a little creative and switch things out for your needs. It's still working, right? I really appreciate you saying that because in mental health, as both of you can attest to, you know, when someone comes to you not feeling well, you've got to be able to meet them where they're at. It's sort of one of the principles that we work with.

And so given that people eat a wide variety of diets, it doesn't matter what I eat. It's more important how I can work with you to use these principles to feel better. So I love that you said that about the different types of yogurt because it turns out that the non dairy forms of yogurt are actually putting in probiotics now, which is a culture. So it's actually super healthy that way. And I think it's people should just feel comfortable to switch out options, their version, if it says, say it happens to say,

you know, yogurt, and you don't have that, but also the type of milk. You know, it's really only in technical basic baking recipes where the chemical interactions matter in that way. Most most of the savory recipes, you can switch out a lot of good things. Yep, I love that. So in the few minutes we have left, what are some, did you have a patient story that can sort of bring this together when you get them to really be thoughtful about their diet? What happens? So I think that one of the things I like to bring it back to with my patients is sort of the first chapter of the book, which is the gut brain romance and the fact that the gut and brain are connected. And we don't often realize that,

but they are through the vagus nerve and, and the, the fact that the chemicals and food impacts what travels back and forth to the brain. And a great example of this would be a patient who was an executive who got promoted at work and And over about 18 months, he his his, you know, his work was highly successful, but he was eating fewer meals at home traveling more eating in airports. And sometimes, you know, getting a food, a snack at the vending machine, because he was at work such long hours. And when he was home during the week, he was eating a full dinner because his

wife would keep it for him but he would then feel so hungry that he was getting into the snack cabinet cabinet you know for which was actually meant for the kids he actually presented to me believe it or not not with weight problems or anything like that he had definitely gained some weight but he presented to me with severe anxiety and his gastroenterologist had sent him to me and I was interested to understand why he was presenting with panic at this stage in his life. And I'm sharing the backstory. When I first met him, he presented with panic. And as I uncovered the history, it turns out his diet had changed dramatically in about 18 months he was eating a lot of processed food a lot of fast foods you know people don't understand that or don't know

that um our fast food french fries have sugar in them because a lot of research has gone into making them delectable and delicious and wanting you to eat more uh so we actually consuming sugar when we don't even know it and um his stress was so high that it had disrupted his gut balance, for want of making, you know, just to break it down for people. And there was dysbiosis going on, inflammation in the gut. And he was having some, recently he was seeing a gastroenterologist. He was presenting with these unusual gut symptoms. But what happened is then he got sent to me because he had panic.

And when we sort of really cycled back and understood what was going on by changing his diet over time, slowly and steadily, and he was very good about really sticking with the plan and truly, sincerely wanted to get better. Adding back healthy whole foods, you foods, fiber-rich foods, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, healthy fats, excluding the stuff that was irritating his gut and helping him sleep regularly, helping him cut back from the one to the three glasses of wine,

cutting back on that, adding back more things like simple hydration, fresh berries, all of those foods over a period of probably about eight weeks to 10 weeks, he was starting to feel better. It wasn't perfect, but it was really a lot within a month, he was starting to feel the physical symptoms getting better. But over time, all of that abated to the point that we didn't, he wasn't so severely panicked that we had to start a medication, fortunately, and he really wanted to try the nutritional route. And what it did for me is it put together the combination of

understanding the gut brain axis and the impact of diet changing that and a person presenting with physical symptoms to one doctor but being referred to me for mental health symptoms but they were all related so you know it was it was really a learning it was really a learning kind of experience for me treating him as well and getting him back to a point of health and naturally as this happened the weight fell off as well the weight that he gained just just fell away and he felt healthier well you feel less anxious you get into your clothes and you don't a lot of your sleeping self-loathing yeah that's right yes yeah nobody wants to go shopping for a bigger pair of pants no but, but then it's like this circle. Because when you sleep better, you're going to make better decisions. You're going to feel better.

You're going to lose weight. It's all related. Yeah. How can people find out more about your work? I mean, we know they can go get the book. This is Your brain on food. Go to Uma Naidoo, M-D dot com, N-A-I-D-O-O. But how can they learn more from you?

Sure. So I work at Mass General at the hospital and you can contact us through the website. My clinic is at the hospital. We actually are trying. We don't have the details ironed out yet, but we're trying to offer virtual nutritional psychiatry consultations so that people who are this virtual world has allowed for that who are in different parts of the country could consult with us. And so, you know, I can be reached at the hospital through the website. I'm on the Mass General Hospital website. I have a phone listed there and just look me up by my name. And that

would be one way to connect with us and see what we could do to either offer you a consultation. And if we can, we certainly will try our best to do so do so well it has been such a joy to spend time with you and talk about what's a passion for all three of us yeah we're so happy for you this is your first um this is your first it's my best book putting all your knowledge well the next one is this is your brain on food cookbook well this is this it's a little like having a baby when you do a book i mean i'm so true yeah it's like i've had 10 children basically or 11 um because i've won it looks so good all this you know there's this growth that goes into it you have these you know it's so true you're really big and then you birth it now you have to grow it right so you actually have so

true and thank you for for the help in doing that because it's well we're excited for you thank you yeah all right um if you learned anything hopefully a lot write it down take a picture of it post it on any of your social media sites uh we would be grateful tag brain warriors way podcast you can also go to the brain Warriors Way podcast. You can also go to thebrainwarriorswaypodcast.com or brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. Leave us a comment, question, or review, and we'll enter into a raffle for the Brain Warriors Way cookbook or my new book, The End of Mental Illness. Thanks for being with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always

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