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#HURDLEMOMENT: An Expert On How to Eat for Better Brain Function · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:14
Speaker 1: Hey, Hurdler's Emily a body here bringing you another installment
0:18
Speaker 1: of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle. For today's episode, I am
0:22
Speaker 1: chatting with doctor Uma Naid. She's a Harvard trained nutritional psychiatrist.
0:29
Speaker 1: Sounds super fancy. We'll talk about exactly what that is
0:32
Speaker 1: in today's episode, as well as a professional chef, a
0:36
Speaker 1: nutrition specialist and author of the relatively new book This
0:41
Speaker 1: Is Your Brain on Food. We are chatting all about
0:45
Speaker 1: foods for your brain, what you should be incorporating into
0:49
Speaker 1: your regular diet so that you can think clearly, do
0:53
Speaker 1: the things that you need to do, and even combat
0:57
Speaker 1: a little bit of brain fog, something that I think
1:00
Speaker 1: that many of us have been navigating over the last
1:04
Speaker 1: sixteen eighteen months. We also talk a little bit about
1:08
Speaker 1: stress eating, which I think is something that I certainly
1:11
Speaker 1: have been trying to work on lately, and some benefits
1:14
Speaker 1: that I didn't know about, a beverage that is in
1:17
Speaker 1: my regular routine, as well as the spices in your
1:21
Speaker 1: spice cabinet.
1:21
Speaker 2: A lot of really good intel here.
1:23
Speaker 1: Again, I know that so many of us have been
1:25
Speaker 1: just struggling to what feels like maintains to head quo
1:29
Speaker 1: as of late, and so I wanted to have doctor
1:32
Speaker 1: Uma as she is often referred to on the show
1:35
Speaker 1: to chat through, you know, just some healthy acts that
1:38
Speaker 1: we can implement into our diet so that we can
1:40
Speaker 1: perform better on the regular. Before we get into it today,
1:44
Speaker 1: no ad read here, Just a quick plug if you
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1:51
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2:18
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3:00
Speaker 1: Emily a Body And.
3:01
Speaker 2: With that, let's get to hurdling. Today. I am sitting
3:15
Speaker 2: down with doctor Uma and I do.
3:17
Speaker 1: She's a Harvard trained nutritional psychiatrist, a professional chef and
3:22
Speaker 1: nutrition specialist, and also the author of the book This
3:26
Speaker 1: Is Your Brain on Food.
3:27
Speaker 3: How you doing today, I'm well, Emily, thanks so much
3:31
Speaker 3: infinding me.
3:32
Speaker 2: Oh, of course, I'm so excited to have you here.
3:35
Speaker 1: Just the idea of being a nutritional psychiatrist. I feel
3:39
Speaker 1: as though so many people listening to this show may
3:42
Speaker 1: not even know that there are individuals who have this role.
3:47
Speaker 1: So talk to me a little bit about what it
3:49
Speaker 1: means to be a nutritional psychiatrist.
3:52
Speaker 3: Oh, definitely share what it means to me. The field
3:56
Speaker 3: of nutritional psychiatry is about using healthy, whole foods and
3:59
Speaker 3: nutrients to nourish your body in order to nourish your
4:03
Speaker 3: mental health. So it's the use of healthy, whole foods
4:06
Speaker 3: of nutrients for your mental well being. It doesn't exclude
4:09
Speaker 3: the use of medication to other therapies, but it really
4:11
Speaker 3: provides an additional tool in the toolkit for improving how
4:16
Speaker 3: you're feeling emotionally.
4:18
Speaker 1: Super interesting. Did you always think that you wanted to
4:21
Speaker 1: get into this sort of line of work.
4:23
Speaker 3: I would love to say, you know, hindsight is always
4:26
Speaker 3: twenty twenty, and I think that the way I would
4:29
Speaker 3: explain it is I always followed things that I loved
4:32
Speaker 3: to do, so medical school was a passion science and
4:36
Speaker 3: understanding modes of passion. I love nutrition and food. I
4:39
Speaker 3: grew up in a large South Asian families, so food
4:41
Speaker 3: is very central to my culture and how I grew
4:44
Speaker 3: up and spending time with my grandparents, so it was
4:49
Speaker 3: a big part of my life. And there were family
4:52
Speaker 3: members who were both allopathic positions and iabetic practitioners, so
4:55
Speaker 3: this sort of holistic thinking around medicine. My parents, my
5:00
Speaker 3: grandparents and parents taught me yoga and meditation, so I
5:04
Speaker 3: sort of came into the world with these different tools
5:07
Speaker 3: and my trip to culinary school though was my own
5:10
Speaker 3: to Julia Child because then I realized that she was
5:13
Speaker 3: actually known for her second career, which was the culinary arts.
5:16
Speaker 3: I thought, well, five time, why not me? You know,
5:18
Speaker 3: of course there was no time, but why not me?
