When we think about mental health, we usually think about what’s happening in the brain.
But what if part of the conversation should also be about what’s happening in your gut — and even what’s on your plate?
That’s the idea behind nutritional psychiatry, a growing field exploring the relationship between food, the gut microbiome, and mental well-being.
On Shrinks on Tap, Dr. Eleni Boosalis sat down with Dr. Uma Naidoo, a Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist, professional chef, nutritional biologist, and bestselling author of This Is Your Brain on Food and Calm Your Mind with Food.
Across two conversations, they explored both sides of the equation:
Why can gut health affect the way we feel?
And perhaps even more importantly: What can we actually do about it?
Here are some of the biggest takeaways.
What Is Nutritional Psychiatry?
Nutritional psychiatry looks at the relationship between nutrition and mental health and how food may be used as one component of supporting mental well-being.
Dr. Naidoo makes an important distinction: nutrition isn’t necessarily a replacement for psychotherapy, medication, or other mental health treatment.
Instead, it can be another tool alongside the other things you’re already doing to care for your mental health.
That distinction matters.
This isn’t about claiming that eating a salad will cure anxiety or that someone struggling with depression simply needs to change their diet. Mental health is far more complex than that.
It’s about recognizing that what we eat may be another part of a much larger mental-health picture.
How Are Your Gut and Brain Connected?
The phrase “gut-brain connection” can sound like wellness jargon until you understand what’s actually happening.
As Dr. Naidoo explains, the gut and brain originate from the same cells early in human development before becoming separate organs. They remain connected in several ways, including through the vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve helps create a two-way communication pathway. Information travels from the brain toward the gut, but signals also travel from the gut toward the brain.
In other words, the relationship isn’t simply:
Brain → Gut
It’s:
Brain ↔ Gut
That helps explain something many of us have experienced without giving it much thought.
Stress can affect your stomach.
Anxiety can change your appetite.
And what’s happening in your digestive system may also influence how you feel.
Can Gut Health Affect Anxiety and Mood?
Your digestive tract is home to trillions of microorganisms collectively known as the gut microbiome.
What we eat can influence the environment in which those microorganisms live.
Dr. Naidoo explains that foods such as vegetables, fiber, healthy proteins, and healthy fats can support beneficial microbes, while diets dominated by ultra-processed foods, fast food, and large amounts of added sugar may contribute to an imbalance in the microbiome and inflammation.
Why does that matter for mental health?
Because the gut and brain are communicating with one another, researchers are increasingly interested in the relationships among diet, the microbiome, inflammation, anxiety, and mood.
It doesn’t mean that gut health is the cause of every mental-health problem. It means the gut may be one part of a much larger and interconnected system.
What Does Serotonin Have to Do With Your Gut?
Episode 1: The Gut-Brain Connection — Why Your Gut May Affect Your Mental Health
Watch here: https://youtu.be/6xptFV4yCYA
This was one of the more surprising parts of the Shrinks on Tap conversation.
We tend to associate serotonin almost entirely with the brain, particularly because of its relationship with mood and medications such as SSRIs.
But much of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut.
There’s an important nuance here: serotonin produced in the gut doesn’t simply travel directly into the brain. Dr. Naidoo explains that it cannot readily cross the blood-brain barrier. Instead, the gut and brain interact through several biological pathways, including the vagus nerve.
The takeaway isn’t simply that “serotonin comes from your stomach.”
It’s that the biology underlying mental health is considerably more interconnected than many of us were taught to think.
And that brings us to food.
What Foods Can Support Mental Health?
Episode 2: What to Eat for a Better Mood & Less Anxiety
Watch here: https://youtu.be/tYNnwKsPwn8
There isn’t one magical food that suddenly creates better mental health.
Instead, Dr. Naidoo repeatedly comes back to an overall pattern centered on whole foods.
