According to experts and common sense, eating properly and having adequate sustenance is imperative as we need to have the prescribed nutrients and water in our body to function well. But how much is our diet correlated to our health, how we feel, act, think, our mood and our anxiety or mental health?
Lately, I hear clients and people not eating well, with a poor diet displaying many of the symptoms of anxiety and depression, but they often don't think they are contributing to, or causing or creating some of their pains or the problems that they are feeling.
Seldom do people think that they are hindering or affecting their health even with their poor diet and obvious signs of dehydration, when they quite possibly are.
Basically, though from evidence, it appears that many of the symptoms of a poor diet, or not eating healthy or adequately sound so similar to that of anxiety, stress and depression that we wish there were more studies in this regard.
In fact, not eating can lead to a wide variety of symptoms and health issues to one degree or another including areas such as;
· Sleep issues
· Headaches
· Irritability
· Weight loss
· Fatigue
· Dehydration
· Slurred speech, confusion, syncope (fainting), or seizures
· Severe weight loss, fatigue, depression, and stomach issues
· Low blood sugar, low energy levels, and malnutrition
· Hair loss
· Constant hunger
· Inability to get pregnant
· Fatigue or low energy
Eating, Depression & Symptoms
People will often eat or not eat for many reasons, to try to fill in a void or avoid how they feel albeit, lonely, irritable or sad in what is called ‘comfort eating’. But it is important to understand if you have an eating disorder or if you are eating unhealthy foods to suppress other emotions like depression.
According to; https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/symptoms;
Common sights to look out for as symptoms of Depression include;
Sadness - As The most common symptom of depression is a feeling of sadness or emptiness
Worthlessness - Continual feelings of worthlessness, guilt, or helplessness
Irritability - Depression may cause people to get easily frustrated or angered, even over small matters
Fatigue - People with depression often experience lack of energy or feel tired all the time.
Poor Diets & Its Side Effects
According to www.eatingdisorders.org, ‘The number of people in Australia with an eating disorder at any given time is estimated to be around 1 million, or approximately 4% of the population (Deloitte Access Economics, 2015).’
In a country of over 25 million people having over one million people with an eating disorder sounds extreme and we wonder how much this is adversely affecting our mental health.
A clients come to us for infinite reasons including not being able to cope with their life, weight management and sometimes as a result of not being able to handle the ‘said’ heavy side effects from their medication. As a part of understanding how and why they feel a particular way we are ask questions and are interested in knowing how much their poor diet is contributing to how they are feeling.
The sense of inability to cope and confusion in life seems to be causing a lot of anxiety and people need to understand that sometimes their medication can affect their appetite. Maintaining good hydration and eating a healthy diet is imperative at any age and at any stage of life and maybe especially so if one has a mental illness.
Sadly though, at a closer look, some people who have very unhealthy eating habits or are just not drinking enough water and are often dehydrated are possibly contributing to making themselves feel unwell, and some are often reluctant to want to see it.
Sometimes people's lack of eating or poor diet is that they don’t want to put on weight and as a result we feel that many people may not be getting the nutrients they need and feeling so unwell and anxious in the process.
Reference: www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/behaviours-risk-factors/food-nutrition/reports states that;
“Australians of all ages generally have a poor diet—that is they do not eat enough of the 5 food groups and eat too many discretionary foods high in salt, fat and sugar. Inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption in particular is a risk factor for CVD, type 2 diabetes, CKD and overweight and obesity.”
We all need to eat adequately to balance our entire body and create the necessary hormones and cortisol levels and keep these in check to help support us for all reasons including not feeling the same symptoms as sadness and depressed.
Eating Disorders & Food Intake
It appears along with depression, that eating disorders are also on the rise and we feel that perhaps some people think that they are depressed when perhaps they are also often malnourished, not eating healthy enough or not drinking enough water.
According to www.eatingdisorders.org.au
“Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is defined by the DSM-5 as an eating or feeding disorder characterised by a persistent and disturbed pattern of feeding or eating that leads to a failure to meet nutritional/energy needs. Diagnosis is associated with at least one of the following:
(1) Significant weight loss (or failure to achieve weight gain/physical growth in children);
(2) Significant nutritional deficiency;
(3) Dependence on tube feeding (supplying nutrients directly to the gastrointestinal tract) or oral nutritional supplements;
(4) Marked interference on an individual’s psychosocial functioning (e.g., impacts on daily activities).
Diagnosis is made if symptoms are not better explained by a concurrent medical condition (e.g., allergies, intolerances, other medical conditions), other mental illness (including other eating disorders, such as Anorexia Nervosa), a lack of available food or a cultural practice (e.g., Ramadan). ARFID differs from picky or fussy eating, which is common in childhood and generally resolves over time (e.g., food neophobia).
