Foods That Help Boost Mental Health
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About the Show
On this episode, Chuck Gaidica is joined by Grace Derocha, a registered dietitian and certified health coach at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Together, they discuss how we can boost our mental health through food.
ââŚThe way we fuel our body and the way our body is impacted by what we eat can definitely affect different chemicals and hormones in the body and how we feel on a daily basis. And I think thereâs lots of levels to that.â â Grace Derocha
In this episode of A Healthier Michigan Podcast, we explore:
- Taking notice of how food makes us feel when we eat
- Probiotics and prebiotics
- The link between gut health and mental health
- How food can impact serotonin production
- Foods that positively impact our mood
- Importance of vitamin D and zinc
- Alcohol, processed foods and caffeineâs effect on the body
Transcript
Chuck Gaidica: This is a Healthier Michigan Podcast, episode 54. Coming up we discuss foods that can have a positive impact on our mental health.
Chuck Gaidica: Welcome to a Healthier Michigan Podcast. This is a podcast dedicated to navigating how we could all improve our health and well-being through small, healthy habits we can start implementing right now. Iâm your host, Chuck Gaidica. Every other week weâre going to sit down, and we have for a long time, with certified health experts from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and do a deep dive into topics that cover nutrition, fitness, and a lot more.
Chuck Gaidica: And on this episode, weâre talking about what foods we can add to our diet, or maybe continue eating. Maybe youâre doing a great job. These foods that can help boost our mental health. With me today, Registered Dietitian for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Grace Derocha. Sheâs also a Certified Diabetes Educator, Certified Health Coach, mom, wife, mommy of two, so sheâs been doing a lot of stuff at home with kids. And so when weâre talking about mental health, weâre talking about keeping it together not because weâre just by ourselves, but weâve got now kids around us, others, maybe seniors in our life we have to take care of. Right, Grace?
Grace Derocha: Yes. And I think all the mommies and daddies needed the most benefits from some healthy eating and some good mental health during this time. Itâs tricky.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, itâs tricky and I think for the first time, maybe in a long time, Iâve seen people having more fun and Iâm not sure this is great. I mean, I think itâs good that weâre kind of relaxed about binge eating and, âOh wait till weâre coming out of the coronavirus thing right across most of the States now. Wait till they see me get rolled out of the house after all that Iâve been eating.â And I think itâs interesting that people are joking about it. So that in a fun, interesting way, that takes the edge off of what youâve been doing. Right?
Grace Derocha: Right.
Chuck Gaidica: But at the same time, I donât know that Iâve seen that much fun being had at maybe my own expense or someone elseâs by saying, âHey, Iâm bragging. Iâve been eating way too much, too many cookies.â Iâm not sure if thatâs really good either.
Grace Derocha: Itâs weird. Itâs a very tricky thing because depending on the person, allowing yourselves to joke around about it may be a sense of stress relief and give us that mental health break of overthinking about what Iâm eating, exercising and being overly productive. And I feel like I waver too between that. I see these memes and all these things that are like, âIf you arenât getting stuff done now, then youâre lazy.â Pretty much. Or, âIâm going to come out of this looking like âŚâ youâve seen the Barbie doll and sheâs like the skinny Barbie doll. And then they have one that looks like sheâs gained weight. I think thereâs a happy medium and balance. But I also think that we have to in the long run, build the best relationship with our body that we can and the best relationship with food.
Grace Derocha: Just the weight and the number on the scale and how you aesthetically look isnât the end all be all, and isnât the end be all for your body and your health or your mental health. So really thinking about that a little bit more too.
Chuck Gaidica: How does food affect mental health and the phrase mental health is really far and wide. We could just be talking about through the period weâve just come that youâve gotten into some blue or down days. That may be one thing, but then thereâs also diagnosable mental health issues, which this could have led to or exacerbated, right?
Grace Derocha: Right.
Chuck Gaidica: So there are differences, but what does food have to do with our mental health?
Grace Derocha: So itâs funny because the way we fuel our body and the way our body is impacted by what we eat can definitely affect different chemicals and hormones in the body and how we feel on a daily basis. And I think thereâs lots of levels to that. So like you mentioned, about 25% of the US population of adults has some diagnosable mental health disorder, but we also know from research that mood disorders and mental health disorders, not necessarily diagnosable impact many people, and can impact you and how you feel on a daily basis.