That can include:
• Vegetables and fruits
• Fiber-rich foods
• Nuts and seeds
• Beans, lentils, and chickpeas
• Healthy fats such as avocado and extra-virgin olive oil
• Healthy sources of protein
• Omega-3-rich foods
• Fermented foods
• Healthy whole grains
The goal is to create an overall eating pattern that supports the gut, brain, and rest of the body rather than searching for one miracle ingredient.
Can Food Help With Anxiety?
Dr. Naidoo’s work has specifically explored nutrition and anxiety, including in her book Calm Your Mind with Food.
One theme throughout her conversation with Eleni is reducing foods that may contribute to inflammation while incorporating more nutrient-dense whole foods.
But this is not an “anti-anxiety diet” that guarantees someone won’t experience anxiety.
Nutrition is better thought of as one potential piece of a larger mental-health strategy that may also include therapy, medication, sleep, movement, stress management, relationships, and appropriate medical care.
That distinction is particularly important when talking about mental health: food can be supportive without being presented as a cure.
You Don’t Have to Eat Perfectly
This may be one of the most practical messages from the entire conversation.
Dr. Naidoo endorses an 80/20 approach.
If roughly 80% of the time you’re eating nourishing whole foods, the other 20% doesn’t need to become a source of guilt or anxiety.
Have the birthday cake.
Eat the less-than-perfect airport meal when that’s what’s available.
Enjoy your life.
Then return to the habits that generally make you feel good.
It’s about balance rather than perfection.
And that’s a very different message from restrictive diet culture.
How Quickly Can Changing Your Diet Affect Your Gut?
Interestingly, your gut microbes don’t necessarily need months to notice that something has changed.
Dr. Naidoo explains that microbes can begin responding quickly to both food and stress.
That doesn’t mean everyone will immediately feel different. Individual responses vary considerably.
But when Eleni asks how long it might take someone to notice a difference after improving their diet, Dr. Naidoo explains that some people may notice changes within about a week, while seven days to three weeks may be a meaningful window for others.
The important word may be consistency.
Not perfection.
What Should Women Eat During Perimenopause and Menopause?
Nutrition can become particularly important as women move through perimenopause, menopause, and beyond.
Dr. Naidoo discusses paying particular attention to adequate protein because muscle mass can decline as we age.
She also highlights:
• Omega-3-rich foods
• Calcium
• Vitamin D
• Fiber-rich foods
• Fermented foods
• Healthy fats
• Colorful, anti-inflammatory plant foods
• Phytoestrogen-containing foods such as tofu, edamame, miso, flax seeds, sesame seeds, chickpeas, and lentils
Again, the larger idea isn’t a restrictive “menopause diet.”
It’s becoming more intentional about nutrients that may deserve additional attention during this stage of life.
Is Coffee Bad for Your Mental Health?
For the coffee drinkers among us, there was good news.
Dr. Naidoo says coffee can be perfectly fine if you tolerate it well.
She recommends paying attention to how it makes you feel. Does it leave you jittery, uncomfortable, or nauseous? Does drinking it later in the day interfere with your sleep?
She also suggests being mindful of what you add to it.
The coffee itself may not be the issue. Loading it with large quantities of added sugar and ultra-processed creamer changes the equation considerably.
It’s another example of a theme that runs throughout the conversation:
You don’t necessarily need to eliminate everything you enjoy.
Some “Healthy” Foods May Not Be as Healthy as You Think
Food packaging can make healthy eating more complicated than it needs to be.
One example Dr. Naidoo discusses is fruit-flavored yogurt.
It sounds like an obvious healthy choice — yogurt plus fruit — but some varieties can contain surprisingly high amounts of added sugar.
A simple alternative?
Start with plain yogurt and add your own berries, cinnamon, and, if you’d like, a small amount of honey.
Fruit juice provides another example. Eating the whole orange or apple provides the whole fruit, including its fiber, rather than consuming only the juice.
But convenience doesn’t automatically mean unhealthy.
Frozen vegetables can be an excellent shortcut. Frozen broccoli or cauliflower can make eating more vegetables considerably easier when you don’t have time for extensive preparation.
