What is nutritional psychiatry?
Nutritional psychiatry is an exciting and growing area of mental health care. It studies how food, nutrients, and eating patterns can support — or worsen — your mood, anxiety, energy, and overall brain health.
Why it matters
Your brain needs certain nutrients to make the chemicals that control mood, such as serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, and GABA. It also needs the right balance to keep inflammation low.
Modern diets high in processed foods, additives, sugar, and unnatural fats can quietly increase inflammation — starting a war in your body, or plainly poisoning it — and make you feel sad, lose memory, become irritable, or withdraw. On the other hand, foods rich in omega-3s, fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals help calm the brain and support steady emotions.
The gut–brain axis
- Diet quality: eat at home
- Targeted micronutrients: eat fresh
- Microbiome optimization: eat fermented foods to cultivate a diverse gut
If you're interested, we can look at your current eating habits together and create a simple plan that supports your mental health goals.
— Dr. Alicja Wasilewski, MD
Good Mind MD