[music]
(Speaker) So, I mean, it's the
old adage you are what you eat.
When I eat, like, sugary or caffeinated foods
I often find myself, like, unable to focus.
So, eating healthier foods has had a significant impact on
how well I can focus, as well as how quick I can think.
(Host) That's Angela Guo.
She's a 17-year old senior at Adlai Stevenson High School
in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
And that adage she just cited, "You are what you eat,"
that's been around since the 1800's.
People have known for a long time just how much food affects us.
But it's not just in terms of long-term health,
but also short-term mood.
(Angela) Food really helps us maintain
a state clarity. And, so, eating healthier foods
has had a significant impact
on how well I can focus, as well as how quick I can think.
(Host) She may only be in high school,
but Angela has
already made the crucial connection between what she puts in her mouth
and how quickly that affects her brain.
She even believes that simple understanding
gave her a real advantage when she competed
in the National Science Olympiad tournament earlier this year.
(Announcer) First place, national champions of the
2023 Science Olympiad National Tournament,
Adlai Stevenson High School of Illinois! Let's go! [audience cheering]
(Host) Now, at this tournament earlier this year,
Angela and her teammates went up against thousands of students
from around the country.
They were competing in events, highlighting
chemistry and earth science and biology.
But here's the thing: the entire time on Angela's team
you really didn't see much sugar around.
Instead, there were lots of healthy snacks.
(Angela) So, even at school, I'd bring my own lunch
and it's just that aspect of knowing what goes into your meals
is like really important. It kind of gives you peace of mind.
(Host) The team did really well, and now as they
prepare for more tournaments,
Angela, who's now a team captain, says, "Sure, they do study hard,
but what they eat, how they eat, that's also top of mind.
AG: When we do travel for Science Olympiad our coaches always makes sure that
our, like, bus is well stocked with
fruits and water.
SG: So Angela, seems pretty convinced that food helps her focus
and perform well academically.
Of course, that makes sense but the question today,
"What is the empirical evidence to support that and how does it work?
How exactly does food impact the brain?
And how do we really know when our brain is well nourished?"
Uma Naidoo: Sugar is not good
for our brain
But I also want people to understand we need sugar for our bodies and our
brain, so it's where you get the sugar that's important.
SG: Look, a lot of people worry about how food influences the way we look,
how much weight we may gain -- I get that --
or the likelihood we're going to be high risk for diseases,
like diabetes and hypertension.
But even though it is harder to measure, food is also deeply connected
to how we feel in the moment and how well the brain functions.
Even as you listen to this podcast, your experience, right now,
is likely affected by what you ate earlier today.
So in this episode, I'm going to find out what's the best fuel for the brain,
what food we should avoid and what it really means
to have a well-nourished brain.
I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent
and this is Chasing Life.
You know, I love hearing stories like Angela's.
They're so personal. She's someone who's paying attention
to her body and then she's figuring out
what makes her feel good and what it takes to do the activities she loves.
She's being really intentional with her nutrition
and that may save her from having health problems later in life
but, it could help optimize her function now.
For me, food is an endless source of fascination.
The way that I think about it is this:
Food is one of the most significant ways we allow our outside world to influence
and communicate with our inside world, the world inside of our body and our mind.
That is an awesome task. Food does that.
So, I thought today we would start with the basics.
We know that all food items have calories and calories are by definition energy
but, as you just heard, not all calories are created equal.
Some have more nutrients and do more to promote
overall health and well-being than others.
And that is especially true when it comes to the brain.
But the challenge again: That's hard to measure.
There is no brain scan or blood test that indicates that a particular food
promotes brain health.
So how do we really know?
How do you really know what works for you?
To find out, I return to someone whose work I really respect
both in the clinic and in the kitchen, someone who knows a lot
about this really intricate connection between food and brain health.
Uma Naidoo: If you want, you know,
your brain to really be optimized,
lean into the foods you like, but the healthy versions of that.