Grace Derocha: So I always say this, and I say it as a joke, but I mean it sincerely, Iâm a pretty happy person and I eat healthy. And if you think about just people in your life and you know those people. Thereâs people that have fast food for three meals a day, or people that donât make a remote conscious effort to eat healthier and Iâm not judging, but I want people to think about how do you feel maybe when youâre eating more nutritious food and then how do you feel when you donât?
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah, well, you know thatâs interesting and those stats that you give us, the one in four US adults suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder, thatâs a stat that deals directly with those individuals diagnoses. That doesnât really take into account I live with somebody whoâs got depression and anxiety, or Iâm a caretaker for mom who now I havenât been able to see for a while. So now Iâve gotten down about that. In other words, this circle broadens out greatly and can influence what weâre eating, how weâre eating, and how weâre treating our bodies way beyond our own diagnosed issues.
Grace Derocha: Yes.
Chuck Gaidica: And we may not even have one.
Grace Derocha: Right. Definitely. And I think the stress of this time and in different moments of your life can play an impact on how youâre feeling mentally and your mental well-being.
Chuck Gaidica: Now you said something interesting about eating foods. So youâre talking about getting in tune with your body, right? Like when you eat, are you paying attention to how you feel?
Grace Derocha: Yes. So this is key in this process is kind of tuning in and being a little bit more conscious, like do you feel foggy or tired or a little bit more lethargic from eating something or do you feel energetic and happy and kind of enabled and powerful, like with a clear mind, or is the overthinking about food also impacting you or ⌠thereâs lots of orâs here. Maybe something that you eat doesnât sit well with you and hurts your stomach. So having that pain and dealing with that can also affect your mental health.
Chuck Gaidica: But hereâs a complication or Oreos, if you eat something like cookies or chocolate and it does release ⌠sometimes eating chocolate releases certain hormones too, right, Iâve learned.
Grace Derocha: Yes.
Chuck Gaidica: It makes you feel better. You can be eating stuff thatâs not necessarily great for you, if itâs not in moderation, and you can still get a buzz from it, or you can get ⌠caffeine does something to you. Whatever it is, you can still get a feeling that actually temporarily makes you feel good, and it still doesnât mean itâs good for you.
Grace Derocha: Right. And I would say also think, speaking of Oreos, not beating yourself up because you wanted to have a couple of Oreos. Maybe just do me a favor and donât eat the whole pack. But being able to have the awareness and the understanding of how youâre ⌠one âtreat foodâ isnât going to ruin your health and your diet forever, or enjoying the Mac and cheese as a comfort food because it was a tough day and youâre just going to make that for the kids. So youâre going to eat it too hashtag Grace the other day. And thatâs also okay. I do sneak vegetables into it. So I guess there was that.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, but now when you talk about how we feel, and I know you want to talk a little bit about like things like serotonin, et cetera, but eating, having sugar, Iâve learned so much from you over so many episodes. But letâs zero in on some of these things. How some of these things play what role in your body and regulate how you feel, how you behave, et cetera. Do you want to start with kind of the hormone idea or âŚ
Grace Derocha: Yeah. So Iâm going to start with, Iâm glad you brought up, sugar. So there is something to be said about ⌠I feel like I sound fickle and all over the place, but thereâs something to be said about knowing that you can enjoy something in moderation and allow yourself to fully enjoy that versus tricking yourself into saying, âWell, Iâm going to eat as many Oreos as I want, because I want to, and it makes me feel good right now, and I donât care about later.â So finding that happy medium and that balance there, and having a little bit of understanding about what could be going on in your body, like all that added sugar at one time spikes the blood sugar and then actually drops it. So then youâre actually going to be in a worst mood later.
Chuck Gaidica: Or tired, going to bed, and the kids are still running around going, âHey, come on, time for school again.â And youâre like, âOh Iâve got to sleep.â
Grace Derocha: I donât want to teach fractions today.
Chuck Gaidica: Not for the third time.