5:20
Speaker 3: Became the question? So I followed things that I love
5:22
Speaker 3: to do. But I was very fortunate that it came
5:25
Speaker 3: together in a way that I wish I could say
5:28
Speaker 3: I planned, but I didn't. And the component of being
5:32
Speaker 3: able to actually translate food to people nutritionally but then
5:35
Speaker 3: share recipe that improves mental health is a very big
5:39
Speaker 3: part of how I work with individuals, so it's not
5:42
Speaker 3: just straightforward mental health part as well.
5:45
Speaker 1: And it's so interesting, right because there is just so
5:49
Speaker 1: much deep rooted you know, emotional, physical, Like, there's just
5:55
Speaker 1: so much in our mental health that has to do
5:57
Speaker 1: with food, right, I know for myself, And I'm sure
6:00
Speaker 1: you've spoken with so many people over the last fourteen, sixteen,
6:03
Speaker 1: eighteen months who leaned into food in ways that maybe
6:07
Speaker 1: they never had before for comfort and emotional outlet to
6:11
Speaker 1: deal with the unpredictability about what was going on in
6:14
Speaker 1: our world.
6:15
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, absolutely, you know, leaning on food and sort
6:21
Speaker 3: of and developing some people developed good habits, so that's
6:25
Speaker 3: great for them, but unfortunately the statistics are showing us
6:28
Speaker 3: that most of us leaned into bad habits and not
6:32
Speaker 3: the best from metabolic health, not the best for our weight.
6:35
Speaker 3: And certainly, you know, there's some trickery with how the
6:39
Speaker 3: neural circuits work because those foods that people call comfort foods,
6:43
Speaker 3: I call discomfort for the brain. But you know, those
6:46
Speaker 3: comfort foods initially create a little bit of a nice
6:48
Speaker 3: feeling for you, but that same feeling also creates a craving.
6:52
Speaker 3: So it becomes a vicious cycle of how we get
6:56
Speaker 3: into stress eating or emotional eating. And it's related to
6:59
Speaker 3: circuits related to the HPA access and the brain and
7:03
Speaker 3: things like that. So you know, we I say to
7:06
Speaker 3: people these days, think about something that you know you
7:09
Speaker 3: may have picked up during the pandemic that you really
7:11
Speaker 3: want to change. Stop small, just stop.
7:13
Speaker 1: There, right, And so today we're here to talk about
7:16
Speaker 1: cooking and eating for your brain.
7:18
Speaker 2: What can be helpful or's hurtful?
7:20
Speaker 1: But you brought up, you know, a trigger phrase there
7:23
Speaker 1: for me, which would be emotional or stress eating, something
7:26
Speaker 1: that again I'm sure that a lot of people listening
7:29
Speaker 1: to this episode, right now certainly have leaned into in
7:32
Speaker 1: the past. So before we get to articulating what some
7:36
Speaker 1: of these cooking and eating strategies can be to sharpen
7:39
Speaker 1: our brain on the day to day.
7:41
Speaker 2: I'd love to just talk about that for a minute.
7:44
Speaker 1: Talk about a tip or two that you could offer
7:47
Speaker 1: to the listener who feels like they are the kind
7:50
Speaker 1: of person who often leans into food when they are
7:54
Speaker 1: stressed or just feeling highly emotional.
7:56
Speaker 3: Right. You know, I think the two things that I
8:00
Speaker 3: feel are the most important is one is having awareness.
8:03
Speaker 3: I think that if we are aware that this situation
8:07
Speaker 3: of emotional eating is stressing us up, then it's worse
8:10
Speaker 3: than that stress cycle. Right. So having awareness and deciding
8:15
Speaker 3: is it something that we want to change, and then
8:18
Speaker 3: if you really feel that you want to, it's the
8:21
Speaker 3: first step towards stepping back from such a habit. Because
8:24
Speaker 3: the reality is if we can't feel that we can
8:27
Speaker 3: break that cycle, no one else can do it for us. Right,
8:31
Speaker 3: we have to be able to step away from the
8:33
Speaker 3: cookies or whatever it might be for a certain person.
8:37
Speaker 3: The second part of it is also environment. So if
8:40
Speaker 3: over COVID, you know, there's so much panic at different
8:44
Speaker 3: phases that people reached out with processed foods. Processed foods
8:48
Speaker 3: sales with significantly high in the United States and have
8:51
Speaker 3: remained that way throughout COVID, and what it taught us
8:53
Speaker 3: there's people looking for shelf stable foods that when they
8:58
Speaker 3: were afraid that what if we run out of It
9:00
Speaker 3: was a natural fear that people had at times when
9:04
Speaker 3: grocery shelves were empty in certain stores and things like that.
9:07
Speaker 3: So I get, I get that we had good reasons
9:09
Speaker 3: to feel that way. But now we're at a point
9:11
Speaker 3: where things have evolved a little bit and it's time
9:15
Speaker 3: to you know, unpack those those kitchen cabinets or where
9:19
Speaker 3: it is that you may be storing stuff that you
9:22
Speaker 3: stocked up on. And I'm not saying throughout all your food,
9:24
Speaker 3: but I am saying, be be aware if if if
9:28
Speaker 3: you have types of ice cream, if there are you know,
9:30
Speaker 3: there are lots of chips and cookies and things that
9:32
Speaker 3: are highly processed, which if we know, are not good
9:35
Speaker 3: for our gut and they're not good power of brain.
