Users of mental health services are increasingly looking for treatment and life-style choices to replace or combine with the more traditional medication approach.

There are many accounts of how people are managing their own recovery partly by using some of the concepts behind the food and mood approach.

The "Mind Meal" aims to draw attention to the important relationship between food and mood and serves as an example of what can be done with some of the good mood foods that are generally recommended as beneficial for emotional and mental health.

The ingredients of the Mind Meal include foods with valuable vitamins, minerals and essential fats important for emotional and mental health. Also, what the Mind Meal doesn't include is just as important as what it does contain.

A good "Mind Meal" includes:

* Good mood protein
Oil rich fish (salmon, sardines), nuts (walnuts) and seeds. Also includes avocados.

* Good mood carbohydrates
Eating meals with a low GI (Glycemic Index), which release their energy slowly and keep you feeling good for longer, also helps to avoid the roller coaster ride of energy and moods associated with large fluctuations in blood glucose levels. Green vegetables such as broccoli, spinach and green beans are great. Also legumes and some non-wheat pasta is good.

* Good mood fats
Polyunsaturated ‘omega 3’ fats are particularly important and these are particularly high in the oily rich fish and also present in pumpkin seeds and walnuts.

* Good mood vitamins and minerals
Vitamins and minerals are essential for emotional and mental health. For example the conversion of tryptophan into the good mood brain chemical serotonin is helped by various ‘co-factor’ nutrients.

The "Mind Meal" DOES NOT contain:

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Popularity: 17% [?]

Do you crave sodas, chips, fries, pasta and similar foods? If so you are physically addicted! You no doubt have a chemical imbalance in your brain and body that causes you to crave these foods.

Julia Ross, MFT, author of "The Diet Cure" and "The Mood Cure", and one of the pioneers in the field of nutritional psychology, offers various strategies to overcome these imbalances.

Julia has an eight part questionnaire that can help you solve your health condition.

1 - Is depleted brain chemistry the source of your cravings?

2 - Are you craving because of low-calorie dieting?

3 - Are your cravings due to stress or blood sugar instability?

4 - Do you have unrecognized low thyroid function?

5 - Are you addicted to foods you are actually allergic to?

6 - Are your hormones unbalanced?

7 - Do you have yeast overgrowth or parasites triggered by antibiotics, travel, or pets?

8 - Are you fatty-acid deficient?

Depending on how you score, Julia offers nutritional strategies that she has found can stop the cravings and help you obtain a biochemical balance.

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Popularity: 20% [?]

Stephen Schoenthaler holds a PhD in Sociology with a specialization in Criminology from the State University of New York in Buffalo. He developed an interest in nutrition and behavior research while teaching and that interest has continued for over 25 years at CSU, Stanislaus. Dr. Schoenthalers work has appeared in all four of the most prestigious scholarly journals worldwide. He has also published over 40 peer reviewed articles and 150 professional presentations in addition to having multiple television specials devoted to his work.

In one of his research reports he tells about how the use of vitamin-mineral supplements was able to reduce, on average, prison violence 38%. This report also shows how Dr. Schoenthaler calculated a ratio of $1 invested in supplements returns $1,000 within a month to the California Department of Corrections! Read more about it here: Simple Solution to Prison Violence

Dr. Schoenthaler recently gave a presentation at the Beyond Talk Therapy: New Frontiers in Addiction Treatment Symposium in Sacramento, California. His topic is The Effect of Nutrition on Behavior and Performance.

The video presentation includes numerous case studies about how a low and good nutrition with specific vitamin mineral supplements had positive results with various groups. Violence and antisocial behaviors were greatly reduced in prisons and academic performance in schools increased.

Professionals in the field and parents in general would benefit from watching this video.

To watch this video, click here > Stephen Schoenthaler video

Popularity: 17% [?]