Grace Derocha: So yeah, definitely being aware of that. So one of the most important things that youâve brought up is serotonin. It is a hormone that we produce and that we make. And youâve probably heard about it before, but itâs a happy hormone. It makes us feel happy. It gives us kind of that happy feeling, that positive outlook that weâre looking for. And thereâs a lot of things that serotonin does. It can help us with sleep, not only help us go to sleep because it helps with the production of melatonin, which is another hormone, itâs a sleep hormone, but it also helps us have deeper sleep. It helps with memory. It helps with appetite and digestion. And this is a fun fact, and I know weâll talk about probiotic foods later, but 90% of the serotonin we produce in our body stems from our gut health. A lot of people donât know that.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah, we hear a lot about gut health and I do want to get into that, but this notion of serotonin and either other hormones that are, I guess, are theyâre secreted in our bodies. Thereâs one thing that we have just come out ⌠weâre coming out of this period that weâve not been able to do with a lot of people around us. And that is weâve not been able to touch. And I know that even something as simple as a hug, whether itâs a man hug, whether itâs hugging your mom, right. Or God forbid somebody was in the hospital, you couldnât even go to their bedside. That is missing for a long period of time.
Chuck Gaidica: So whatâs interesting is this is intertwined our mental health with then what we could eat. So if youâre telling me that there are certain things I can do to kick up that serotonin by eating in a special or different way, or just doing it right, to me thatâs like a prescription. Itâs like youâre writing me the happy hormone you need and hereâs what to do. And Iâm like, âHey, okay.â And itâs kind of free if I do it the right way, which is wonderful.
Grace Derocha: Yeah. So, thereâs research that shows that hugging and touching is an important part of our mental health and our happiness. I have my family here with me now, but I missed hugging my mom, and I want to make sure there is ways that we have a little bit of control of that with including these healthier foods that can help make our mood a little bit better and increase our mental health and just help.
Chuck Gaidica: So you mentioned bacteria. That sounds strange in this world weâre coming out of like, âOh yeah, I want good bacteria,â because weâve heard about all kinds of other issues with the virus, but good bacteria can help our guts. And so what is the logical extension there? So what gives us good bacteria? And then how does that influence our body?
Grace Derocha: So a probiotic is good bacteria, and we often talk about probiotics in our gut or our stomach or GI system, the gastrointestinal system. So meaning our stomach and intestines, and keeping that good gut bacteria, those probiotics living and thriving is definitely a help. Since one, it produces most of the serotonin in the body, but two there is, they call it the gut-brain access where our stomach and our brain are actually fully connected. Thereâs literally one thing. Thereâs the access from the brain to the gut with neurotransmitters that are produced that really can help affect our brain and how we look at things. That is the science of it all.
Grace Derocha: So probiotic foods become extra important all the time, but especially right now to include in our diet every day. So a probiotic food is ⌠a few examples would be yogurt, kefir, which is a yogurt drink, kombucha, which is really popular right now. Itâs a fermented tea.
Chuck Gaidica: Okay. You kind of have that one.
Grace Derocha: You donât like that?
Chuck Gaidica: No, not really.
Grace Derocha: Itâs a little vinegary. I grew up drinking it of course because my mom and being Filipino. So definitely some of those, but then, okay hereâs more common ones. Sauerkraut. How do you feel about sauerkraut?
Chuck Gaidica: If itâs on a Reuben, you had me at hello. Outside of that I donât know that I would go out of my way. I know itâs good for you, and I think growing up, we had it a lot, with some kind of sausage or like the old German kind of idea of stuff, but I donât know that I can think of things. I donât think Iâd go for sauerkraut right now, but thatâs a good idea. Itâs cheap.
Grace Derocha: Yeah, or pickles?
Chuck Gaidica: Oh yeah, pickles are good.
Grace Derocha: Anything pickled like any vegetables that are pickled or âfermentedâ in that way, any kind of pickled vegetables. We just had some pickled green beans other day. They were delicious. What else? Kimchi, which is also pickled, but like with some Asian spices. So those are kind of the main things that are probiotic. Hereâs the side tip though, is that prebiotic foods, which are kind of ⌠I always say probiotics are like these beautiful flowers that are growing in our guts and to feed those, you need prebiotic foods that are the fertilizer and the sunshine of these flowers so they can grow. So thatâs my little analogy for you, but things like apples and oatmeal, things with a lot of fiber that can feed that probiotic. Dark chocolate falls into that category of prebiotics. So just thinking about those things that can help feed the probiotics and then also trying to get some probiotics in.