SG: That's Dr Uma Naidoo; she's a nutritional psychiatrist.
Such a cool field. She's at Harvard Medical School.
What she does is that she works with patients to improve
their mental health with the help of medication and food.
She's also a professional chef. She's the author of the books
"This is Your Brain on Food" and "Calm Your Mind with Food."
That one's going to be released later this year.
I should tell you, this is actually Dr Naidoo's second time on the show.
We spoke a few years ago about the broader concept of food as medicine,
and I was so fascinated by the conversation, so affected by it,
I asked her to come back and discuss how food impacts brain health specifically
and brain function.
I have long said that I think food
can be medicine, I also think just philosophically,
we consciously decide what signals we're going to give to the inside
of our body through food.
What the discussion has primarily focused on has been calories and energy,
and are you going overweight or not.
UN: Correct SG: So what are those foods that are both
good for the brain and can actually get to the brain?
UN: What I think is good, and I think what is helpful for people,
especially in the U.S., is that most people are consuming
the standard American diet
which, as you know, is called sad for a reason.
So any time that we can add those lipid grains and those actual whole foods
onto our plate, you know, and think about it that way and step away
a little bit from those processed fast foods,
the healthier we are going to become as a country and I think that that is
because processed, ultra-processed foods are engineered, as you know,
to trick our brain.
So we eat more, we can't stop ourselves.
SG: Yeah, maybe I'm being audacious here in doing a podcast about how to achieve
a most optimally nourished brain.
As you correctly point out, we have a lot of work to do as a country to just
stop doing the bad things, maybe even before we can, uh, really, really focus
on the good things.
But the idea that food itself can be medicine and that can be quantified,
maybe even to the point, for someone like you, prescribed. Are we to the point,
with what we know, data-wise that food can be thought of prescriptive,
like we think of medicine?
UN: So I can't yet say to you, you need to eat ten blueberries over this amount
of time to improve your mood.
But what we do know from pretty large population-based studies that
if you were consuming extra-dark natural chocolate, that it improved depression
by 70% in over 12,000 participants. We know and it was in the candy bars
it was extra dark natural chocolate, which contains serotonin, magnesium,
um, some fiber. So, we're not at a point where I can say this number
of blueberries in order to improve your mood,
but we are definitely emerging and growing in the scientific evidence
to be able to say you can construct a nutritional psychiatry plate
for your mood.
You can lean into those leafy green vegetable, 3-5 cups a day. Um, things like
arugula, spinach all contain folate. A low folate is associated with low mood.
So, we can give people guidance around it and really have them understanding that
food is moving in that direction.
SG: Now before we hear more food recommendations, I want to note something
that's, I think, really important here. the term "brain food."
That gets thrown around a lot. But, true brain food meaning any food that actually
impacts the function of the brain has to do something really important.
It's got to get past the blood-brain barrier.
Now, I don't want to get too wonky or technical, but I think it's important
for you to understand this point. Think of the blood-brain barrier as sort
of a body guard for the brain. This barrier prevents the entry of toxins
and pathogens and other molecules that could be harmful to the brain.
What it looks like is a system of blood vessels around the brain and the central
nervous system that sort of keep tight control over which molecules and which
nutrients are allowed to get in.
UN: We know this, for example a lot of serotonin that's manufactured
in the gut and some in the brain but the more peripheral serotonin
doesn't cross over the blood brain barrier, so why not look at the foods
which are the precursors to the neurotransmitters, that then
interact with the gut microbes, I'm fascinated by the gut microbes.
They interact with the gut microbes and then they are able to cross over
the blood brain barrier and then form the substances that we need in the
brain. So I'm thinking about things we need like serotonin and dopamine.
