Brain Health Begins Here
- janlindquist
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
When we nourish our body, our brain benefits too.
Eating whole, real foods can be one of the most powerful steps we can take to improve our attention, concentration, learning, behavior and emotional health.
In the early 2000's, the idea that food could drive mental illness, behavior, and cognition was still fringe. - Mark Hyman
Psychiatrists aren't trained in nutrition and rarely ask their patients what they eat. Parents, the gatekeepers of nutrition for their children were not told that ADHD, anxiety, or learning problems might have a connection with blood sugar imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, food dyes, and chemical toxins.
What was experienced in the brain - stayed in the brain.
But, someone somewhere began to "test & see" their hypothesis that a healthy brain requires healthy food. They removed highly processed junk foods and added a real-food diet rich in protein healthy fats, and lots of plants. Deficiencies were corrected around low omega-3 fats, magnesium, zinc, and B vitamins.
Within 2 months, behaviors were transformed, handwriting changed from scattered and chaotic to neat and controlled.
This wasn't a miracle. This is biology.
Fast forward to 2025 and science is finally catching up by creating entire departments in major institutions from Harvard to Stanford called- Metabolic Psychiatry.
Why?
Because the brain isn't separate from the body.
Now we are benefitting from looking at diet, metabolism, inflammation, and mental health under the umbrella of metabolic psychiatry.
Here's what's happening:
The brain is an energy-hungry organ that depends on metabolic health. When metabolism is broken, through insulin resistance, obesity, inflammation, micronutrient deficiencies - the brain is affected.
Mitochondria [our cells energy factories] falter.
Neurotransmitter production sufferes.
Immune responses inside the brain go haywire.
Mood, focus, memory, and impulse control diminish.
Mental illness may not kill as fast as a heart attack, but it steals more years of life from disability and lost productivity than heart disease, diabetes, or cancer combined.
Mental illness occurs earlier and lasts longer than all of these major diseases and finally major medical journals now recognize nutrition as a key pillar of mental health.
Because:
People with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia often have low antioxidant levels due to consuming fewer fruits & vegetables.
Deficiencies in omega-3s, B vitamins, magnesium, iron, zinc, iodine,and vitamin E impair brain function and neurotransmitter balance.
Chronic inflammation from ultra-processed, sugar-laden foods, directly harms brain health.
Our Children's Brains Are Starving.
School lunches, snacks, and home diets have continued to become more reliant on ultra-processed foods.
These convenience foods are easier to prepare in our grab & go culture that generally doesn't see great value in the time and energy it takes to prepare real foods from scratch.
Our Children are Suffering - Troubling Stats:
The U.S. ranks 37th in math globally.
1 in 6 children has a neurodevelopmental disorder.
More than 1 in 10 children has ADHAD
Brain development is worst in the poorest kids, whose diets are also the worst. Their brain volumes are 10% smaller, and IQs average 7 points lower than developmental norms.
Health and academic achievement is directly linked to nutritious food. Poor nutrition realizes lower test scores and grades. - CDC Health Report.
Nutrition Gap.
Under-nourished children's brains are missing essential nutrients and they are experiencing higher than normal blood sugar levels.
This leaves them with less ability to be educated.
There is a surge in special education needs, which is increasing yearly.
Treating these issues with "pills" before the necessary brain-boosting nutrients continues to increase the problem.
The Problem of Our Inflammed Brain Linked to Poor Diets.
This is directly involved with:
How we think.
How we feel.
How we act.
And now our rational brain [the prefrontal cortex] goes offline, and our emotional smoke alarm [amygdala] takes over.
We react impulsively, are unable to delay gratification and are prone to bouts of anger, anxiety, and emotional outbursts.
This is NOT a character flaw, but a physiological state of being that's being induced by ultra-processed foods, sugar spikes, nutrient gaps, and inflammatory fats.
Our prisons are full of these individuals, special ed classrooms, regular classrooms, the workplace and even within our own homes.
The Time is Now.
Although this may sound extreme, just consider what happens when the food we feed our prisoners and children in juvenile detention center changes to a nutrient-rich whole food diet with nutritional supplements [omega-3s vitamins, minerals].
Violent behavior is dramatically reduced.
Violent incidents reduce.
In juvenile centers, adding vitamin and mineral supplements slashed violent acts by 91%. The kids who improved their diet reduced violent behavior by 80%; those whose diets remained unchanged showed no improvements.
In a study of 3000 incarcerated youths, replacing junk foods with healthier options led to less antisocial incidents. fewer assaults, less need for restraints, and 100% reduction in suicides.
We are underestimating a huge opportunity to actually change our health and the lives of the most vulnerable.
Why Aren't We Making These Changes?
"We are raising the first generation that will live sicker and die younger than their parents.
We are:
Feeding children diets that hijack their brains, while sending them off to school expecting them to be able to learn.
Punishing kids when they can't sit still or exhibit good self-control.
Medicating first, instead of nourishing.
Acting as if this is a mystery that no one can figure out and then blaming the schools.
Our prisons are full.
Our schools are overwhelmed and teachers are unable to teach well.
Mental health issues are growing every year without any sustainable solution.
Let's consider what we put into our mouths - the food we eat.
This won't solve everything but it's a great first step.
Before you help someone else, put on your oxygen mask first.
I'm here offering the oxygen.Because, we can't address this nation-wide problem if we're still struggling to breathe.
Begin Here.
Eat more meals at home made from real food.
Pack your lunch from leftovers and skip the drive-thru.
Find 3-5 easy to prepare meals you can make on repeat.
Get the whole family involved.
Find other ways to celebrate other than sugar-laden treats.
Make new traditions that involve getting outside and moving.
I trust this "rant" causes you to think about your future and how this will impact those you care about. We can make changes in our health outcomes when we strategically change what we're allowing in.
Thanks for reading,
Jan
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