9:38
Speaker 3: Changing that environment and putting in healthier options becomes easier
9:43
Speaker 3: for you because the next time you want to snack,
9:45
Speaker 3: say you're working from home, and you want to snap
9:47
Speaker 3: and you get up to get something. If there isn't
9:50
Speaker 3: a chocolate or candy bar in your fridge or your
9:52
Speaker 3: your cabinet, but there are you know, there's fresh hummus
9:56
Speaker 3: and fresh veggies, or some snack or blueberrys. You know,
10:00
Speaker 3: some moments, if there's something else there, that's what you're
10:02
Speaker 3: going to reach out post. So some of it is
10:04
Speaker 3: also what I call environmental controls.
10:07
Speaker 1: No matter how strong your willpower is, if you have
10:10
Speaker 1: it in your environment, it's not going to be a
10:13
Speaker 1: guaranteed thing that you're going to be able to walk
10:15
Speaker 1: away from.
10:15
Speaker 3: You know, your brand's going to render their cookies.
10:20
Speaker 1: That's a good And it's so funny because I've like
10:23
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm certainly like a product of my environment.
10:25
Speaker 1: And I know if there is ice cream in the freezer,
10:28
Speaker 1: I'm going to have it at the end of every day.
10:30
Speaker 1: If there is chocolates in refrigerator, like those little dark
10:34
Speaker 1: chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's, I swear to God,
10:36
Speaker 1: I buy them every time I check out, and I
10:39
Speaker 1: know that I'm going to have one to two at
10:40
Speaker 1: the end of every day. But I had a bag
10:44
Speaker 1: of gummy bears that a girlfriend gave me for my birthday,
10:47
Speaker 1: which is a random thing to give someone for your birthday,
10:49
Speaker 1: but it's fine. And I put them in the top
10:53
Speaker 1: shelf of my cabinet that I never open, and I
10:56
Speaker 1: had them there for probably about a month and when
10:58
Speaker 1: I rediscovered that.
11:00
Speaker 2: Once I rediscovered them, it was a wrap.
11:05
Speaker 3: That's funny, Yeah, exactly. I mean, anything we can do
11:08
Speaker 3: to trick out great, you know, and and and help ourselves,
11:12
Speaker 3: it's it's it's it's a challenge. It's definitely not easy.
11:14
Speaker 3: But you know, when we start small with something that
11:17
Speaker 3: we feel is achievable and we can gain masterel with
11:21
Speaker 3: that that goal, people immediately start to feel the difference
11:26
Speaker 3: and then they want to do more. So so that's
11:28
Speaker 3: that's always where I feel we can stop the.
11:31
Speaker 2: Process, definitely.
11:34
Speaker 1: And so we're talking about our brains here, we're talking
11:37
Speaker 1: about how to eat for our better the betterment of
11:40
Speaker 1: our brain health. But before we even get into foods
11:43
Speaker 1: or tricks or tips, talk to me about how this
11:47
Speaker 1: is a thing, right, Like, how did we get to
11:50
Speaker 1: a place where we started to realize, like, hey, what
11:53
Speaker 1: we're eating can be helping in this specific area.
11:57
Speaker 3: Right right, And that's really the need that nutritional psychiatry fills.
12:03
Speaker 3: It's really only look for decades, for eons, we've spoken
12:08
Speaker 3: about you know, we've made remarks to ourselves, to our family,
12:11
Speaker 3: to our friends. After we've eaten something. We've said, oh,
12:13
Speaker 3: I feel so tired, I'm going to take an it. Oh
12:15
Speaker 3: I you know, feel so energized. Oh my goodness, I
12:18
Speaker 3: have a headache, whatever it is. We've often spoken about
12:21
Speaker 3: those things, but we haven't made the connection back to
12:24
Speaker 3: the food. The reason I say that is is nutritional
12:28
Speaker 3: psychiatry fills this niche of explaining the food mood connection,
12:32
Speaker 3: which really has emerged through the scientific evidence and ongoing
12:35
Speaker 3: research around the gut brain connection, which is new research
12:39
Speaker 3: of only I would say the last fifteen to twenty years. Now.
12:42
Speaker 3: I should also say that Hippocrates eons ago said and
12:46
Speaker 3: made the connection between the gut and the brain. But
12:51
Speaker 3: you know, the research had to follow, and it followed many, many,
12:55
Speaker 3: many many years later. But the good thing is that
12:58
Speaker 3: it has now explained a lot to us as we
13:00
Speaker 3: uncover it. We realize that you wouldn't think that where
13:03
Speaker 3: your gut is and where your brain is, that those
13:05
Speaker 3: areas are connected other than being in the same human body.