Chuck Gaidica: But you know this makes so much sense because Iâve learned from you over time we need to think about how we eat and how that affects our heart health. So on the way from the gut to the brain, thereâs a little stop in the middle there thatâs kind of important and thatâs your heart. But if youâre eating for your heart health and your gut health, thatâs obviously going to influence your brain health, which equal sign mental health, perhaps. So I think whatâs interesting here is so much of this again, is common sense do right by yourself. And youâre helping all the systems of your body, whether theyâre complex or whether theyâre basic.
Chuck Gaidica: And so much of this is just easy to do, short of the sauerkraut idea. But I mean, everything is pretty much what youâre telling me to do, I do a lot of it, but itâs striking like, âOh man, we havenât had pickles for a while.â I like a little quarter size pickle slice with a sandwich. Itâs not going to knock my sodium out of the park for the day. It is high, but itâs just a slice of a pickle, but I didnât really think that that is something that could be really good for my gut.
Grace Derocha: Yeah. Finding some balance with some of these things. Yeah, absolutely. And people have asked me often about, especially with probiotics, can I take a supplement? Sure. Yeah, you can. I would always rather have you have it from food whenever you can, because a supplement is supplementing the diet, but if you are looking for one, just any supplement that you take, make sure that youâre looking for that itâs verified by a third party, meaning so that we know what they say is in it is actually in it.
Chuck Gaidica: All right. Thatâs good stuff. But there are other things that we can do to incorporate in our diets that will also have an impact on our mental health relative to food. So give me some of those things that we should be thinking about as well.
Grace Derocha: Yeah. So Iâm going to give you the pros first, the things that we want to be sure that we add in obviously. So any diet thatâs rich with antioxidants, antioxidants kill free radicals from aging to cancers, to things that we donât want in our body. And that really is looking at colorful foods. Eat the rainbow, ROY G BIV, the fruits and vegetables into your life on a daily basis. Thatâs pretty simple.
Chuck Gaidica: So dark berries, even if theyâre frozen, right.
Grace Derocha: Yes.
Chuck Gaidica: I make my hot oatmeal and to cool it off, I just add a half cup, three quarters of a cup of frozen berries while Iâm getting antioxidants, because I mean, the color is crazy deep. So I kind of know, not only do I like it and it tastes good, but there is some wonderful goodness locked up in there somewhere.
Grace Derocha: And I love that example because thereâs easy ways that you can do that. Thatâs a perfect example of that. Complex carbohydrates. So when I say complex, I really mean those fiber rich carbs and avoiding some of those more simple ones that have added sugars. So having your oatmeal. See, Iâm just stealing all your examples today, Chuck.
Chuck Gaidica: Man, Iâm going to get a star, hang on.
Grace Derocha: Gold star on the forehead for sure. No, but definitely oatmeal, your brown rice, your brown pasta, whole wheat pastas, black rice, quinoa, whole wheat breads, all of those delicious things.
Chuck Gaidica: Stuff with flax in it. I mean, youâve got a lot of complex carbs and seeds and yeah.
Grace Derocha: And see you keep segueing me into what I want to talk about.
Chuck Gaidica: I didnât even know.
Grace Derocha: So flax seed is one of the best seeds with Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are not only good for the heart, but studies have found that they help people with depression and in America, our Omega-3 fatty acid intake and ratio compared to Omega-6 fatty acids is way low. So if thereâs ways that we can kick that up with things like flax seed, chia seeds, hemp seeds, or even better is the fatty fishes is a great way to get Omega-3s in. Your salmon, your halibut, your mackerel, really any fish that is carrying fat has that Omega-3 fatty acid that we in America are kind of deficient in. And we know that people with depression oftentimes have pretty big Omega-3 deficiencies.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah. Thatâs interesting. And youâve said that before, and Iâm glad you said it again because those are some really simple ways to attack that, which is good.
