The Importance of Being Well-Nourished

Posted On April 2, 2022

Let’s talk about Empath Nutrition and how it affects our psychological state.

Anxiety. Depression. PTSD. Bi-Polar Disorder. A lot of empaths struggle with these diagnoses. They take the prescribed meds, they make things a little better, but … not really.

Maybe the panic attacks aren’t as severe or as often. Maybe the depression lightens up enough for you to want to get out of bed, but … that’s about it. The pills alone can’t give your brain what it needs and because of that, many people just stop taking them after a while feeling “hopeless” and that no one and nothing can help.

Therapy doesn’t seem to help much either. Seems like for every step forward, you find yourself taking five steps back. You do all the things they tell you to do, and yet, you still feel the impact of these diagnoses on a daily basis. What to do? How can you break the cycle?

Never fear! Food is here!

Prebiotic foods, probiotic foods, mineral rich foods, clean foods; all of these things play a huge role in our mental health and healing.

What this means is that our nutrition is critical to our emotional and mental health. If you’re not giving your body what it requires to make the neurotransmitters your brain needs, then regardless of how many SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) you take, your serotonin levels will not be just right for YOU and YOUR body and brain.

Regardless of how many anti-depressants you take, your dopamine levels will not be just right for you without the right fuel to create them on your own. (This goes for ALL of our neurotransmitters! I’m talking to those of you on Gabapentin.)

What Does My Diet Have To Do With Neurotransmitters?

Did you know that these all-important neurotransmitters are made largely in the gut? In fact, 95% of our serotonin is produced in the gut. Yes, you read that right. Go look it up … I’ll wait …

Okay, you’re back. Let’s continue, now that you’ve had time to recover from the shock of finding out that’s true.

It stands to reason then, that what we put in our gut will greatly affect our emotional and mental state. We all know that foods high in tryptophan make us sleepy. Guess what else tryptophan does? It’s an amino acid used in the building of neurotransmitters! It is also essential in the synthesis of proteins. This is just one little fascinating tidbit about food and the brain I will share with you.

How Do I Do This?

It is my goal to help you find a nutrition plan that incorporates these neurotransmitter-producing foods that works for YOU. You will never see me use the word “diet”. Our diet is what we eat. In order to have a healthy diet, we need to have a healthy nutrition plan that is sustainable and works for each individual.

To that end, I will be publishing a series of articles discussing which foods promote the creation of neurotransmitters and which provide us with pretty much nothing nutritionally (and yes, I will be talking about sugar in the latter category).

Delicious, nutritious recipes will be shared as well as cooking tips and other helpful info to guide you to your healthiest self – physically and mentally. This is not about weight loss, this is about brain health. Eat for your brain! If you lose some weight along the way, you get a bonus.

I hope you join me and I look forward to sharing what I have learned with you after changing my own nutrition plan to change my life.

(I am not a dietician or a nutritionist. I’m a guided life coach who has, through education and experience, learned how important our nutrition is to our mental health. This is not a cure for anything, but a tool you can use to improve your life in many ways. Please see a professional for any serious medical, psychological, or nutritional needs.)