Nutrition and Mental Health Part 2 — Ultra-processed foods

In order to understand how this started, I will probably write a series of blog posts related to nutrition, mental health, and how they are connected. This is the introductory post, and I will talk about ultra-processed foods.

There is a strong connection between the loss of traditional foods and the rise in ultra-processed foods, leading to increased physical problems, obesity, poor dental health, and more. To think about this, what kind of food your grandparents used to eat and are no longer traditional in your family now?

Let’s start with the brain, which is 2% of our total body weight, but requires 20–40% of the total glucose and nutrients that we eat. Ultra-processed foods are cheap, very accessible, and easy to eat. They have been available only for the past 60 years, and there is strong evidence that fast foods are harming us both physically and mentally. Do you wonder how well can ultra-processed foods nourish the brain, in order for it to perform at its peak?

Food is defined as a nutritious substance that we consume for growth and to maintain life, but nutrition, well, this is not just about food, including also the entire process of growing the food, selecting the food, eating it, digesting it, and absorbing it. Food isn’t defined only by the calories required for daily living, but also by the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that we use as signaling molecules ( You can find more about it in two of my books — The NO-DIET Book — Eat healthy and live…