Let me hit pause here to explain a couple of things about
the gut. You probably know this, but the gut contains trillions
of micro organisms. Bacteria, viruses, fungi. Collectively
they are referred to as the gut microbiome. Now, these micro organisms
or microbes aren't just hanging out, they play an important role in
our health and they are constantly interacting with each other and
the rest of our body. While a few of those bacteria or pathogens are
potentially harmful, many are helpful. For example, what they will do is
they will break down food, they will then interact with our immune system,
they will synthesize vitamins and amino acids. And then they communicate with
other parts of the body. And that brings me to the second thing about the gut.
It is sometimes called the second brain, and I think that is a good title. And
that's because it uses many of the same chemicals and cells as the brain to do
its job and to communicate. In fact, there is an extraordinary amount
of cross talk between the gut and the brain. This makes the gut very
sensitive to emotions. Anger, fear, anxiety. Those things can cause
problems in the gut, vise versa. When the gut feels bad, it can
cause anxiety and other emotional issues. Understanding that might
give new meaning to phrases like, having "butterflies in your stomach"
when you're nervous, or a quote, unquote "gut feeling" about a person or
a situation.
This is why Doctor Naidoo's work is so important and intriguing. She says,
"It is possible for food to impact how well our brain functions and how we
feel mentally." For example, some ultra processed foods have been linked to
disrupting the gut microbiome in a way that increases the risk for depression.
In contrast, some whole foods such as bananas help trigger the production
of important chemicals in the gut such as the molecule, serotonin.
But again, remember this point. Much of the serotonin made
in the gut cannot cross the blood brain barrier and that is why
Dr. Naidoo says we need to focus on the precursors to
serotonin, which can then cross more easily and be assembled
in the brain. Think of it like this, there are certain foods, for example,
ones that are rich in the amino acid tryptophan, that when eaten interact
with the gut microbiome. You with me?
And they become then the precursor or building blocks for serotonin.
And then these building blocks cross into the brain, get converted to
serotonin, and exert their influence. The reason that I'm repeating this
so many times is because it is so important. What does
this all mean? Eating foods like, salmon or pineapple, ones that
are loaded with tryptophan, could help you feel happier and calmer.
That is a better definition of brain food.
UN: Another fascinating but odd research that is coming through is
several microbiome companies testing the microbiome. So, they are looking
more deeply into what's in the microbiome and what you may need
to eat versus what I might need to eat because our microbiome is so
sort of unique. Whether you take that substance as a supplement, or you
take it as a guidance around food, it can really help us more finely tune
the way that we can be eating.
SG: What level of evidence to you rely on to make your recommendations
when it comes to food? How do you collect that data and that evidence?
UN: So, I try to keep current with whatever the new research is. For
example, there was a fascinating study done recently and all of these years
I've been encouraging my patients to eat foods that are rich in vitamin A.
And this particular study show that actually vitamin A rich foods are not
that helpful for mood or for your brain health. Another interesting
study...
SG: What are those foods? Not to cut you off, but what kinds of foods are we
talking about?
UN: So, you know, eggs, milk, fish oils beef liver, tomatoes, red bell pepper.
Now, does it mean that those foods are foods I will tell my patients not
to eat? Absolutely not. Uh, like, the new research about serotonin. It's
more that I would have emphasized eating vitamin A rich foods along with
that nutritional psychiatry plate. And I most importantly feel that
what's been my secret sources has been integrating the actual literature
the research and what I do clinically with seeing patients and
being able to monitor them you know and see how they do. Because I think,
please know that I come at this with great humility. I don't feel that
because whatever I've studied that you know, that I have the way to make
everyone feel better. But I have certainly seen my patients improve.
SG: You know, when I was growing up, um, maybe you heard this as well
when you were a child, but there were certain foods that were "brain foods"
Fish for example was sort of considered a brain food.
UN: Nuts, almonds.
SG: Nuts, you know. And my mom would
always, you know, "If you eat this, you'll
be smart." You know, that was always the
encouragement. But what of it, though? Are
there foods that can reliably help our brains? What are they, and why?
