I have a huge interest in nutrition and kids with ADHD so I was hungry for information - but this didn't really give any new, monumentally different information. Basic and common sense in many ways, and pushing one type of diet. Also - loss of credibility once they started talking supplements that need to be bought through one specific (their?) company.

We all know that nutrition plays an important part of our lives. We need it at all stages of our lives for varying reasons, in varying quantities and ratios.

As a professional athlete, I can understand exactly where the authors are coming from. How can you expect your body to function if you are not feeding yourself correctly? Especially given the global pandemic that is currently occurring, everything as we know it has changed, so with the added stress and uncertainty in the world currently it logically makes sense that your nutritional needs will have changed within the past year.

Not only do they talk about their research into supplements, they also talk about how to get more nutrients into your diet without supplements. They have included recipes and food lists to aid you in this. I cannot wait to give some of these recipes a try!

I personally may try giving supplements a try (as I currently do not take anything of the sort) and see if it will have a positive impact in my life.

If you are looking to improve your health and nutrition, I urge you to give this a read.

What a terrific read!

This book was written (and exhaustively researched) by two PHDs at the University of Calgary, one a Professor of Medicine and the other a Clinical Psychologist.

The premise of the book is simple - the authors, experts in their field and blindingly aware of both the rising rates of diagnosis and the failures of modern medicine to effectively treat the most debilitating chronic mental illnesses - including depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, PTSD and other anxiety disorders - have laid out a comprehensive and beautifully articulated proposal for a new and “radical” treatment approach.

The premise for the approach is that mental health all comes down to what and how you feed your brain.

(This premise makes such profound sense that the fact that it would be considered radical surprises me, but more on this coming up below)

We have long been aware that our cardiovascular health is inextricably tied to our diet. Making the leap to our brains, and the transformative power of nutrition to build and maintain brain health, which underlies mental health, should not, after all, be that radical. But as the authors strip it all down to its barest roots for us the potential of this concept is dazzling: when we eat, we are primarily feeding our brains. Every minute our blood delivers the nutrients we have circulating directly to our brain, in this way immediately and continuously affecting “how we see, smell, hear, taste, feel, think, learn, remember, process, and create.”

As the authors explain, the elephant in the room, the reason this treatment proposal continues to meet with resistance and is dismissed out of hand by most traditional psychiatric practitioners, is that the current state of medical treatment for these disorders is pretty much completely pharmaceutical-based. We are beholden to a medical industry, and a conditioned culture, funded and dominated by a “pop a pill” narrative.

But change has to start somewhere, and with painstakingly beautiful detail, the authors provide their supporting research and lay out the indisputable facts, - our brain metabolism, our gut microbiome, the way our genes are expressed, our resilience to trauma and stress, our ability to recover from toxins as well as to repair brain cell damage - all of these processes are chemistry and biology based, driven by equations linking chains of compounds created and then transforming other compounds, all of them dependent on input from available and high-quality raw material (or enzymatic cofactors) that must enter our bodies in the form of nutrients.

Brick by brick, the authors build a rock-solid case that is compelling, as well as fascinating - how and what we eat and the resulting nutrients we metabolize will orchestrate healthy and high-functioning brains, or, on the other hand, can result in the development of physical brain deficits, which can underlie mental illness.

This is a wonderful book and it’s impossible not to have your mind spin in reading it, the premise so exciting. The content is incredibly rich, and the authors do a great job explaining brain metabolism, the stress response, DNA methylation and other secrets of the brain in language that is educational but not imposing for the lay person.

The authors finish with detailed material forming a go-forward guide to eating well for healthy brains, including recipes and a recommended eating plan (based on the Mediterranean diet), as well as regimen of nutritional supplements for the very ill.

(Note: I do have a concern regarding the nutritional supplemental products which are mentioned by name. Although the authors are quick to note that they have no financial ties to any of these products, I am naturally on high alert when commercial products of any sort are recommended in scientific literature.)

A big thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the authors for an advance review copy of this incredibly interesting and valuable book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts presented are my own.

Interesting alternative approach to Anxiety, Depression and more with nutrition. As a parent of a son with depression and anxiety, I will be referring to this book and having him read as well, to try to incorporate the advice into his daily routine.

This is a book that argues that we can heal at least some mental health issues with better nutrition. Before you roll your eyes, know that this book is very scientific, and all of the claims these authors make are backed up by scientific studies which they go to great lengths to explain.

