EP 22: This is your Brain on Food with Dr. Uma Naidoo

In this Episode, I am talking with Dr. Uma Naidoo. Dr. Naidoo is the director of nutritional and lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a writer for the Harvard Health blog and author of the book “This is Your Brain on Food”. Dr. Naidoo is also a professional chef and nutrition specialist and in combining these three complementary practices,  is leading teaching how food contributes to our mental health and how the right foods can help treat and prevent a wide range of psycholo- gical and cognitive health issues, from ADHD to anxiety, depres- sion, OCD, and others.

Mental health has never been more top of mind. Over the past year depression and anxiety have increased significantly, and as Dr. Uma shares, this is truly the silent pandemic. This episode will help everyone understand how you can make small changes in your diet to improve your health both mentally and physically. 

Episode Highlights

• The silent pandemic
• Dr. Uma’s personal and professional background 
• How she connected the importance of food to her psychiatric practice
• The missing conversation in medicine between the brain-food connection 
• The gut-brain connection
• The importance of finding the food balance for each person 
• Foods to avoid/reduce to improve mental health 
• Making healthy habit changes to improve microbiome and mental health
• The Inspiration behind This is Your Brain on Food 
• The impact of COVID-19 on mental health 
• What vitamins, minerals and foods to embrace to improve mental health 
•  The importance of fiber for the microbiome and brain health 
• Balancing prescription medication and food as treatments for mental health
• How can you find a nutritional psychiatrist 

About Dr. Uma

Michelin-starred chef David Bouley described Dr Uma Nai- doo as the world’s first “triple threat” in the food as medicine space: She is a Harvard trained psychiatrist, Professional Chef and Nutrition Specialist. Her ni- che work is in Nutritional Psy- chiatry and she is regarded both nationally and internationally as a medical pioneer in this more newly recognized field.

Featured in the Wall Street Jour- nal, ABC News, Harvard Health Press, Goop, and many others, Dr Uma has a special interest on the impact of food on mood and other mental health conditions.

In her role as a Clinical Scientist, Dr. Naidoo founded and directs the first hospital-based clinical service in Nutritional Psychiatry in the USA. She is the Director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psy- chiatry at Massachusetts Gene- ral Hospital (MGH) & Director of Nutritional Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital Academy while serving on the fa- culty at Harvard Medical School.

Dr Naidoo graduated from the Harvard-Longwood Psychia- try Residency Training Program in Boston during which she re- ceived several awards, some of which included a “Junior Inves-tigator Award” (American Psy- chiatric Association); “Leaders- hip Development for Physicians and Scientists” award (Harvard), as well as being the very first psy- chiatrist to be awarded the cove- ted “Curtis Prout Scholar in Me- dical Education”. Dr Naidoo, has been asked by The American Psychiatric Association to author the first academic text in Nutri- tional Psychiatry.

In addition to this, Dr Naidoo is the author of the upcoming tit- le, This Is Your Brain On Food to be released August 4th, 2020. In her book, she shows the cut- ting-edge science explaining the

ways in which food contributes to our mental health and how a sound diet can help treat and prevent a wide range of psycholo- gical and cognitive health issues, from ADHD to anxiety, depres- sion, OCD, and others.

Connect with Dr. Uma

Website https://umanaidoomd.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drumanaidoo/?hl=en

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrUmaNaidoo/

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/uma-naidoo-m-d-93813860/

Purchase This is your Brain on Food https://book.umanaidoomd.com