UN: So, one of the groups I'll start with, because people are pretty familiar
with this, that the foods rich in omega-3. So, things like fatty
fish. There's a mnemonic for the fish that are top of the list, "SMASH". Salmon,
Mackerel, Anchovies, Sardines, and Herring. Um, because they contain
forms of uh EPAJHA that are actually helpful um for the brain and will
actually make a difference. And they have anti Primatene and antioxidant
properties. Then, you know people who don't consume seafood can rely on the
plant based sources like chia seeds, flax seeds, almonds. Having a vegan
supplement or an algal oil supplement made from sea algae is something that
you can do to improve your brain performance if you feel you're not
getting enough nutrition from food. So that's one very big group. Another
group of foods that I think people tend to just think of only as a
supplement, but is actually available in our everyday foods, are prebiotics
and probiotics.
SG: Ok, I want to pause here again to offer a crash course in pre and
probiotics. Terms you've probably heard about. Probiotics are "live bacteria" that
may offer health benefits when consumed in adequate numbers.
You can find them in things like fermented foods. Yogurt, kimchee.
You can buy them in pill form. Prebiotics on the other hand, are food for your
microbiome. These are the organisms that are living in your gut and prebiotic
foods are usually higher in certain types of fiber and include items like
fruit and veggies and whole grains. Now, as Dr. Naidoo said, it is hard
to prescribe these foods to an exact timing or an exact dosage, but at the
time, we have been making a lot of progress there as well.
UN: So when we think about food groups, Omega 3, those probiotics and prebiotics,
those fermented foods, all can actually be helpful in reducing things like anxiety
and depression.
SG: We'll be right back.
SG: And now back to Chasing Life and my conversation with nutritional psychiatrist
Dr. Uma Naidoo. Now that I have a better sense of which, and how, certain foods
might impact my mood, what I wanted to know is how food might affect my
general brain health.
UN: So just, you know, having a dairy and non-dairy plain yogurt with live active
cultures does help your gut. Probiotics were actually tested in the study and the
use of probiotics were compared to a dose of an SSRI, and the probiotics showed
a better effect. So, not to single out just one study, it has been shown again,
but I think that's compelling information, that a person who is consuming something
like yogurt, or say a fermented food is adding these probiotics and live cultures
to their gut, could in fact be helping the gut microbes, helping the serotonin
formation there. We don't know the exact mechanisms of everything, but we can tell
by the improvements in symptoms. For example, if I am assessing someone in my
clinic, I have to go by their report, which may or may not be 100% accurate
sometimes, but that happens with all of us, but also to check the improvement of
their mood. Improvement in anxiety. That is one way to assess how they're doing and
if these foods are making a difference.
SG: So, you're comparing yogurt to an antidepressant.
UN: That's right.
SG: I mean, that, I know it's almost comical to reflect on, but I mean look, we
take too many pills, ya know? And these pills have side-effects, and so the idea
that yogurt could, and I don't want to overstate this, Dr. Naidoo, so you tell
me. What do they find when they compare yogurt to an antidepressant in a study?
UN: So, they found that individuals who consumed yogurt along with, say, a
selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor had a better response and improvement in
mood. So, it offered us a guidance in this area to basically think that, you know, we
can use these inventions around the gut microbiome, and the use of things like
probiotics. Which, you know, I think most of my patients would rather reach for
a yogurt than, you know, an antidepressant.
SG: If I was to describe to my three teenage girls a well nourished brain,
like, I think we can describe a healthy body, right? We can say, "You don't have
plaques in your blood vessels, you have good blood pressure, heart rate.." all
that sort of stuff. How, Dr. Naidoo, would you describe a well nourished brain?
What do you get in return?
UN: For one thing, you focus, your energy, your ability to get through your day, not
having that afternoon slump where you're not quite sure but you're sluggish and
you need another cup of coffee or candy bar or something more. If you're athletic,
if you're engaged in sports or other activities, if you're having fun with your
friends and going out and doing things, you're going to have the energy to do
that. Plus, you're going to be able to actually manage your schoolwork because
your brain being optimized, eating in a healthy way will mean you can manage
your schedule, you can multitask, you can engage in other activities and still get
through school okay and do well.
