Heal Your Brain: How Your Gut Secretly Controls Your Brain Health - Dietitian Sophie Medlin
Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
Gut Health and Brain Function
This chapter explores the vital link between gut microbiome composition and mental well-being, emphasizing how a diverse, plant-based diet can enhance focus and productivity. It discusses significant research findings on the role of gut bacteria in stress regulation and their impact on mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.
Believe it or not, if you’ve been feeling like you just can’t bring yourself to focus, are constantly battling procrastination, or even struggling with low mood, it’s probably because you’re not looking after your gut. In this episode I sit down for a conversation with Sophie Medlin, one of the UK's leading experts on gut health. Sophie is a dietitian, chair of the British Dietetic Association and a lecturer at King's College London. In the conversation we discuss how the connection between gut health and mental health has become an emerging area of research, how to feed your body with the right foods to optimise your cognitive performance and we also discuss weird and wonderful nutrition myths that have been circulating on social media over the past few years. Enjoy!
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(00:00) Intro
(01:46) How you became a dietician and gut expert
(06:36) What is a dietician?
(09:19) The importance of gut health
(13:11) Transformative experiences in clinic
(15:12) Signs and symptoms of when to see a doctor
(18:38) The gut-brain axis
(23:54) Research on microbiome and mental performance
(26:26) You should eat 30 different plants per week
(30:19) Terrible advice from personal trainers
(32:39) Intermitent fasting
(35:49) The problem with too much meat in your diet
(38:05) The importance of fish for brain health
(39:42) How do supplements work?
(41:30) Processed food, stress management and hydration
(48:09) Does organic matter?
(49:14) Artificial sweeteners
(51:39) Nutrition and dieting myths
(01:04:39) How has diet culture evolved?
(01:14:43) TOFI vs FOTI people
(01:19:33) Snacking
(01:21:57) Research on probiotics and mental health
(01:24:41) IBS
(01:26:15) What can we learn about the gut through testing?
(01:32:36) What’s the deal with protein shakes?
(01:35:01) The danger of juice cleanses
(01:36:44) GutTok and colonic cleanses
(01:38:30) Gluten free diets
(01:41:31) The impacts of cutting out dairy
(01:45:56) Why are people saying seed oils are evil?
(01:48:16) Calories
(01:52:12) Is mindful eating helpful?
(01:52:56) Bloating
(01:54:50) Glucouse monitoring
(01:58:45) Food and mood recommendations
(02:02:58) Developing the smart supplement for Heights
(02:19:30) Your TV show: Know Your Sh!t
🔗 CONNECT WITH SOPHIE
💻 Website - https://www.citydietitians.co.uk/team/sophie-medlin
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sophiedietitian/
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/sophiedietitian
🧠 Heights Smart Probiotic - https://www.yourheights.com/products/smart-probiotic/
🔗 CONNECT WITH ALI
📲 Join My Telegram Community - https://t.me/+bH5gLHty5kBiOGZk
🎥 YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/aliabdaal
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal
📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal
💻 Website - https://aliabdaal.com
👥 Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-abdaal/
📄 SHOW NOTES & TRANSCRIPT
Visit the website for the transcript and highlights from the conversation - https://aliabdaal.com/podcast/
🎙 ABOUT THE PODCAST
Deep Dive is the podcast that delves into the minds of entrepreneurs, creators and other inspiring people to uncover the philosophies, strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier and more productive lives.
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