Grace Derocha: What else? Well we talked about serotonin being produced in the gut with the probiotics, but protein also is kind of in that formula, is a helper and lover of creating that serotonin for us. So protein rich foods, anything from vegan and vegetarian options, like your beans and legumes and nuts, then also eggs, meat, fish, chicken, poultry, tofu, I forgot to mention earlier. So anything thatâs rich in protein and making sure youâre getting enough protein, which most people-ish are, but just keeping that in mind to help round that out and balance it. One of my favorite ones to bring up is vitamin D. In Michigan, we have a higher vitamin D deficiency than other states. So on average, about 10% of Americans are lacking in some vitamin D and in Michigan, itâs 40% because we donât have as much sunshine, I think.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, and that can be a direct correlation to mood disorders too. Right? Like sad and those kinds of things.
Grace Derocha: Yes.
Chuck Gaidica: Because the sun is gone. So you think itâs just the visible nature of the clouds rolling in November in Michigan, and they donât leave till Motherâs Day. Iâm making it up. We get the sun, but weâre not necessarily, because of the cold air, going out and rolling up our pant legs above the boots and taking our coats off and sitting on a park bench. Itâs just not practical.
Grace Derocha: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Itâs a little chilly. So I mentioned fatty fishes. They not only have Omega-3 fatty acids, but also vitamin D. Liver, I donât know if people are eating liver very often. Cheese has some vitamin D. Egg yolks carry the vitamin D, and then thereâs many foods that are fortified with vitamin D. Some dairy products, some cereals. So thereâs a few options there.
Chuck Gaidica: Where do you stand on supplements while weâre actually hitting on vitamin D? Because I think thatâs maybe the only vitamin short of a multi vitamin, once a day, that Iâve really taken over typically gearing it up in the winter time, just because of what we just mentioned. Are you okay with supplements? You think that they really can help us, especially if theyâre individual like a vitamin D or something youâre targeting?
Grace Derocha: Yeah, I think they can, for sure. Thereâs a couple of things I would say. I would say obviously ideally to get it from food or the sun, and when you are taking a supplement of vitamin D, take vitamin D3. D3 is the kind that is most like the kind that we naturally make from the sun. And thatâs kind of the most efficient way to get it. So vitamin D3, not D2, and then the same thing. Check to see if thereâs a third party verification label on there. Usually itâs like NSP or USP. Theyâre companies that test these products to say whatâs in it is actually in it. So yeah D3, not D2.
Chuck Gaidica: So then there are a couple other things that we can tend to run low on and zinc is one of those, right?
Grace Derocha: Yes. I love zinc. So zinc is actually good for immune boosting our health naturally, but also itâs interesting because you donât need much of zinc, but if you get it in, we know that people with lower levels of zinc in their body oftentimes are more likely to have some kind of clinical depression. Yeah, I know. Zinc includes a lot of different healthy foods. We would like, again, thereâs some in fish, which I love people to have. You can also find it in eggs. You can find it in shellfish and then a variety of fruits and vegetables. And again, because we donât need that many, if you are trying to get that rainbow in a day, it can definitely help with your zinc intake as well.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, and before we got into coronavirus, zinc was being put in with vitamin C in the lozenges and stuff to boost your immune system I take it for the common cold, right? And even for flu season, but there has been some interesting stuff thatâs correlated the increased use of zinc and treating people with the virus. And so itâll be curious to see coming out of that, if boosting the immune system really was related in a way to a little bit of zinc, whatever that cocktail is that Iâm sure weâll find studies that you and I will be talking about down the road of why itâs important that zinc is included in our diets.
Grace Derocha: Yeah. Most definitely.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah. So then depression, anxiety still influenced by other things that we may be missing that are fancy words like, is it selenium or selenium?
Grace Derocha: Yep. Selenium. Selenium is a mineral that again, itâs one of those things that you probably are getting if youâre eating a well balanced diet. Beans, legumes have them. Nuts, seeds, seafood, whole grains. But what happens is we get into trouble when we kind of go down a path of maybe having an off week where weâre not getting it. And 55 micrograms each day is not very much. And thatâs kind of the recommendation for what adults should have of selenium a day. But we do know that selenium can piggyback off of building some of those happy hormones in the body.
Chuck Gaidica: So I do have a question and itâs something thatâs a little off kilter, but weâre coming through the season where the last stat I saw was that wine sales in America went up 55%. They may have gone up even beyond that, right, in this time of where everybody was kind of hunkered down. Drinking the typical four ounces of red wine once, twice a week, itâs always been, âOh, itâs kind of good for heart health,â but what does that do, not so much the increase, like youâre going off the charts and drinking too much. We know thatâs bad for you. But when it comes to heart health, gut health, everything is itâs really just thinking of that word that you like to use so much, which is so great, moderation, or is it killing the good stuff I guess is my real basic question. If weâre drinking too much wine, are we hurting ourselves?