Healthy eating has to work in real life.
Start With One Small Food Swap
This may be the easiest takeaway from both conversations to put into practice.
Don’t try to change everything tomorrow.
Change one thing.
Maybe you swap a soda for another drink.
Maybe you change what you put in your coffee.
Maybe you add another vegetable to dinner.
Maybe you replace one highly processed snack with a whole-food option.
Then pay attention to how you feel.
Do you notice a difference in your energy?
Your digestion?
Your sleep?
Your mood?
Dr. Naidoo describes developing greater awareness of the relationship between food and how your body feels as a form of “body intelligence.”
One change can lead to another without turning eating into another source of pressure.
Food Is One Piece of Mental Health — Not the Whole Answer
Perhaps the most important point in the entire conversation comes back to where Dr. Naidoo began.
Nutrition is a tool.
It isn’t necessarily the treatment.
Mental health is complex. Therapy, medication, medical care, relationships, sleep, movement, stress, environment, genetics, and many other factors can matter.
Food belongs in that conversation, too.
That’s ultimately what makes nutritional psychiatry so interesting: it expands the number of tools available to us rather than reducing mental health to a single solution.
Your brain may not be the only place worth paying attention to.
Sometimes supporting your mental health can also mean noticing what’s happening in your gut — and what’s on your plate.
Watch Both Conversations With Dr. Uma Naidoo
We divided our conversation with Dr. Naidoo into two focused episodes so you can explore both the science and the practical side of food and mental health.
Episode 1: The Gut-Brain Connection — Why Your Gut May Affect Your Mental Health
Watch here:
Episode 2: What to Eat for a Better Mood & Less Anxiety
Watch here:
Subscribe to Shrinks on Tap on YouTube for more conversations about mental health, relationships, wellness, and the psychology behind everyday life:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNybLGJrnabUiSxirTu1nUw
Learn More From Dr. Uma Naidoo
Learn more about Dr. Naidoo, her books, nutritional psychiatry, recipes, and other resources:
Hypnosis for Weight Management
If changing your relationship with food involves more than simply knowing what you “should” eat, Dr. Eleni Boosalis’ Hypnosis for Weight Management eCourse explores habits and patterns that can influence eating and weight management.
Learn more:
https://www.delraypsych.com/hypnosisforweightmanagement
Frequently Asked Questions
Can gut health affect mental health?
The gut and brain communicate through several biological pathways, including the vagus nerve, and researchers continue to study how the gut microbiome, inflammation, diet, and mental health interact. Gut health should be considered one potential component of mental well-being rather than a single explanation for mental-health conditions.
Can gut health affect anxiety?
Research into the gut-brain connection has created growing interest in how the microbiome and diet may relate to anxiety. Dr. Naidoo discusses nutrition as one tool that may support mental health, not as a replacement for appropriate mental-health or medical treatment.
What foods may support mental health?
Dr. Naidoo emphasizes an overall eating pattern rich in whole foods, including vegetables, fruits, fiber, nuts and seeds, legumes, healthy proteins, omega-3-rich foods, healthy fats, fermented foods, and healthy whole grains.
What foods may help with anxiety?
Rather than relying on one specific food, Dr. Naidoo recommends focusing on nutrient-dense whole foods and reducing highly processed foods and excessive added sugar. Her work also explores foods and nutrients that may help support the biological systems involved in mood and stress.
How quickly can changing your diet affect your gut?
The gut microbiome can begin responding quickly to changes in diet. How quickly someone actually notices a difference in symptoms or how they feel varies from person to person.
Is coffee bad for anxiety?
Not necessarily. Dr. Naidoo says coffee can be fine for people who tolerate it, but individual responses to caffeine vary. If coffee makes you jittery, uncomfortable, or disrupts your sleep, those effects are worth paying attention to.
Do you need to eat perfectly to support your mental health?
No. Dr. Naidoo advocates an 80/20 approach rather than perfection. The overall pattern of how you eat matters more than an occasional treat or less-than-ideal meal.
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