Dr. Uma Naidoo: Your Brain on Food

We often embark on a healthy diet with goals like improving fitness, losing weight, enhancing digestion, promoting cardiac health, and extending longevity. While these benefits are undeniable, we frequently overlook the profound impact on the brain. Recent studies have highlighted the influence that diet can exert on conditions such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, and many others.

Dr. Naidoo is a physician known for being a triple threat in her field, she is a Harvard trained psychiatrist, a professional chef, and a nutrition specialist. Her wonderful work has led to her being regarded nationally and internationally as a pioneer in the field of nutritional psychiatry.

She is the author of This is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, and More. Through her passion for food and nutritional psychiatry, she shares her expertise on the integration of food, mental health and medicine.

Join us as we discuss the microbiome, anxiety, alcohol, ADHD, and much more!

(00:00) – Intro

(01:04) – Dr. Naidoo’s views on health

02:29 – Recent research connecting diet and mental health

03:53 – The effects of gluten on mental health

07:03 – Debate around gluten and pesticides such as glyphosate

07:32 – The microbiome as the second brain, connection to mental health

10:11 – What foods contain the worst ingredients

12:17 – The effect of sugar on the microbiome

13:48 – What diet can help with anxiety?

16:58 – Glutamates and the gut

18:56 – Benefits of quitting alcohol