Professor Stephen Schoenthaler, PhD, began researching the relationship between nutrition and crime in 1980. He reported that institutional violence in Virginia had been cut in half after reducing the amount of sugar in the diet at no cost. By 1985, his research teams had successfully replicated such behavioral changes in 817 institutions in New York City, Los Angeles, and other locations within Virginia, Alabama, and California. These results included a 16 percentile improvement in English and Math scores among 1.1 million New York City schoolchildren and 48% reduction in juvenile violence among over 7,000 confined teenagers. Many of these children’s daily caloric intakes were over 25% sucrose, two and a half times above the World Health Organizations upper safety limit.

In 1985, Professor Schoenthaler’s teams discovered a link between high sugar intake and low vitamin and intake in juvenile and adult correctional facilities in New York, Florida, Oklahoma, and California. It appeared that a high sugar dietwas displacing essential nutrients for good health. Even more startling, Professor Schoenthaler reported that low vitamin and mineral intake was linked with institutional violence. In fact, low intake was a better predictor of institutional violence than violence before incarceration.

In 1986, Professor Schoenthaler suspected that the reason why behavior improved on a low sugar diet was due to the increase in vitamins and minerals. To test this theory, his research teams gave vitamin-mineral supplements daily to confined offenders in Oklahoma and California and violence suddenly dropped in each facility between 37 and 43%. He realized that tablets and diet changes might be producing behavior changes due to psychological effects, the expectation that things might improve or the extra attention.

So in 1987, Professor Schoenthaler’s research team at California State University, Stanislaus decided to do a “make-or-break” test of the theory by conducting a “randomized, controlled trial,” the only type of research design the scientific community accepts as definitive. Confined Oklahoma teenage offenders were either given a course of vitamin-mineral tablets or fake dummy pills called placebos for three months and behavior, before and after, was measured using the institution’s records of disciplinary actions. The results were clear cut. Offenders given supplements behaved significantly better than offenders given placebos. Among offenders with low initial concentrations of vitamins in their blood who were given vitamin-mineral tablets, violence fell over 90%.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Dry-drunk is a term used, often disparagingly, by members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and by substance abuse counselors to describe the recovering alcoholic who is no longer drinking but who still demonstrates the same alcoholic behaviors and attitudes.

Studies have shown that up to 90% of alcoholics are hypoglycemic (low blood sugar). According to Joan Mathews Larson, author of Seven Weeks To Sobriety, the symptoms are similar to people with hypoglycemia.  They include:

-irritability
-depression
-aggressiveness
-insomnia
-fatigue
-restlessness
-confusion
-desire to drink
-nervousness

Typically, these symptoms especially occur in newly abstinent alcoholics who try to overcome their emotional and physical discomfort by consuming large amounts of sugar in coffee and junk food. The relief provided by these quick fixes is short-lived and a surge of insulin quickly pushes glucose levels back below normal and the symptoms and the need for sugar fix begin all over again. They obviously have a Sugar addiction.

Maintaining constant and adequate glucose levels is one of the most important biochemical needs of the body.  Continued blood sugar fluctuations below the amounts needed by the brain for stable functioning are what causes the "dry drunk".

By following a healthy diet and taking important nutritional supplements these symptoms will disappear.

Further information on Joan Mathews Larson and her unique program can be found at www.HealthRecovery.com.  She was a pioneer in the biochemical repair and restoration of the brain and body.  The orthomolecular model for addiction treatment is based on pure science and claims over 70% success rate. 

 

Popularity: 56% [?]

Get rid of white sugar, white flour, white rice, and white oils to help keep your blood sugar under control and maintain a biochemical balance within the brain according to Michael Lesser, M.D., a nutritional psychiatrist and author of The Brain Chemistry Plan. He is one of the pioneers in the development of orthomolecular psychiatry and medicine.

In the book, he divides people into six basic brain types.  Each is described in detail, and precise instruction on how to identify your own type are given, along with information on the foods you should consume (and avoid), and the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and even herbs that in his experience work best for that particular type.

Not only can you learn how to keep your brain in peak condition, you can also discover the unique natural prescription you need to overcome conditions such as depression, anxiety, anger, obsessive-compulsive disorder, chronic fatigue and other health conditions - all without the use of prescription drugs.

Optimal results come from the combination of supplementation and a wholesome diet.

 

Popularity: 41% [?]