The food avoidance and restriction that define ARFID can lead to medical or mental health consequences that further exacerbate food avoidance and restriction and serve to maintain the illness. ARFID is persistent, more severe, can involve the restriction of both familiar and new foods, and has significant physical and mental health consequences.”
It is extremely important to make sure that you are eating healthy and that you are getting the correct nutrients daily.
Sometimes in life also, we find that we don’t like eating something only later in life find out that we are actually allergic to that food. And in other situations, certain food gives us diarrhea, hives or skin irritations or worse without us knowing it and it can affect our appetite or mood and create conditions.
Hormones & Poor Diets
It still surprises me that Australia as a nation with such great access to so much fresh food that we are seen to have generally poor diets and that the statistics for being overweight are so high.
But what is correlation between poor diets, imbalance in hormones and ill health exactly?
Low cortisol levels for example can cause hypoglcaemia which causes physical stress, normally triggers the pituitary to make more ACTH (hormones).
If your cortisol levels are low, your pituitary is not making enough ACTH (hormones), so your adrenal glands do not make enough cortisol
Also adrenal stress hormones like epinephrine, nor-epinephrine, DHEA, and cortisol play a vital role in blood sugar regulation and how we respond to stress.
Blood sugar regulation is extremely important and if we are not eating well or having enough glucose or too much glucose it can affect everything and becomes a vicious circle.
Adrenal insufficiency is another condition in which the adrenal glands do not produce adequate amounts of steroid hormones. The adrenal glands, also referred to as adrenal cortex normally secretes glucocorticoids (primarily cortisol and other hormones) These hormones are important in regulating blood pressure, electrolytes, and metabolism.
Deficiency of these hormones can lead to symptoms ranging from abdominal pain, vomiting, muscle weakness, fatigue love blood pressure depression, mood and personality changes to organ failure and shock in severe cases.
Signs and symptoms of adrenal insufficiency can lead to hypoglycaemia, dehydration hyperpigmentation, dehydration, weight loss and disorientation.
Additional signs and symptoms include weakness, tiredness, dizziness, low blood pressure that falls further when stay, cardiovascular collapse, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. These problems may develop gradually or over time insidiously apparently.
It seems that without the proper nutritional intake our body can go into chaos and cause many problems, pain and symptoms from anxiety and depression to pain from hormone deficiency or worse.
Identifying the sources of the problem & Image
Identifying the sources of the problems and maintaining our image but be at our own expense, but seldom do people want to see correlations.
An example of this is of a client in her late 40’s being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and was very surprised and very angry at the diagnosis because it was very pain. She states that it was caused by her ‘genes’ and that it couldn’t be helped and was taking medication which was causing her even more anxiety in her life.
She had complained about feelings of anxiety for over 30 years but the reality is that she said she never ate breakfast or lunch and then of an evening would go home and eat dinner with three glasses of white wine and did this at least 4-5 times a week.
From the ages of 18 to 48 she said that she always exercised alot which involved going to the gym religiously every morning at 6am and doing a 1 ½ hours work out which consisted of running. She would then go straight to work for 8-10 hours -all without eating any breakfast or lunch or food. She would have water, but not alot.
Basically, for over 30 years she did not supply her body with the nutritional and water intake that it needed, was often anxious, stressed and complained a lot about pain and then was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
To this day she never saw any correlation between her diet, her lifestyle, her exercise routine, her nutritional intake, her pain or what may have triggered her genes to create ‘the condition’.
She now takes medication and has to for the rest of her life, and she continues with the same lifestyle choices and going to the gym. She is still slim, and is in constant pain.
Was there a correlation between her becoming so unwell and her lifestyle choices or triggering her genes to act a particular way? – not according to her!
A Healthy Approach To Food & Eating
A healthy approach to eating is something that often can come from childhood but that can be learned and adhered to. As a professional chef I still enjoy cooking and learnt something about nutrition in my studies and along life's journey.
I come from an Italian family, on my mother’s side where we enjoyed not just eating but the preparation of our meals or snacks, talking about food at the table to long lengths and often planning what we would and wouldn’t be eating.
Thinking back, there felt like a big correlation in talking about food that made us all maintain great health and body weight including whilst we would indulge in the actual preparation of food, talking about our love of food and keeping us all relatively healthy and happy.
I remember many times my grandmother saying to me if I was not feeling well that I should eat something healthy, not even knowing whether I was hungry or not, which is quite unusual looking back. What I learnt growing up from her and from many things is that, ‘how you feel is directly related to what you are eating’.
