Why I Wrote My Latest Book on Mental Health

How my latest book came to be …

My latest book is about what to eat for a happy, healthy brain and resilient mental health. Of all the things I could have written about to do with health and well-being, why did I write about this?

In early 2020 Covid was rapidly on the rise. As the daily infection numbers dramatically rose, so too did levels of anxiety and depression. Combine this with social isolation, fear of the unknown, restricted activity, home schooling and the challenges of being confined at home with family in the most extreme way, junk food, sweet treats and alcohol became the go-to for many to help ease the strain and rates of depression and anxiety were rising exponentially.

Coincidentally, at the same time, I was reading a lot about the fields of nutritional psychiatry, supporting brain and mental health through food, and metabolic psychiatry, the new science of how mental health and metabolic health, the way the body makes and uses energy, impacts mental health conditions.  I was hooked.

I signed up for some practitioner training and I was off, digging into the fascinating world of how what we eat and don’t eat directly and indirectly affects our brain health and the incredible role our gut microbes play on how our brain works.

Most people, even those with absolutely no medical or health training, tend to have some sense of what to eat for different aspects of our health – an orange gives vitamin C, good for a cold (immune system support);  a steak provides protein for muscle growth and dairy foods have calcium, good for bones. These basics are taught in school, frequently referred to in newspaper articles, just common knowledge. But when you read, see, hear about the essential nutrients for your brain to work properly? … how often have you thought about what you brain needs to thrive … why blood sugar levels affect your mood and mental health or how your gut microbes directly change how your brain works?

Our gut microbes have influence over every aspect of our health, not least the health and balance of the brain. Why are children not being taught about these trillions of microbes that live within them that are programming their immune system, their energy levels and their ability to think, focus, learn and be happy?

This is why I wrote my book ‘ Eat Your Brain Happy’. I wanted to take all this emerging science and make it easy and accessible for whoever wants to learn about how mental health and resilience are impacted by our day-to-day choices of what we eat and how we live.  At whatever stage people might be in their mental health process, or for those working with or caring for people with mental ill-health and for those who simply want to preserve a healthy brain and mind for as long as possible, this book connects the dots of food, gut health, sleep, exercise, supplements and botanicals and why excess stress, poor diet and other modern life challenges might be contributing to poor mental health.

Eat your Brain Happy is a life-style guide to mental well-being, but it’s more than that. Mental well-being requires whole-body wellness, and that’s why the book covers what, when and how to eat; my chewing well is critical to good digestion; how to revamp your gut microbiome; improve your sleep; the key supplements to take for optimising your health and the super foods that really are super.

Go to my store link to buy the book directly from me and let me know if you would like me to write a personal dedication. I will also throw in a branded bookmark.