Diet plays factor in mental health, says nutritional therapist

Watching what you eat could be a big step towards better mental health, according to a nutritional therapist.

Kristina Virro, a registered dietitian and therapist with Fresh Insight, told Brent Loucks that your diet should be a major part of therapy.

She said eating well can help reduce physical symptoms and directly promote the brain’s health.

“(Reducing) inflammation in the brain and the body overall is helpful for not only mental health,” she said.

“If you are eating foods that aren’t healthy, they’re actually just burdening your body and specifically your immune system.”

Another benefit, Virro added, was how quickly changes in a diet can be made. This allows for some quality of life improvements before starting lengthy psychotherapy.

“Cutting out caffeine or limiting sugar consumption. Those are things you can do the moment you leave my office.”

Virro said having a healthy diet could also help prevent diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

She said diet as a part of therapy is also a well-established field that is overlooked too often.

“When people come in and they’re saying ‘I’ve been feeling really anxious lately, I don’t know what’s going on,’ and then I’ll see them drinking (a large) coffee from Starbucks at 7 p.m,” she recalled.

“That’s got to have something to do with it … there’s definitely a link there.”

To start eating better, she recommended cutting out processed foods and eating healthy fats with omega 3 fatty acids.

Virro cited the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes eating foods like fish, fruits, and vegetables and limiting meats, cheese, and sweets, as a good example.