SG: 80% of people over the age of 60 put "fear of loss of memory" as one of their
top concerns, fear of dementia of some sort. Are there foods that can help stave
off diseases like dementia?
UN: Yes. Certainly, there's some guidance around what food to eat and how to eat it,
so foods that will help cognition, we actually go back to those Omega 3's.
It's a group that's featured very frequently. Olive oil is also one that we
lean into. The herbs and spices that showed up doing well for cognition, and
for thinking, and for memory are turmeric with a pinch of black pepper, which makes
it much more bioavailable. Cinnamon, saffron, rosemary, ginger, sage. Then
some guidances around coffee was thought, if you keep your caffeine consumption and
your coffee consumption under 400mg a day was thought to be healthy, but for me,
this is some guidance, while I know that those foods have been identified as
healthy, it's also part of an overall plate, right? It's not just eating the
nuts or eating the olive oils, it's putting that together in a meal that's
still tasty that makes a very big difference to balancing that out for
people.
SG: I'm very interested in trying to stay as mentally sharp as possible, as long as
possible. My life, I'm in my early 50's now, I mean. You've talked about the
specific food groups and things that are probably going to be the ones I
should gravitate toward, but could you just, like, what's an ideal breakfast, an
ideal lunch, and an ideal dinner? Should I be having all three meals, should I
intermittently fast? Snacks? How would you put it together?
UN: Right, so, with intermittent fasting or with fasting in general, for my
patients, we usually really see what their body intelligence is. What I mean by that
is how they respond to food. Do they wake up hungry? Do they need to take medication
in the morning that require them to eat? Some people naturally get up and they're
not hungry, and then we lean more into intuitive eating, lean into what your body
pattern is. I like people to have snacks because I'd rather they have some healthy
nuts or a little bit of berries that will nurture them through. Great breakfasts,
things like a chia pudding rich in protein, fiber, easy to make, has Omega
3's in it, and can be prepared ahead. Things like if you consume eggs with lots
of veggies in them, or a vegetarian version of that would be a tofu scramble,
again lean into the spices, your fresh herbs, because that's a great
way to go. I'm a fan of avocado toast, I love sourdough bread, because it has a
fermented starter, so the natural process of it is it has a slightly lower sugar
content. I slice tomato on it. The lycopene from tomato are super healthy
for the brain and it actually turns out that much of the lycopene is from the
skin. So, you know, slice your tomatoes and leave the skin on. For lunch, I like
to lean into a really big salad and then put my favorite proteins with that. So,
lentils, legumes, and some tofu or other things which flavor it up, and make an
interesting dressing that will make that enjoyable for you. Nuts and seeds are
another great way to lean into it. Then, one of my other favorite afternoon snacks,
and it's funny because I learned that chocolate and citrus, like clementines or
oranges, pair well from a flavor profile in culinary school, but I recently, over
the last few years, discovered there's actual science behind it. Extra dark
chocolate is the highest source of plant- based iron. Cool reason to eat dark
chocolate.
SG: Look, I'm never going to eat dark chocolate the same way again! I will
always have it with a little citrus. I love little tips like that, that's
fantastic.
UN: Exactly. Then, in the evening is when I'll usually end up having a bigger
meal. Like, I'll do a cauliflower steak, but I'll use the spices from tikka
masala. So, you know, someone else in my family may have the chicken version, but
I'll have the cauliflower version. I can do it air fried or grilled, but I always
add in veggies around that, so a salad. I find that to be satiating, I know it's
helping my metabolism, but it's a green. So the green beans, or the brussel sprouts
or whatever it is, I add spices to them so that they're more flavorful.
SG: So, I didn't hear any meat?
UN: So, I was born into a vegetarian family, so I'm vegetarian.
SG: Should I be a vegetarian?
