Hester Ruth Frigillana

5 Foods that Persons with Mental Illness Should Think Twice About Eating As a person with mental illness, you would do everything within your means to stay healthy mentally and physically, but did you know that not everything you take in is safe? Below are some of the foods you need to check with your psychiatrist if they are safe for you to eat. Coffee A cup of coffee may increase your alertness and alleviate your spirit. Coffee is rich in caffeine, which is a powerful psychoactive compound, therefore taking too much of it can mess with your mood, cause fidgety, irritability, and troubled sleep. Coffee interferes with your sleep by inhibiting melatonin, the hormone responsible for a snooze in the brain. Without a good night's slumber, to some, it may cause a low mood in the morning. Others develop a caffeine-dependency, where one person is too dependent on coffee to keep himself awake. In turn it is said to disrupt your whole sleep-wake patterns, which is dangerous in the long run because it might lead you to feel more depressed and anxious. Solution: Engage in exercises every day to keep you alert during the day time. Sugar Having a sweet-tooth and a mental illness can be a bad combination. Research states that too much sugar worsens mood swings, which can lead to more depression and other mood disorders. Solution: Cut down sugar intake to 4 tablespoons or less a day. You can still get sugar from other sources like slices of bread, rice, and carbohydrate-rich foods. It is essential to keep track of what sweets you eat to rule out the sugar high from your system. Diet Soda No sugar, no problem, right? Maybe not. Diet sodas may make you feel depressed because of aspartame, a calorie-free sweetener. According to studies, aspartame has effects on depression. So is it better than regular sodas? Well, both beverages have caffeine, which alters the chemicals in the brain. So there is no better or lesser evil for both. Solution: Drink more water and fruit juices instead. Alcohol Taking medications along with alcoholic beverages can you do more harm than good. Alcohol is a depressant and lessens inhibitions. Most of its effects are that it reduces the efficacy of the medicine. Aside from that, alcohol also affects the chemicals in the brain signaling in the body because it mimics GABA or gamma-aminobutyric acid, which can be quite dangerous, especially when tolerate too much alcoholic drink in the body. Solution: There are non-alcoholic alternatives like sparkling wine and beer are available today. Fermented foods Certain fermented foods don't go well with medications like the MAOIs or Monoamine oxidase drugs. Examples are aged cheese, soy sauce, cured meats, sauces, etc. Tyramine is an amino acid, regulates blood pressure. Taking in MAOI medication with foods above mentioned will spike blood pressure to dangerous levels and would prove fatal. Solution: Eat with discretion, modify diet, eat clean, healthy food. Conclusion You would love to enjoy the things you eat, but remember that not everything you take in is safe for you, especially when you have a mental condition. Safety is a must in mental health to benefit from therapeutic interventions given to you by your doctor. References: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-red-light-district/201606/diet-soft-drinks-linked-depression https://www.webmd.com/depression/ss/slideshow-avoid-foods-anxiety-depression https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/expert-answers/maois/faq-