13:09
Speaker 3: But those two organs arise from the exact same cells
13:13
Speaker 3: in the embryo and then they divide up, you know,
13:16
Speaker 3: end up in your brain and then your gut, and
13:18
Speaker 3: then they remain connected by the tenth cranial nerve, the
13:22
Speaker 3: vegas milk, which I like to call it two ways
13:24
Speaker 3: super highway, which allows for chemical messages to try to
13:28
Speaker 3: be transported back and forth up and down all day
13:31
Speaker 3: twenty four seven, three and sixty five days a year.
13:35
Speaker 3: But the chemical messages become important because that is how
13:39
Speaker 3: it translates information about how we eat. So when we
13:44
Speaker 3: understand that, we understand that ninety percent of serotonin is
13:47
Speaker 3: produced in the gut and the receptors are there, and
13:50
Speaker 3: zerotonin is the called the happiness hormone. It's medications like
13:55
Speaker 3: selective serotonin. We have taken inhibitors like posaxol often others
13:59
Speaker 3: are based on that mechanism. We start to put the
14:02
Speaker 3: pieces together of how the food that we eat as
14:05
Speaker 3: it gets digested forms, in simple terms, breakdown products. When
14:10
Speaker 3: we eat a healthier meal, those breakdown products are healthier products.
14:13
Speaker 3: They help us, They nurture the microbes in our gut.
14:17
Speaker 3: They take care of many aspects of our health. But
14:19
Speaker 3: when we eat, and you know, if you were in
14:21
Speaker 3: the fast food lane and surviving on those types of
14:25
Speaker 3: food every single day, there are the bad microbes in
14:29
Speaker 3: the gut or the firstly bad or more toxic, less
14:35
Speaker 3: helpful substances get broken down and produced by the food,
14:39
Speaker 3: and then the bad microbes start to thrive, and this
14:42
Speaker 3: is a setup for inflammation in the gut, which ultimately
14:46
Speaker 3: over time leads to conditions like leaky gut. But that
14:49
Speaker 3: all loops back to the brain. So it just becomes
14:52
Speaker 3: important for us to understand that basis.
14:54
Speaker 1: It's really interesting as well though, because the question arises
14:58
Speaker 1: like say either the fast food example or the desserts example. Like, obviously,
15:04
Speaker 1: as we know we're human, there's a time and a
15:06
Speaker 1: place for certain things. Not to say that you should
15:10
Speaker 1: be going to the McDonald's drive through every week or
15:13
Speaker 1: even every other week, but if you go with your
15:17
Speaker 1: young son, perhaps like to the McDonald's drive through once
15:21
Speaker 1: every once in a while, that's not us sitting here
15:23
Speaker 1: and saying like, oh my god, that is literally the
15:25
Speaker 1: most toxic thing that you could do. This is absolutely
15:28
Speaker 1: awful of course not, but that moment like has a
15:31
Speaker 1: fulfilling emotional opportunity, perhaps whether you're with your young son
15:36
Speaker 1: or it's a reward per se at the end of
15:39
Speaker 1: the day. So how do you differentiate between like the
15:43
Speaker 1: thing that fills you up emotionally perhaps in that moment,
15:47
Speaker 1: rather than like stress eating. And that's why we're leaning
15:49
Speaker 1: into these like not so good for us options versus
15:53
Speaker 1: thinking about the you know, ramifications that eating something like
15:57
Speaker 1: one of these examples could have for your body or
16:00
Speaker 1: your for your you know that connection that we just spoke.
16:02
Speaker 3: About absolutely, So you know if your guidances around that
16:07
Speaker 3: come from some of the pillars I talk about nutritional psychiatry,
16:10
Speaker 3: and one of them is balanced is the key. I
16:13
Speaker 3: like to talk about the eighty twenty rule. You know
16:16
Speaker 3: that eighty percent of the time we do the best
16:18
Speaker 3: that we can and twenty percent of the time we
16:20
Speaker 3: have the freedom to make choices for and however that
16:23
Speaker 3: may be, whether it's with your young son or not.
16:26
Speaker 3: You know, a chance to bond over a type of food,
16:29
Speaker 3: And I think what I want to specify here is
16:32
Speaker 3: that you know, food is associated with memory, it's associated
16:35
Speaker 3: with good feelings, with thoughts, with the aromas, with the things
16:40
Speaker 3: that we might love. You know, I think that being
16:42
Speaker 3: mindful about the choices that we're making does become important.
16:46
Speaker 3: So I'm not saying don't hang out with your child
16:50
Speaker 3: and go to the drive through, but be mindful of it.
16:53
Speaker 3: You know, use the moment to educate your child. Think
16:56
Speaker 3: about the fact that if that becomes, you know, a
16:59
Speaker 3: daily happita, and then it's that it is an issue
17:01
Speaker 3: because then you are affected about microbes. Then you are
17:04
Speaker 3: affecting your health. And this is this has been shown
17:07
Speaker 3: in research studies. So this is not soft science, and
17:10
Speaker 3: it's not it's not something that we just touching unlikely.
