What A Healthy Mind Diet Can Do For You

Maintaining a Healthy Mind

Certainly, we are all familiar with the fact that to remain in good physical health, it is important that we eat five times a day or five pieces of vegetables or fruit each day. Even if the science behind the exact number remains debatable, no one can deny that eating properly is a prerequisite for maintaining good health.

But is the mind excluded? Are there some dos and don’ts you should abide by so as to maintain a healthy mind? The answer that many scientists would give to that is a positive one.

A Healthy Mind Diet

Eating the Appropriate Food

Is a good diet as essential to the mind as it is to physical health? Yes is the answer based on a developing body of evidence.

You’re probably thinking it’s all about ‘superfoods’–a term that describes certain foods that have large amounts of specific nutrients. The earlier description of this term might have almost made you believe that there were magical powers inherent in these foods for the improvement of mental and physical health. However, several sources now propound that the term is basically a tool for marketing.

Using the term ‘superfood’ in marketing has even been prohibited by The European Union; it is only allowed in cases where there is an available and credible scientific proof of a tested medical benefit to support the claim.

The Mental Health Foundation, however, states that a good diet is essential for mental health. It is also of the opinion that diet has a role to play in  the growth, management and prevention of various particular conditions like depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

However, the point is not that diet  can curb these conditions nor that a particular diet should replace other treatments. What it all comes down to is that a combination of diet and other treatments can manage these conditions.

Another observation of The Mental Health Foundation is that the consumption of fruit by a good number of those who report mental health issues is lesser than those who do not. What could then be the issue? Is it that a contributing factor to the mental issue is poor diet or that the problem itself causes a loss of interest in the consumption of healthy food.

Whatever the case may be, fact remains that when you eat a balanced diet containing the right amount of carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, proteins, water and minerals, there will be that feeling of well-being and health.

Keeping your Mind Active

Over the years, the media has come up with various useful suggestions that could help in decreasing the rate at which the brain degenerates as one ages. The suggestions has particularly been directed at how dementia and Alzheimer’s disease could possibly be defeated.

For instance, solving puzzles or some other ‘brain-training’ and doing crosswords have been said to be helpful in keeping your brain active. Neuroscientists, however, believe that this might not be so.

An old saying goes like this “Mens sana in corpore sano”, meaning that a healthy body is likely to bring about a healthy mind. Another way to put it is: take care of your body and your mind will function properly.

In a recent interview with David Linden, a Professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School, he suggested that doing aerobic exercise daily for 30 minutes is the best thing you could do for your mind.

He further explained that aerobic exercise affects the brain in many ways while doing puzzles only affects a little part of your brain. .

Linden explained that we can’t really figure out what’s behind the favourable effects of exercise. However, scientists have noted that exercise makes the whole blood vessels in the body, as well as in the brain, to dilate. This transforms the brain’s metabolic capacity. Exercise also causes the brain to secrete certain chemicals which help neurons to be capable of changing and keep them healthy.

The ‘Good’ Mind

It is not just about avoiding dementia, there are many more things attached to mental health and having a ‘good’ mind.

The various thoughts, ideas and experiences that you come across daily all shape the way your mind is. It means then that, to a certain degree, you can control what you consume for your mind just as you can do for your body.

What you choose to feed your mind can be referred to as your ‘mind diet’. Your mind can be more or less interesting and more or less healthy depending on your ‘mind diet’.

“Garbage in, garbage out”

When people discuss trash books or ‘pulp fiction’, they are referring to books that contain light issues that do not pose any challenge for the mind.

There’s no harm in reading this sort of book once in a while just as visiting a burger joint occasionally has no effect on your health. However, a diet of exclusively junk food is bad for your body just as a diet of trash books is bad for your mind.

Your ‘Mind Diet’

It is worth it to sometimes pause and think about your ‘mind diet’.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Is my mind diet good? Can I call it a ‘balanced diet’ containing various kinds of subjects and ideas? Or am I more inclined to a single kind of input?

What, in particular, is the balance between ‘healthy’ and ‘junk’ mind food?

How is this affecting me individually? You could ask your family and friends to give you a frank assessment.

What should, and can I do to improve the balance?

Top Tip!

If constructing an ‘ideal’ mind diet is a struggle for you, you could try picturing someone you admire, then consider the kinds of ideas, experiences and thoughts that may have formed their mind.  Ponder on what that would result in for you.