UN: (Laughs) No, I think people should eat what they enjoy eating. I just think they
should eat healthy versions. I happen to be in a family where everyone else eats
meat, so I think that meat has a place on that diet, and I feel like the B vitamins
from meat are something that as a vegetarian, I supplement. I think there is
also a place for plant-based eaters.
SG: What about carbs?
UN: I think that carbs are important. They're really important for our brain,
they're really important for our body, but it's where we obtain our carbs.
SG: A lot of messaging seems to indicate that they're toxic because of the glycemic
index, the sugar, these types of things, the calories.
UN: Right. So, all of those, there's truth to many of those factors, but I think it's
the messaging has also got to show people that you need carbs for your body and for
your brain to function. It's where you obtain your carbs; if you're eating a
sugary donut with a coffee laced with highly processed cream and eight sugars,
that's very different from a avocado toast on sourdough bread, maybe with some smoked
salmon or a tofu scramble with tons of spinach and vegetables in it. A totally
different product. They break down differently in your body.
SG: Yeah, the healthy carbs vs. the healthy proteins vs. the healthy fats, you
know, these big categories of food. We know that myelin coats the nerves and it's
kind of like the coating on a wire. A wire doesn't conduct as well unless it has the
coating on it. Myelin is sort of like that coating on nerves, and that's made up
primarily of fat, and there's been people that I have talked to that have said you
really need to focus on eating those fats to get that myelin. I would put that at
he top of my list in terms of brain foods. Maybe not the healthiest
cardiovascular, although again, these are good fats, not the bad trans fats. If you
look at healthy proteins, healthy fats, healthy carbs, how to you sort of think
about it with regard to impact on the brain?
UN: So I think that balance is really important. I ask people to lean into all
the different vegetables, and I'm not leading with potatoes and sweet potatoes.
I'm leading with cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens, and legumes, lentils,
and beans. Then you want to think of your olive oil, your avocado, your salmon, and
your other healthy fats. You want to think about, what I like to say, your "clean"
source of protein, and all I mean by that is have, you know, stir-fry tofu in a
healthy way, or air fry something instead of deep fried fish, for example. The fish
itself may be healthy, but the method is not. Now, once in a while, of course, but
not as your everyday meal. Then, I don't forget fruit. So, some berries, you know,
a couple servings of fruit is super important to get those natural sugars into
your body rather than reaching for the candy bar that we know is not the
healthiest choice.
SG: So what about sugar? And, let me preface it by saying this; I did a piece
for 60 Minutes years ago called "The Toxic Truth", and we thought long and hard about
what to title this, because I didn't want it to be unfairly or unnecessarily
alarmist. But, when I talked to some of the nutritionists when we were
interviewing them, they said this is an appropriate title. The way we humans
consume sugar is toxic. We consume too much, our livers don't know what to do
with it, it hits our bodies like a tsunami wave, and churns out these low-density
lipoproteins, the bad kind of cholesterol, which I thought was really
interesting. The brain, when it's exposed to too much sugar, the receptors will
actually start to shut down. So, you could be in a situation, as they outlined it to
me, where you're stuffing the body and starving the brain essentially at the
same time, and that's because you're eating too much sugar. We know it's a
problem, but how bad is sugar for our brain?
UN: So, sugar is a problem, but I also want people to understand we need sugar
for our bodies and our brains, so it's where you get the sugar that's important.
Metabolic health, you know, with the rising in type 2 diabetes, insulin
resistance in this country, the fact that we have common overweight and obesity in
the country, there's a reason. I do think there's so much sugar in our everyday
foods, including our savory foods, like our ketchup, pasta sauces, salad
dressings. French fries at fast food restaurants are engineered to contain
sugar. You don't taste it, but they are really engineered to tap into our
cravings.
SG: That sounds kind of sinister when you put it like that. I realize that this
isn't opioids we're talking about, but the idea of tapping into our cravings..
