Food and Bipolar Disorder

There's lots of talk about what foods to eat/not to eat when you've got a mind disorder. Personally, I believe that each person has to find what works best for them instead of following a particular diet. It's not that a specific diet, say the Paleo diet, isn't a good place to start, but to think of changing one's eating habits as an experiment.

What I've done is to take parts of diets and make them my own. I've changed my eating habits drastically over the years. In my late 20s/early 30s I didn't eat red meat. For a few years during that time, I also had to have non-fat frozen yogurt every day. I was addicted, but thought it was okay for me since it was non-fat. I was trying to model in NYC, and believed that fat would make me heavier and could lead to cancer, so I ate hardly any fat (I'd eat pizza without cheese, add water to my cereal instead of milk for example) for at least two or three years. That caught up to me and I stopped getting my period. I didn't understand until I became a nutritional counselor at a health club that the body and brain need fat for optimal functioning. That's when I learned about different kind of fats, the Omega 3s, 6s and 9s. 

Omega 3 helps reduce inflammation and is probably the most important of the three fats.Our bodies cannot make the “parent” molecule for omega-3 fatty acids, alpha linoleic acid, ALA, on its own. Therefore, omega-3 is considered an “essential” fatty acid and must be eaten. Omega-3’s are the ones most lacking in our modern diet. Nonetheless, they can be consumed in foods such as wild-caught salmon, mackerel, anchovies, walnuts, flaxseed and green leafy vegetables or supplements.

Omega 6, or linoleic acid, LA, is found abundantly in our foods and common oils, which means there is usually an imbalanced ratio of too little omega 3 and too much omega 6. Omega-9’s are found in animal fats and vegetable oils, most notably olive oil. We need all the oils for good brain health, so a diet that addresses getting enough variety of fats is probably a good place to start.

Hormones are another important area of concern for bipolar disorder. Cortisol is an essential hormone created by the adrenal glands which is often overlooked. Too high or too low cortisol levels wreak havoc with sleep and mood. I got the book The Schwarzbein Principle II, by Diana Schwarzbein, M.D. to learn about how to eat to keep the adrenals happy and helping them heal. Briefly, the Schwarzbein Square includes proteins, healthy fats, real carbohydrates and nonstarchy vegetables. Eating thee balanced meals and two snacks a day are important because this also helps keep blood sugar level, and according to the book, insulin is always impacted when our adrenals are taxed over long periods of time. Overall, her approach is to encourage you to eat to heal your adrenals, possibly gaining weight in the short term, so that you are healthier in the long run.

I have just skimmed the surface of eating to a happier brain and body. I'm sure this subject will come up again in future posts. Till then....