17:14
Speaker 3: On the other hand, you know, enjoy the moment. And
17:17
Speaker 3: I always say to people, you've had X, X, y Z,
17:20
Speaker 3: but you know, the next meal, make a better choice.
17:22
Speaker 3: It's not a crime. It's it's we have to live
17:25
Speaker 3: our lives. We cannot stay away from processed foods in
17:28
Speaker 3: our environment, you know. And it's it's hard to say, oh,
17:31
Speaker 3: you never ever eat this again. And I think to
17:33
Speaker 3: be that polarized makes it harder for people because as
17:37
Speaker 3: it is, you know, in all sorts of ways, shapes
17:40
Speaker 3: and forms, we get information about food, which is confusing
17:42
Speaker 3: for the average person. For everyone, to be honest, it's
17:45
Speaker 3: you know, what should I eat? What should I give up?
17:48
Speaker 3: What should I eliminate? Which die should I follow? So
17:51
Speaker 3: so I think that it balances the key and you know,
17:53
Speaker 3: following an eighty twenty rule, that that makes it easier
17:58
Speaker 3: for us to navigate the world.
18:01
Speaker 1: Definitely. So let's talk about your brain on food. How
18:06
Speaker 1: can we on a day to day basis start to
18:10
Speaker 1: set ourselves up to be in the best case scenario
18:14
Speaker 1: for feeding our brain so that we can in turn
18:16
Speaker 1: show up better everywhere from the office to our relationships.
18:21
Speaker 3: Absolutely, So, you know, it starts up with some simple principles,
18:25
Speaker 3: but those pullings that I talk about are now linked
18:29
Speaker 3: to evidence surrounding saying brilliants and nutrients. So take leafy greens.
18:34
Speaker 3: You've you know, so you've spoken to a doctor said
18:37
Speaker 3: you eat more salad, you know, eat those leafy greens,
18:40
Speaker 3: or you've read it in a magazine. But it turns
18:42
Speaker 3: out that you know the green and the better those
18:44
Speaker 3: leafy greens. Romain net is dandeline greens, whatever it is.
18:47
Speaker 3: You have access to watercris rougla, you know, a romain
18:51
Speaker 3: that is, all of those have foliate, and folid is
18:55
Speaker 3: a key nutrient for the brain. Low levels of folid
18:58
Speaker 3: associated with depression. Folate can also be a linked to
19:02
Speaker 3: loss of brain cells in certain studies. So it comes
19:05
Speaker 3: actually much more important than just eating a leafy grain.
19:08
Speaker 3: There's there's actual nutrient behind it in addition to all
19:12
Speaker 3: the other vitamins and minerals that it's bringing along too.
19:16
Speaker 3: Another part is so so just including those in your
19:19
Speaker 3: every day and having several servings a day as long
19:22
Speaker 3: as you can tolerate, you don't have an intolerance or analogy,
19:25
Speaker 3: is a great, a great way to get going. Another
19:28
Speaker 3: is eating the color of the rainbow. So the different
19:30
Speaker 3: colors of plant foods, you know, peppers and cucumbers, and
19:35
Speaker 3: we mentioned lettuces and and everything that is colorful and beautiful.
19:39
Speaker 3: The colors of the rainbow actually represent phytochemicals, phido nutrients,
19:45
Speaker 3: antioxidant properties anti in plant for properties which are great
19:48
Speaker 3: for your gut, but also great flu grain. They also
19:50
Speaker 3: bring what we call biodiversity to the gut. So those
19:53
Speaker 3: microbes like to eat a variety of different foods to thrive,
19:57
Speaker 3: and where they thrive, they secure community. They help our
20:01
Speaker 3: circadian room. They help our hormones help so many things,
20:04
Speaker 3: but they also help our mental health. So that's another
20:06
Speaker 3: easy one. Eat more colors, challenge yourself to make it
20:10
Speaker 3: again with your family, you know, putting putting more colors
20:12
Speaker 3: a plant. And also uh so, vegetables are proof very
20:15
Speaker 3: calm to that category. Another one is including things including
20:21
Speaker 3: things like prevertic foods and fermented foods. So prevertic foods
20:24
Speaker 3: are really easy to do because guess what they're found
20:28
Speaker 3: in the Alim family, so garic gleaks, onions, other foods
20:33
Speaker 3: like bananas, oats, all other things that we might think.
20:36
Speaker 3: So these are good for good for our brain, good
20:40
Speaker 3: for our guts. So another easy thing we can just
20:43
Speaker 3: build into that plant. Fermented foods. You know, almost every
20:45
Speaker 3: culture has a fermented food. So there's Korean kimchi, there
20:49
Speaker 3: are you know, there are there's saur krap, there's kaffir,
20:52
Speaker 3: which is a sour yog. But if you have dairy,
20:55
Speaker 3: there's misso taste, you know, all all sorts of things.