UN: The research has shown that foods, ultra processed and processed, have a
significant amount of brain science behind how they tap into cravings. I think
that, the more that people should understand the amount of sugar in our
food. So, I teach all my patients that 4 grams of sugar is 1 teaspoon, because our
food labels are in grams and we cook and bake all our U.S. cookbooks in pounds and
ounces. So, if a person goes to a yogurt, and it's 6oz or 4oz, it could have 24g of
sugar in it. You'd think, "Oh, that's not bad." When actually, you wouldn't put that
number of teaspoons into your plain yogurt.
SG: So, if you see 4g of sugar on the food label, imagine you're seeing a full
teaspoon of sugar in it. You see 12g, 3 teaspoons. So, it's a good visual. Let me
ask you real quick, coffee/caffeine is something that seems to come on and off
the favored list. Where do you land on that, when it comes to the brain?
UN: I like coffee, and I think that coffee has a lot of health benefits in
it. It's actually rich in plant polyphenols. The caffeine, my patients
with anxiety can be sensitive to, so it depends on what their tolerance is.
Interestingly, studies of ADHD in adults show that coffee can help focus, so it's a
certain amount of coffee, not too much, so my patients who are struggling with
ADHD or some issues around focus, I like to encourage them, if they can tolerate
coffee and they don't become jittery or uncomfortable. You know, have it early in
the day, don't go more than 2-3 cups, have them be small cups. Also, clean up
the coffee, meaning, you know, have it the way that you'd like, but if you're putting
1/2 cup of processed cream and 8 sugars, you're not helping your brain.
SG: Can we manage anxiety with food? This is the topic of your new book coming out
just in time for the holidays, right?
UN: It is. My new book is "Calm Your Mind With Food" because during the pandemic,
that's what I saw. People really struggling at all ages, all demographics,
with anxiety and we know that even coming out of Covid, that numbers are increased.
So, I feel that if we looked at an integrated approach to really using
anxiety more as a strength and using food to harness how we can feel better, I think
it'll help a lot of us.
SG: I would like to imagine a world where we just wouldn't have to take many of the
medications that we take. I mean, I'm a doctor, you're a doctor, there's a role,
but we spend $4 trillion on health care, and an increasingly large amount of that
is on prescription drugs. Food is the only signal we give the inside of our body from
the outside world on a daily basis and it can be therapeutic. It can make us feel
better, and I just really, really love the work that you do, Dr. Naidoo. I really
admire it.
UN: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me back, it's always great to talk
to you. You always have fascinating questions, I love it.
SG: We talked for a long time, Dr. Naidoo and I, and she goes into even more depth
in this connection between diet and anxiety in her new book, which is coming
out in December. As I've told her, it's an idea that I find really fascinating.
It makes sense that food affects our bodies. It also affects our brains, and
it does so quickly, so it makes total sense that it would affect our mental
health as well. Food is more than just calories; it's a signal. It's a message.
It affects more than your weight and whether you have a flat stomach or not.
Food can be a medicine. It can help stave off disease, manage our moods, help us
think more clearly. So, chew on that the next time you want to feel smarter, or
calmer. Next time on Chasing Life, we have a very special episode for you. We're
going to be talking about the frightened brain. What happens when we get scared,
and why do some people like feeling that way? Who better to answer those questions
than the king of horror himself: Stephen King.
Stephen King: Everything is out to get you. You see, that's the dark side of the
imagination. But, the good side of it is that you're able to take reasonable
precautions and watch out for either Coronavirus, or Jason in the Friday the
13th movies. They both go together.
SG: Thanks for listening.
Chasing life is a production of CNN Audio. Our podcast is produced by Eryn
Mathewson, Madeleine Thompson, David Rind, and Grace Walker. Our senior producer and
show runner is Felicia Patinkin. Andrea Kane is our medical writer, and Tommy
Barbarian is our engineer. Dan Dzula is our technical director, and the executive
producer of CNN audio is Steve Lickteig. Special thanks to Ben Tinker, Amanda Sealy
and Nadia Kounang of CNN Health.