#83 The Brain Series (Part 1 of 3). Food, OCD and Anxiety with Dr Uma Naidoo

Dr Uma Naidoo is a Harvard trained psychiatrist, Professional Chef and Nutrition Specialist. It is a pleasure to host this internationally regarded medical pioneer in this more newly recognized field of Nutritional Psychiatry.

In her role as a Clinical Scientist, Dr. Naidoo founded and directs the first hospital-based clinical service in Nutritional Psychiatry in the USA. She is the Director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psychiatry & Director of Nutritional Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) while serving on the faculty at Harvard Medical School.

Dr Uma is a professionally trained chef as well as working as a Psychiatrist, and after listening to this podcast you’ll understand why Michelin-starred David Bouley described her as “the world’s first “triple threat” in the food as medicine space”

Dr. Naidoo, has been asked by The American Psychiatric Association to author the first academic text in Nutritional Psychiatry. But she’s already the author of a book you can get your hands on in the UK called “The Food Mood connection” and in the States it’s “This is your brain on FOOD”.

On the show today we talked about:

• Uma’s upbringing, family roots in ayurveda and how her grandmother influenced her love of medicine and food
• Culinary School and why she went
• Nutritional Medicine it’s scientific shortcomings and her dietary agnosticism 
• Food Irritants to mental health, including transfats, additives and sugar
• Spices, Fibre and Plants
• Her perspective on Nootropics and Adaptogens
• The vagus nerve as a bidirectional superhighway of information between the gut and brain
• The connection between diet and OCD, PTSD and Anxiety
• Her culinary hacks for making healthy food taste incredible

Do check out The Doctor's Kitchen Website for full show notes and all social media links for this and all other podcast episodes.

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