But I’m already eating healthily … aren’t I? 

I often have people tell me they don’t think changing the way they eat will help their mood, energy, stress, or mental health because they’re already eating healthy. 

First up, I’m here to tell you that yes, you are already eating healthy. You care about what you eat, and you prioritize eating well. Do you eat PERFECTLY (whatever that means)? Of course not, but really who does.

I have conversations with women about how food can impact their mood, energy, and mental health almost daily. And most of the time, one of the first things they say to me is that they are already eating healthy. 

And as I said, they’re right.

Yet, this mindset creates a roadblock, and today I am going to walk you through it.

The Wellness Movement and Food 

Be it intentional or unintentional; the wellness movement has taken our interest in improving our health and turned it into a value system around food.

There was a time when the purpose of food was to serve as nourishment for our bodies. But also as a way to come together and as a family or community. It represented celebration, success, and togetherness. 

Yet in our endeavour to live our best lives, we started deciding some food were ‘good,’ and some foods were ‘bad.’

But food is neither good nor bad. 

It’s food. It does not have moral or intrinsic value. 

However, different food can support or hinder other health goals.

Back to ‘already eating healthy.’

Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by food messaging. Online we are told the best foods to eat for health, longevity, and perfect body composition.

In the shops, confronted with labelling designed by marketing teams to make us feel like a particular type or brand of food will increase our health and our family’s health. A lot of marketing science goes into these branding decisions, for which we are all susceptible.

But beyond the supermarkets is the world of farmers’ markets and organic produce. Possibly one of the most confronting things I teach is that living in a country like Australia, purchasing all your food organically at the farmers’ markets is not ‘healthier’ than shopping at Coles or Woolies. 

Are there reasons to spend your Sunday morning at the farmers’ market? Sure. Absolutely. If you want to support local. It aligns with your environmental beliefs. You find food that tastes better or is better suited to your wants and needs. Or you find it enhances your relationship with food to pick your produce and speak to the farmers. Yes, that is valuable. 

To you. 

But it’s not universally healthier. 

But, I STILL eat healthily.

All this marketing and messaging has moved us away from what we know about nutrition science and how the body works.

It teaches us to believe that we will achieve our health and body composition goals by eating healthy food. 

So when I start talking about mental health nutrition, I frequently am met with that level of resistance. I already eat healthily.

Yes, you do. By intentionally selecting foods to support your health and body, you are eating healthy. 

But why are you not achieving your goals? 

Here. Right here. The place I want to get everyone’s attention. 

This, right here, is the point of disconnection between how we identify health food and what we know about nutrition science. 

We look at each food item and decide if it meets the criteria for ‘healthy,’ 

And if that doesn’t work, if we are not achieving our goals, we start to blame the food. 

It must be the gluten

Or the dairy

Or the carbs 

But in truth, it’s usually none of those things. 

Focusing on ‘healthy food,’ it’s easy to lose sight of what makes food essential for our bodies: nutrients.

If we are not getting the nutrients we need to support our health, it doesn’t matter how ‘healthy’ our food is.  

An example in mental health nutrition 

Here’s an example. Sixteen nutrients have the strongest association with mood and brain health. But we eat food, not nutrients. So when eating to support our mental health, we focus on eating adequate amounts of the food categories that contain large amounts of these nutrients. 

If your diet doesn’t contain adequate nutrients, it might not get the nutritional building blocks for a balanced mood.

It doesn’t mean the food you’re eating is ‘bad.’ Or unhealthy. Or that you have a poor diet. What it means is it might not include the nutritional building blocks for a balanced mood. 

Looking at each food item in your diet and evaluating its healthfulness does not give you the bigger picture of what nutrients you consume. 

What does this mean?

You can eat only healthy food and still not get the nutrients you need to support your health. 

The good news is that for most people, eating a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and protein sources from meat or other sources is often enough.

For those who want to take it one step further and learn how to support their mood, energy, and mental health with food, we start by seeing where you’re at. 

Every client I work with starts by completing a five-day food and mood journal. Because you really can’t start making changes until you know where you’re coming from, what your base is.  

After that, we calculate individual needs for nutrients like protein by using factors such as activity level, age, and sex (at birth). These and more factors impact how much specific nutrients are needed to fit you in your life.

Another example: Protein

Did you know that proteins requirements for women go up by 1.2% with each decade of life?

According to the Australian Dietary Guidelines, did you know that between 15-25% of your diet should be protein? But that it doesn’t tell you anywhere where YOU should be on that range? Women between the ages of 19-70 all have the same dietary requirements for protein, despite different needs based on age and activity level. 

Protein has many roles in the body. Likely the most well know is its role in muscle development and maintaining muscle mass. But protein has other vital functions, like building critical neurotransmitters and receptors in our brain. One neurotransmitter commonly associated with mental health is serotonin, created from tryptophan, a protein component. 

That’s just one example of how our individual needs do not reflect how ‘healthy’ a particular food item might be. I use this example because it’s the number one result that I’ve seen in the food and mood journal. Women who eat healthily, but because they are not eating enough protein, all that healthy food is not resulting in the beneficial outcomes they desire. 

There was nothing ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’ about the food. 

No ingredient or food source was causing the problem. 

All the food was healthy.

But in this case, what was missing was causing the problem.

Where to from here? 

Eating a wide variety of vegetables and fruit, whole grains, legumes, unprocessed meats and other protein sources is an excellent approach to eating. Using the Australian Dietary Guidelines is an excellent source of information for healthy eating.

If you have specific goals or feel what you are eating is not supporting you to feel your best, that’s when it might be time to look at the food you eat, what your dietary requirements are, and what food choices might help you get there. 

To learn more  about how I can help you, book a free initial consultation today.