We are all told various proverbs about nutrition, ‘eating well is the foundation for health’, ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’, “you are what you eat” – but many of us don’t really understand what this means in general and in particular, what this means for the management of mental health symptoms.

Dr Julia Rucklidge is a Canadian-born clinical psychologist who is the director of the Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. She has devoted her research efforts to understanding as much as possible about the relationship between nutrition and mental health symptoms and recovery. She also presented a TED Talk in 2014 about the wonderful discoveries she and her research group have made and the important implications this has for mental health treatment and recovery.

Julia identifies the important role of both availability and absorbability of Micronutrients in managing mental health symptoms. Her research shows dramatic improvements, across diagnoses, by increasing the availability of micronutrients for the body. This is done by taking doses than the average daily intake or allowance of micronutrient supplementation. The particular preparation Julia recommends and uses in treatment is Hardy Nutritionals Daily Essential Nutrients (DEN). This preparation is a clinical-strength broad-spectrum micronutrient formulation.

What are Micronutrients?

The traditional study and practice of Psychology does not pay much attention to the form and function of the physical body. Initially, this seems to make sense after all – Psychology is not Medicine. Or is it? The line between physical and psychological maladies can easily be smudged and overlapped. Over time what may have started as a psychological issue, can become a physical issue. These two areas begin to relate to each other and set up feedback mechanisms between the domains as the body tries to recover.

Supplementation with Micronutrients is a simple way to support the body to recover from symptoms however most of us have not really heard about Micronutrients. Here is Dr Justin Marchegiani to help understanding the basics of Nutrition.

While we are on a roll, understanding the mysterious internal biochemical reactions in the body that provide the foundation for physical and mental health, here is Hank Green with a Crash Course on Metabolism and Nutrition …

How do you assess Nutritional Status?

Learning how to look after yourself is not as simple as we would all like it to be. There are many challenges to making sure we are getting enough nutrition or the right kind of nutrition. Sometimes our diet is deficient, sometimes we are unable to absorb the nutrition even though it is present in our diets. All of these things can slowly erode health.

The best way to think about this, is to see it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself and what it takes to create and maintain psychological and physical health. There is help. Here is Dr David Blyweiss covering a lot of ground and subject material on nutritional foundations. If you hang in there, he will also describe some physical tell tale signs that signal various nutritional deficiencies.