Food and Mood - trust your gut - a message from Sally Kirkright, CEO AccessEAP

When we think of the personal impact of our diet and food intake, we typically focus on our physical health, and on our body shape or weight. Until recently, less thought has been given to the effect that the foods we consume may have on our moods and emotional wellbeing. However, this has now become an area of increasing interest and research.

The gut, or gastrointestinal system, has been coined by researchers as our “second brain”, due to the complex way in which this part of our body influences our wellbeing and communicates back and forth with our brain. These messages are much more sophisticated than our gut telling our brain that we are hungry or our brain triggering the release of saliva and stomach acids after seeing or smelling what it anticipates will be a tasty treat.

It appears that the gut also plays a very important role in regulating our emotional system. The fact that there are links between the gut and our emotional states is not new. You are probably familiar with phrases such as “I have butterflies in my stomach” or “I just have a gut feeling”. It is well established that if we are in a mental state of depression and anxiety, this can have physical manifestations such as diarrhoea, nausea, and changes in appetite.

Research around the impacts of our diet on our moods suggests however that the relationship between the gut and our mental wellbeing is bi-directional, that is, our gut can also have a specific influence on our emotional states. Studies have shown, for example, that patients with diagnosed clinical depression experience an improvement in subjective mood when receiving a healthy diet combined with counselling, as compared with those who only received counselling.

Take pause and think about how you feel before and after eating certain foods. Notice the impact not only on your energy levels but also whether you feel able to focus, whether you have a good nights’ sleep, and your general sense of wellbeing. The relationship between our gut health and our emotional wellbeing is complex, however being mindful and aware of how you are responding to your food choices appears to be a step in the right direction.

Of course everyone’s body responds differently to particular foods, and there is no particular diet that suits every person. You may see this anecdotally among friends and family, where the food that one person can “stomach” is different from another. Research on gut bacteria also demonstrates that what constitutes a healthy gut is unique to each person. That is why the expert advice of a nutritionist may be a very important part of your overall personal wellbeing strategy.

At AccessEAP, we embrace this holistic approach to managing your mental wellbeing, and are pleased to announce that we now offer a free nutritionist consultation as part of our service offering. This gives you and your employees an opportunity to better understand the potential links between food intake and your mental wellbeing.

Making changes to your diet is not always easy, and counselling is also an important part of helping you to make sustainable change through goal-setting and values-based choices.