Grace Derocha: Yes. Iâm going to just keep saying yes.
Chuck Gaidica: I know Iâm throwing you a zinger here.
Grace Derocha: No, no, this is a great question, no.
Chuck Gaidica: I just see the stats that Iâm like, âOh my gosh, weâre drinking it out of a hose.â
Grace Derocha: Yeah. So hereâs the thing with alcohol. The key is moderation and moderation is defined as one drink a day for women, two drinks a day for men. If youâre keeping within that, then it would not impact your mental health in a negative way, as much as if you were going past that. And hereâs the thing. Again, thereâs lots of layers. So if youâre feeling dependent on the alcohol to feel a certain way, thatâs an issue. Alcohol also has the tendency to spike blood sugar and then drop it low. Obviously we know what alcohol can do to the brain as far as getting a buzz or of how youâre feeling. But alcohol does have the potential, if over consumed, to kill some of those probiotics that I was giving the rah-rah speech about earlier. And we donât want to do that.
Chuck Gaidica: So is it the alcohol that kills the probiotics? Because I mean, if you cut through right through it, itâs grape juice, right. Itâs just happens to be fermented. So like you told me I should have a pickle. Iâm thinking, âOh, well maybe itâs good that I have fermented grape juice,â but grape juice is also empty carbs, you know? So itâs a very complex thing.
Grace Derocha: Itâs so funny. Someone asked me this other day and they said, âYou keep telling me they have fermented tea like kombucha or sauerkraut or things that are pickled and fermented, but then when I ask you if I can have my wine, you say, âYes, you can, but.'â Itâs made in a different way, and the way itâs produced is different than the probiotic rich foods that I was talking about earlier.
Chuck Gaidica: So moderation is the good word then?
Grace Derocha: It really is. Itâs the key. Yeah. You can have your glass with dinner and enjoy that, but just maybe not the whole bottle every night.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah. Yeah. I got you. I got you. Well, youâre kind of delving into similar topics, but the idea that alcohol is on a list of foods that can negatively impact your mental health if youâre not careful, right, if youâre not doing it-
Grace Derocha: Yes.
Chuck Gaidica: What are some of the other ones that we have to be careful about? And I think youâve touched on some.
Grace Derocha: yeah, highly processed foods. And I know you and I talked about processing and processed foods before, but anything that is highly processed that has extra additives and preservatives and chemicals in it, think about that. Theyâre preservatives and chemicals and things that theyâre adding to food that arenât actually food to help the food last longer or taste a certain way or make you think it tastes a certain way that obviously is not really good for our gut health and then not very good for our mental health. Same thing with trans fats. We know already that trans fats are not good for us because they are cancer causing. But then taking that further down the line to note that if theyâre going to do that, thereâs no way that itâs good for our brain and how weâre feeling.
Grace Derocha: We did touch on foods high in added sugar, refined foods. Having a balance. We talked about balance with alcohol, but having a balance with caffeine as well. Making sure not only is it bad for your blood pressure, but making sure that weâre not overdoing it, because then again, we get into ebb and flow of spikes and oftentimes the bad caffeinated foods, especially not so much your tea or coffee, which come from plants, but any kind of pop that has caffeine.
Chuck Gaidica: Energy drinks.
Grace Derocha: Energy drinks, yep. Those just kind of eat away at your gut.
Chuck Gaidica: And then where do you stand on intermittent fasting, which I know a lot of people-
Grace Derocha: I knew you were going to ask me that.
Chuck Gaidica: Itâs kind of a range. We could probably do a whole segment on that, but whatâs the equal sign or not to mental health?
Grace Derocha: So the equal sign here for intermittent fasting is being very smart about who you are and what you can and cannot handle. This kind of falls more into not only that spike of eating and then a drop, but then also the mental health capacity of say, I canât eat till I canât eat till, or I have to stop eating at blah time. I have to stop eating at 7:00. I have to stop eating at 7:00. I have to stop eating at 7:00. And then how youâre feeling in that time when you can eat. What Iâm seeing a lot from some patients of mine is that then they tend to overeat in a smaller time frame. And then again, their relationship with food, their relationship with their body is not in a good place.