The reason why I feel like this book is important for therapists is because not every client will consider anti-depressants or other psychotropic medications, and not everyone is helped by these medications. When this happens, I try to brainstorm with my clients about non-medication options that might be helpful. It is well known that exercise helps greatly with depression and other mental health issues; but what about nutrition? On it’s face, it seems like a pipe dream. But the authors ask: why is it that we readily accept that better nutrition will improve our body, heart health and overall wellness – but we leave mental health out of it? Doesn’t it make sense that our brain also uses the nutrients we take in to do it’s job, and if we don’t feed it well, it won’t work as well?

Most of us think only about macronutrients (carbs, proteins & fats), but in this book the authors talk more about micronutrients – all of the vitamins and minerals our bodies need to do their jobs. These micronutrients play a huge role in feeding the neurotransmitters in our brains (serotonin, dopamine, etc), and also keeping your telomeres longer, which is associated with healthy aging. For the most part, the authors recommend a Mediterranean diet in order to get all of the vitamins and minerals our body needs.

But they do realize that when depressed or in the throes of other mental health issues, diet changes might be impossible and supplements can be useful. 99% of supplements, though, have not been tested at all for nutrient value, so they recommend certain ones (which they do not get any money from). One thing to understand about supplements is that most scientific studies have focused on only one nutrient (like a B12 study for example); the authors believe this is why we haven’t been able to really see the effects of good micronutrients – the key is having a supplement with a breadth of vitamins and minerals (at least 30). The authors have done studies which show that these types of supplements can reduce aggression, ADHD and extreme stress.

They talk about how our soil (95% of North American soil) has been treated with Roundup or other glyphosate based herbicides, lowering the nutrient value in the soil. The problem is that glyphosate based herbicides increase inflammation, which has been positively associated with higher rates of depression. So eating organic food from healthy soil is really important.

This book would be a great recommendation for someone who is not getting as much benefit as they would like from their medications; or, for someone who is just really opposed to taking psychotropic medications. Although it seems too good to be true, if a client is suffering and not willing to take medications, why not try this as a way of feeling better? There are no negative side effects from getting better nutrition. Also, if you have a lot of clients who resist medication, it might be good to read this book for yourself so that you can make intelligent suggestions when it comes to nutrition and supplements. This book will be out April 20, 2021.

The two authors are scientists who have spent several decades researching a way to treat mental health disorders that has gotten very little interest by mainstream doctors. They have studied how to use nutrition to treat disorders such as depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and others. Specifically, what effect common nutrients have on these disorders of the brain. There aren’t many studies done using nutrition and supplements simply because there’s no money in it. The pharmaceutical companies have psychiatrists and clinics in their back pocket. And the few studies that are done are regarding single nutrients (let’s say, B6), and the authors have discovered that you need dozens of nutrients working in conjunction with each other for results. They advocate for a diet consisting of whole foods, cutting out all the processed junk that we eat (and I think we can all agree that eating a less processed diet will improve many aspects of our health). They specifically recommend following a Mediterranean diet, which I do have some reservations about, namely added oil’s and dairy (dairy is a common allergen & not well digested).

At the end of the book they recommend some particular supplements to take. My big issue with this is that they list a handful of companies selling a particular formulation, and most of these can only be bought online. Quite a few people in the population can’t shop online or simply choose not to. Also, depending on what country you live in, these companies could be difficult to order from and shipping could be prohibitive. It would be much more helpful if there was a list of the specific vitamins and minerals along with their dosages, and then the people who couldn’t purchase those specific formulations could still benefit from the knowledge and put together their own plan.

Thank you to NetGalley & Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I am a reader who never tires of reading books about nutrition. I appreciated that this foreword was by Dr. Andrew Weil, who is actually the first doctor I read and learned how interesting and important learning about nutrition is, so many years ago. The book starts with a take on mental disorders and nutrition, with explanations on why the current approach doctors take isn’t working. It also gives great food for thought (i.e. science of pharmaceutical companies vs. nutritional science). I know how important nutrition is for our bodies, but this book shares how important it is for our mental health in a way I’ve never really realized. Each chapter also gives you takeaways, key points to summarize the chapter. The second part gives you a lot of science and info on nutrition and certain mental health disorders and talks about many separately. And then the fun part, the recipes! An overall good book and another great reminder of how important nutrition is for our brains and our bodies.