21:00
Speaker 3: Those fermented foods bring back great bacteria to your gut.
21:05
Speaker 3: So another easy way. So that's just a way to
21:07
Speaker 3: get started. And my my secret weapon is always the
21:10
Speaker 3: spices in your cabinet because they're very powerful, and they're
21:14
Speaker 3: easy to use, the calorie free, salt free, sugar free,
21:17
Speaker 3: and they flavor things up. So little things like chunk
21:20
Speaker 3: with a pinch of black palpa, even if you don't
21:22
Speaker 3: cook with it, added to super SMOOTHI or tea, are
21:25
Speaker 3: great ways to start building almost paving the path towards
21:30
Speaker 3: your better emotional health.
21:32
Speaker 1: Wow, what a wealth of knowledge you just dropped on us.
21:37
Speaker 2: I do have a question.
21:38
Speaker 1: I feel like oftentimes we hear that romayne isn't as
21:41
Speaker 1: quote unquote good for us as some of the other leafy,
21:45
Speaker 1: you know, green lettuces.
21:47
Speaker 2: Is there any truth to that?
21:49
Speaker 3: I think romain is fine, you know, my whatever I've
21:52
Speaker 3: studied on it, it seems perfectly fine. You know, I
21:54
Speaker 3: always talk about saucing, but I'm always respectful that not
21:57
Speaker 3: everyone has the same access to food in terms of
22:01
Speaker 3: socio and economic levels. Organic is going to be safe
22:05
Speaker 3: and better. But I would rather someone eat a lettuce
22:07
Speaker 3: than eat a processed, you know, food from a fast
22:10
Speaker 3: food restaurant. So you know, what what I do know
22:13
Speaker 3: is that people will often say that iceberg lettuce is
22:17
Speaker 3: great and crunchy but may not be as nutritious. But
22:20
Speaker 3: you know, if it falls part of your salad and
22:23
Speaker 3: gives you that great crunch that your life, there's no
22:25
Speaker 3: harm done there. I think for me, it really goes
22:28
Speaker 3: back to where you source your food from.
22:30
Speaker 1: Too, right, And I know that oftentimes our goal is
22:33
Speaker 1: to get a lot of these nutrients from these whole foods,
22:37
Speaker 1: many of which you just described. I drink a shaken
22:42
Speaker 1: up bottle of athletic greens every day. It has what
22:44
Speaker 1: they to to be the anti accident equivalent of twelve
22:48
Speaker 1: servings of fruits and vegetables for us in this conversation,
22:51
Speaker 1: of course, can't be a hurtful thing. In fact, them
22:54
Speaker 1: tore it's quite helpful. It's helped me a bunch over
22:56
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. But when we talk about
22:59
Speaker 1: supple mending with something like that versus also getting in
23:03
Speaker 1: these salads and these whole foods, any input on that?
23:07
Speaker 3: Sure, So I think, I think when you can build
23:10
Speaker 3: in healthy habits, I mean, I don't know the mixture
23:13
Speaker 3: that you're using, but it sounds good. I think the
23:16
Speaker 3: more we can do, the better. What I don't think,
23:18
Speaker 3: just like we talk about you know, you can't exercise
23:21
Speaker 3: out of a bad diet. But you can't really supplement
23:23
Speaker 3: out of a bad diet. Now, you know, if a
23:27
Speaker 3: person will say having a smoothie or having a nutrient
23:30
Speaker 3: supplement but eating you know, fast food the rest of
23:34
Speaker 3: the time, it's not going to make up that deficit. Right.
23:38
Speaker 3: But if you're generally eating a healthy diet, you know,
23:40
Speaker 3: following that eighty twenty rule, and you're adding in supplements
23:44
Speaker 3: because for example, you say, did neat seafood and you
23:47
Speaker 3: wanted to get some form of a Mega three supplementation,
23:51
Speaker 3: which we know has very strong antioxidant anti inflammtree properties.
23:55
Speaker 3: Health depression improves anxiety has an impact on cognition as
23:59
Speaker 3: well other forms of physical health like Kodiac help by
24:04
Speaker 3: all means. You know, it's a good idea, just don't
24:07
Speaker 3: depend and rely on it as the only source of
24:10
Speaker 3: your nutrients. And I say food first, and then add
24:13
Speaker 3: in those full in those nutritional gaps supplementation. Another example
24:17
Speaker 3: is the far Northeast where I come from. Many people
24:19
Speaker 3: might be deficient and vitamin D because of the level
24:22
Speaker 3: of sun we have in our year, and that's a
24:26
Speaker 3: good idea to supplement. You know, also spending time outdoors
24:32
Speaker 3: for ten minutes in a day actually gives you eighty
24:36
Speaker 3: percent of your vitamin D. So just little things that
24:39
Speaker 3: help us, that help us along become important.
24:42
Speaker 1: You're encouraging me to get outside for my lunch break
24:45
Speaker 1: today instead of eating my sad desk salad. So I
24:49
Speaker 1: mean what we talked about here, different foods that can
24:52
Speaker 1: help better our brain health, help really charge those narrow pathways.
