1 in 3 people have anxiety. It’s the most common mental health disorder in the world. And many of us know what anxiety feels like: palms sweating before a job interview, losing your appetite before a looming deadline, a pit in your stomach when you get bad news. It’s not just in your head, it’s in your gut.
Today, we’ll learn how food could help us cope. Our guest explains the rising global trend toward increased anxiety: its rise through the pandemic, and explosion among young people.
Dr. Uma Naidoo is on the forefront of nutritional psychiatry. She directs the first hospital-based Nutritional Psychiatry Service in the US, at Massachusetts General Hospital and teaches at Harvard Medical School.
Uma will help you understand the symptoms and biology of anxiety, painting a picture of the risks it poses for long-term health. And her diet tips will help you fuel your gut for a healthy mind.
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Timecodes:
00:00 Change your diet to beat anxiety
01:23 Quickfire questions
02:52 What is anxiety?
05:58 Are humans more anxious now than in the past?
08:50 This is where anxiety occurs in the brain
11:29 The gut-brain connection
12:45 Serotonin: the happiness hormone
20:05 How gut bacteria impact the brain
21:20 What happens 2 hours after stress?
23:10 Foods that disrupt dopamine pathways
24:50 Is food addiction real?
30:35 How chronic stress affects hunger
34:00 The importance of feeding good gut microbes
41:00 Eat more of these vegetables
45:02 How to overcome diet anxiety
49:20 How to use Uma’s ‘Calm’ approach
53:13 The anti-anxiety plate
Find Uma's Cauliflower Tikka Massala recipe here
Get Uma's latest book 'Calm Your Mind With Food'
📚Books by our ZOE Scientists
The Food For Life Cookbook
Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati
Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector
Free resources from ZOE
Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition
Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks
Mentioned in today's episode
Eat to Beat Stress (2020), published in American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine
Effect of fecal microbiota transplant on symptoms of psychiatric disorders: a systematic review (2020), published in BMC Psychiatry
A review of dietary and microbial connections to depression, anxiety, and stress (2018), published in Nutritional Neuroscience
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Episode transcripts are available here.
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