Chuck Gaidica: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, again, some people know their bodies a whole lot better. They know what switches to flip and not to flip. If youâre feeling foggy because youâre intermittently fasting, well, that may not be a great thing. But for some, Iâve heard the opposite that man, Iâm just great. I stop eating at 7:00, 8:00 at night. I donât eat until noon the next day and Iâm okay. But I think for many of us, for me, let me just say that, if I could stop snacking after 8:00 at night, which most nights Iâm pretty good I donât, and I donât really have breakfast until 8:00 the next morning, thatâs still a 12 hour fast when you look at it. So if you could at least do that, youâre getting some of those benefits, whatever they may be.
Grace Derocha: Yes. And thatâs the thing is we all fast. Weâre not necessarily intermittent fasting, but we are all fasting as we sleep and go into the night. That is a real thing. And there are benefits too. Thatâs why we have that rest time, that rest time for our body, that time when weâre sleeping, because it does help regenerate new brain cells. And sometimes people that are doing that and getting in tune with what that looks like for their body, maybe they needed some kind of structure to begin with. So then they would be able to live without those time restraints per se, but because they had no restraints at all.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, the no restraint at all can be, I mean, all you have to do is turn on the TV news late at night and you could stand there and eat a whole box of cookies at midnight. And there goes the idea. Forget the fast. I mean, itâs just the way life is. So again, understanding your body, moderation, all makes sense, but give us a tip or two takeaways here as we wrap this up, what we should be thinking about when it comes to eating and our mental health.
Grace Derocha: So I would say this. For your mental health and your relationship with food and your body, donât be so hard on yourself. Enjoy your comfort foods. Enjoy the things that you like in moderation, but then also do your best to allow food to nourish you. Nourish your body, nourish your brain, nourish your spirit, allow your taste buds to have time to enjoy foods that they might not have liked before. And then remember that itâs not one bad treat food that will ruin your entire health and your entire body. So, keeping all of that in perspective, be kind yourself and just aim to do better with every meal or snack that youâre putting into your body. Say thank you. I always say putting good food into your body is a way to say thank you, body, for everything that youâve given me. Thank you for allowing me to be able to walk and move and think and get through things on a daily basis.
Chuck Gaidica: And itâs really good to think about it in that sense that I think much like New Yearâs resolutions and here weâre coming out kind of halfway through the year, almost into Iâm not even sure itâs normal. But it seems to me that when we put the S after resolutions, thatâs when we donât seem to be able to keep them. So maybe if you have overindulged a little bit with the cookies, because of the times weâve been in, that just having one resolution now as the weather breaks and weâre getting into nicer air, weâre able to get outside. Maybe thatâs a good way to go about it. And as you put it, do better the next meal. Donât try to make this a resolution filled year with 20 things youâve got to accomplish by August.
Grace Derocha: Yeah. I totally agree. Taking it one day at a time, one meal at a time, one moment at a time is always the best way to tackle things so it doesnât seem too overwhelming.
Chuck Gaidica: Well, lots of great stuff here, and I donât want to be in a fog. And I think youâve brought me right through mine. Again, now let me just say, Grace, except for the sauerkraut idea, Iâll try to figure out how to use that one. All right?
Grace Derocha: Sauerkraut on a salad. Sometimes I use it instead of dressing. Itâs pretty good.
Chuck Gaidica: Oh, interesting. Oh, okay. All right. Let me think about that for a week or so. Good to talk to you. Thank you, Grace. Be safe and be well.
Grace Derocha: Thank you so much for having me. Always a pleasure.
Chuck Gaidica: Grace Derocha, Registered Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator, and a Certified Health Coach, coaching us all along today. We want to thank you for listening to a Healthier Michigan Podcast. Itâs brought to you by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. If you like our show, and you want to know more, check us out at ahealthiermichigan.org/podcast. You can get previous episodes. You can also leave us reviews or ratings on Apple Podcast or Stitcher, and you can get all the new episodes on your smartphone or tablet. Take it with you as youâre going for your power walks now. Be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Iâm Chuck Gaidica. Take good care.