24:57
Speaker 1: What I would love to ask next is there anything
25:02
Speaker 1: that someone can do perhaps in the shorter term. And
25:06
Speaker 1: I ask that getting at the idea that many of
25:09
Speaker 1: us on a day to day basis with what is
25:11
Speaker 1: going on in our world feeling you know, the repercussions
25:15
Speaker 1: of burnout, really feeling just foggy and just like totally
25:20
Speaker 1: out of it. Now. I know that the things that
25:23
Speaker 1: you spoke about great to incorporate and aim to set
25:26
Speaker 1: healthy goals around getting those foods in on the regular
25:29
Speaker 1: going forward, But is there anything that you can do
25:31
Speaker 1: in the short term to really give back to your
25:33
Speaker 1: brain and kind of boost perhaps get out of that
25:37
Speaker 1: fogginess that we're all just so tired of.
25:40
Speaker 3: Absolutely, so a couple of things, you know, this burd
25:44
Speaker 3: of this work and these plans is not overnight and
25:47
Speaker 3: it's not a quick thit. So with that being said,
25:50
Speaker 3: you know, it's moving these habits along a pathway so
25:53
Speaker 3: that they become part of your lifestyle. That's the whole plan.
25:55
Speaker 3: Because we are a dyet culture, you know, and and
26:00
Speaker 3: we tend to be focused on on things like weight
26:02
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. The issue is a lot of
26:05
Speaker 3: those are not sustainable. So finding a lifestyle change that
26:08
Speaker 3: you can stick with is really what nutritional psychiatry brings.
26:11
Speaker 3: And you're right, it doesn't happen overnight, THESA. I don't
26:14
Speaker 3: expect people to do all five things, and that would
26:16
Speaker 3: be unreasonable. But having the awareness, you know, knowing you
26:20
Speaker 3: can add those extra leafy greens to your to your
26:23
Speaker 3: your vegetable ball or your you know, your salad ball
26:27
Speaker 3: or all becomes important in the short term. You know.
26:30
Speaker 3: Some some easy things that a person can do are
26:33
Speaker 3: incorporate spices. They are you know, just just thinking in
26:38
Speaker 3: your in your every day what what can I do
26:40
Speaker 3: now for actual brain fog and feelings. Somewhat unclear, there
26:44
Speaker 3: is an antioxidant found in things like certain certain herbs
26:49
Speaker 3: like time parsley, Mexican oregano, juniper, berries and several others.
26:55
Speaker 3: A list in my book that actually helps helps with
26:58
Speaker 3: brain fogs. So been starting to add those in in
27:01
Speaker 3: a daily basis, whether you're roasting vegetables, whether you having soup,
27:06
Speaker 3: smooth or tea, whatever it is, however you're eating becomes important.
27:11
Speaker 3: Another good one is green tea. You know people drink coffee.
27:16
Speaker 3: I suggest drinking if your cops in the morning, if
27:18
Speaker 3: you're tolerated, and if it's not setting off anxiety or
27:21
Speaker 3: other symptoms. Green tea has EGCG and has altanin which
27:26
Speaker 3: are very powerful and they help with clarity. Often people
27:29
Speaker 3: will say they feel a little bit of a boost
27:32
Speaker 3: of energy, they feel a little bit uplifted, and they
27:35
Speaker 3: feel a little bit more clear. So that's a great
27:37
Speaker 3: tip for that afternoon slump when we're feeling just foggy,
27:41
Speaker 3: or incorporating a good green tea that you enjoy into
27:44
Speaker 3: your day. Just remember that many of them have caffeine,
27:49
Speaker 3: So if that's the case, then you want to have
27:52
Speaker 3: it at a time of day that it doesn't affect
27:53
Speaker 3: your sleep. But it's adding foods in like that could
27:57
Speaker 3: really help with with your with your charity, and starting
28:00
Speaker 3: right now would would be a good time.
28:02
Speaker 1: I also feel like if you were to tell anyone
28:05
Speaker 1: to clean up their diet and take some of these
28:08
Speaker 1: recommendations to heart, a lot of things would improve, right Like,
28:12
Speaker 1: of course we're talking specifically about how an eating style
28:17
Speaker 1: such as this would better the brain, but I would
28:19
Speaker 1: assume that eating you know, healthy whole foods would have
28:24
Speaker 1: a dramatic impact on a number of avenues, including as
28:27
Speaker 1: you mentioned, weight loss.