Body Image - Undereating & Diets
Body image can be extremely important and some people undereat intentionally in order to maintain a certain look or appearance, and staying slim is often a a result of adhering to restrictive diets or following popular health trends.
Sometimes these diets and trends can be misinterpreted or contain inappropriate nutritional advice. This can lead to undereating, mal-nutrition and cause other health conditions.
In other cases, a person might undereat due to an eating disorder or simply without realizing they are doing it or their medication is affecting them adversely making them feel like over eating or under eating.
Sometimes people who have an abnormally high metabolism or high levels of physical activity do not eat enough to keep up with their body’s demands and do not realise it until they can no longer cope well and feel over stressed.
Others may undereat as a result of stress, particularly after experiencing a traumatic life event such as the death of a relative or close friend or losing their job.
People may also undereat as a result of depression or other mental health conditions and it is so important to maintain a balanced diet that provides all the necessary nutrients for your body to function properly.
Getting Back Control Of Your Diet - & Your Mood
So, how do we help ourselves to re-balance our bodies best, and in some cases maintain our medication, all whilst working, socialising, and trying to live life well? Through great nutrition and keeping dehydrated and through behavioural change if necessary and changing or changing our views.
It often takes planning and preparation to eat well and stay on track and get the nutritional balance that you require but it is so worth the effort.
People often will say that they don’t have the time to eat but here are a few simple steps that might assist to get your body back on track to eat more healthy food and make life simpler;
· Get healthy meals delivered
· Buy pre-packaged meals
· Buy the healthiest frozen meals – if you seriously can’t get something fresh
· Learn how to make seven dishes that you love well
· Hire a chef occasionally to make the meals and freeze them
· Cook three to four meals and then freeze them ready to use during the week
· If you live with someone, take turns to cook
· Buy healthy take away 2-3 times a week
· Keep a bottle of water with you to keep you hydrated
· Try to make food preparation fun and keep it simple
Staying On Track To Feel Better
Most people understand that when they don’t eat well or enough, they can feel or get a bit ‘narky’ and not have the same patience they would have if you were well nourished.
It may in fact be true that we tend to have a ‘shorter fuse’ when we are hungry or haven’t eaten or drunk anything for a number of hours or have eaten unhealthy food.
In previous blogs we have discussed how allergies can make us irritable in previous but not eating enough can deplete what is required for our brain and body to operate well ranging from, brain functioning, our neurotransmitters, and depleting our hormones.
It is so important not to skip meals and to maintain energy during the day or else we run the gauntlet of many issues including becoming tired, lethargic, not being able to concentrate well or worse.
Strangely people often will tell me how they feel but then say that they miss meals often or don’t take the time to eat enough during the day, but don’t see any correlation to how they are feeling.
There are countless fad diets and nutritional advice, and it is straight forward that if you do not consume enough calories, you will feel tired and often lethargic or worse.
Have A Plan & Some Reminders To Eat & Drink
If you are so used to not eating then this may not be easy. Creating a simple plan to eat three meals and hydrate (drink water, healthy teas, or lemon water) is about taking steps to realise that your body might be undernourished and suffering significantly without you realising.
Creating a plan may just be as simple as putting it into your diary or sending yourself reminders during the day at certain times to eat. It may mean sharing your concerns with someone and asking for their support, or getting professional help.
Getting professional help in terms of nutrition may be varied, depending upon your precise needs and include;
· Hiring a nutritionist or naturopath
· Advising your psychiatrist or psychologist of your nutritional concerns
· Asking your counsellor to help you
· Hiring a fitness professional – at the gym, online
· Hiring a health coach
· Hiring a dietician
· Find out if you have any food allergies
· Get hypnotherapy for food cravings or food addictions
We are also trying to highlight here that sometimes some of the signs and symptoms of anxiety and depression can be like that of adrenal insufficiency and low cortisol levels and need to be properly diagnosed.
We are not suggesting that food alone will reverse certain conditions but we are saying that we need to give our bodies the best possible chances to support it against the signs of stress and deterioration of hormones and cortisol, conditions and diseases.
People often say that their medication is changing their appetite and some medication is said to affect how we feel, weight or weight gain.
It is best to seek medical advice if you feel that you cannot cope in this regard.
We do highly recommend looking at your food intake and seeing if you are eating enough ‘fresh vegetables and fruits’ as opposed to packet food or snacks in order to feel better and enhance your mood.
It appears that humans may very well need to have the prescribed nutrients and water in our bodies but whether we feel we are responsible for any correlations between our diet and our health or how we feel appears questionable. More proof and studies in this regard would be advantageous to say the least.
We are not medical experts and recommend seeing a professional for help if you are suffering from any of these symptoms.