28:29
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, so, you know, weight loss is one of
28:33
Speaker 3: them that although I'll discuss with clients that I see,
28:36
Speaker 3: you know, this is not the goal. You might actually
28:38
Speaker 3: lose some weight just by eating healthier, but other things
28:42
Speaker 3: are also just you know, improvement of digestive issues. People have,
28:47
Speaker 3: know their cholesterol, they have you know, come off medications
28:52
Speaker 3: for hypertension because they have started to eat better foods,
28:56
Speaker 3: healthy whole foods, a lot of fiber which over time
29:01
Speaker 3: they bought their body has grown used to. You can't
29:03
Speaker 3: go from eating no fiber to you know, a time
29:05
Speaker 3: over to day. It'll upset your stomach. But they've grown
29:09
Speaker 3: as to develop these healthy eating habits over time, so
29:12
Speaker 3: much so that it has become how they live and
29:14
Speaker 3: they you know, end up feeling just a lot healthier,
29:18
Speaker 3: a lot better, and their gut isn't. Balance of the
29:20
Speaker 3: gut has really become so central to the function of
29:24
Speaker 3: our other systems. You know, the gut is called the
29:27
Speaker 3: second brain because of the number of nerves that are
29:32
Speaker 3: that exists there, So it, you know, deals with so
29:35
Speaker 3: many other systems in our body that it kind of
29:37
Speaker 3: makes that more concrete connection that what we eat becomes important.
29:42
Speaker 3: So overall health definitely improves. One of the things that
29:45
Speaker 3: COVID taught us is comportant on metabolic health is so
29:49
Speaker 3: people with pre existing conditions either succumbed to COVID or
29:53
Speaker 3: if they survived, they had more side effects and long
29:57
Speaker 3: term problems exist. So you know, how do we deal
30:02
Speaker 3: with our met polic help. It's through our nutrition and lifestyle,
30:05
Speaker 3: and it's the first you know, things like type two
30:07
Speaker 3: diabetes doctors are really looking in research is really looking
30:11
Speaker 3: at how can we eat better to make those lifestyle
30:15
Speaker 3: changes to walk yourself back from pre pre diabetic states excess,
30:20
Speaker 3: So it's super important.
30:23
Speaker 1: Any other words of wisdom that you want to offer
30:27
Speaker 1: the hurdlers when it comes to eating for better brain health.
30:32
Speaker 3: I would say, don't be discouraged you know, stick with
30:35
Speaker 3: it because if in the it's not an instant overnight plan.
30:39
Speaker 3: If you start to incorporate a healthy habit, try to
30:42
Speaker 3: build it in an easy way into your life. So
30:44
Speaker 3: say you start to have a tumeric tea, you add
30:47
Speaker 3: tumic to something that you're eating, Just have it where
30:50
Speaker 3: you're going to eat, so that you easily put it
30:52
Speaker 3: into your food with a pink pinch of black pepper,
30:55
Speaker 3: and start that way. If it's buying more salad greens,
30:58
Speaker 3: just to make sure they're in your fridge. So you
31:00
Speaker 3: almost try to automate the help right you're doing it,
31:03
Speaker 3: and don't be discouraged if you know, read up one
31:07
Speaker 3: day and you happen to eat with the friend and
31:09
Speaker 3: maybe it's not the best choice. Realize the next day
31:12
Speaker 3: that you can, you can correct that you can you
31:15
Speaker 3: can walk, you know, you can eat a better meal,
31:16
Speaker 3: you can need a healthier meals. Nothing is It's not
31:19
Speaker 3: about right and wrong. It's about finding our way forward
31:21
Speaker 3: for our best brain help and not judging ourselves. You know,
31:24
Speaker 3: this has been hard enough to almost eighteen months now,
31:28
Speaker 3: so you know it's I think it's time we just
31:30
Speaker 3: had some grace with ourselves. And said, look, if I've
31:33
Speaker 3: had that meal, that fast food meal, you know tomorrow
31:36
Speaker 3: I'll do better. That's all. It's better if we can
31:39
Speaker 3: do that, we can encourage ourselves.
31:43
Speaker 1: I love it, Doctor Uma. Thank you so much for
31:45
Speaker 1: sitting down with me today. How do the hurdlers follow
31:48
Speaker 1: along with you? How do they keep up with you?
31:50
Speaker 1: For more tips? Give me all the details.
31:53
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Emily. So, I'm on social media
31:55
Speaker 3: a lot. So I'm at doctor Uma and I do
31:58
Speaker 3: at d R M A n ai d ooh. We're
32:02
Speaker 3: always putting out updated research and current information that will
32:06
Speaker 3: help you and my website. Subscribe to my new stutter
32:09
Speaker 3: where we also put up a lot of information. It's
32:12
Speaker 3: Umanido MD dot com. I'd love to hear from you
32:15
Speaker 3: there every Wednesday after the summer, and I do a
32:20
Speaker 3: little series where I answer people's questions that they submit
32:23
Speaker 3: to my website. So it's just cool ways to interact
32:26
Speaker 3: with me and check out my book if it's of
32:28
Speaker 3: interest to you. It's called This is Your Brain on Food.
32:31
Speaker 2: I love it. This is your Brain on Food.
32:33
Speaker 1: I'm over at Hurdle Podcasts and at Emila Badi another
32:36
Speaker 1: hurdle conquered Catch you guys, next time.