Nutrition for Beginners

I will make a few comments on diet and nutrition. There are a few things that can be said for everyone. After a certain point individual needs have to be addressed.

I will start with diet. What is key in a diet for people who have taken psychotropic medications is the control of blood sugar. Stable blood sugar promotes stable mood. Most psychotropic drugs wreak havoc on blood sugar levels. I suffer from horrible hypoglycemia and find that in addition to eating a diet that promotes good blood sugar levels, I also need to eat every 2-4 hours. My snacks are exclusively protein which is the most sure-fire way to stabilize blood sugar. I eat primarily nuts and cheese for snacks and some vegetable.

I will describe a good diet as follows. (this is a good diet for anyone….not just those suffering from mental health issues.) The most key element is how much carbohydrates are consumed and they should be few. Because carbohydrates greatly affect blood sugar a diet that excludes anything other than whole grains and occasional fruit is essential. This eliminates, sugar, white flour, white rice and potatoes. These are all common carbohydrates that the body converts rapidly to sugar. The alternative is to eat all whole grains. Make note: most “whole wheat” bread is not 100% whole wheat. Whole wheat may be the first ingredient but if you read the label closely you will see that there is a significant amount of refined white flour included. Breads that are described as “flourless” are best. Otherwise eating whole grains like brown rice, millet, spelt, bulgar wheat, barley etc. is essential to good blood sugar control. It should be noted that only small quantities should be eaten. Too much grain can be destabilizing as well. I have a lot of anecdotal evidence that suggest that for some people, any grain is too much carbohydrate, but I personally find that I do better with high quality whole grains in small amounts. Many people are sensitive to whole wheat and some to anything with gluten in it. It’s worth experimenting with no wheat and also no gluten. I no longer eat wheat at all and have felt some improvement.

The majority of a meal as well as snacks should be high quality protein, preferably animal, or fish, and large quantities of vegetables. Many people in withdrawal eat veggies three times a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I eat them to 7 times a day with each snack. Fruit should be limited as the sugar is also too easily digested. If sugar cravings are problem a piece of fruit is of course much preferable to other forms of sugar. (as far as protein goes, beans can be okay occasionally for some people, but are high in carbohydrates. Nuts, cheese and eggs are also excellent sources of protein)

Organic food is preferable. Hormones in meat can cause hormonal problems which destabilize. Pesticides too effect hormonal balance, which completely surprised me. Pesticides include xenoestrogens which can destabilize hormones and endocrine balance which in turn effects mental health.

I cannot afford organic products so do not follow this by the letter. I try to maximize what I can get that is organic, but when living on disability eating purely organic can be beyond many peoples means. I know that people do successfully get off meds without going organic–it is not essential. I will say that I am also aware of many people who recover to some degree without making any changes in diet and nutrition, but it is clear, again, based on what is now a lot of anecdotal evidence, that people do have an easier time and a more complete recovery when radical changes are made. I also think that for most people, if they don’t make the changes they simply will not get better or be able to withdraw successfully.

Other things to cut out of diet include alcohol and caffeine. For a long time I continued to have an occasional beer or glass of wine, but as I withdrew from drugs, and my body became detoxified, I found that I would have immediate ill effects upon consumption of even small amounts of alcohol. Radical blood sugar shifts that would make me feel sick. So, what I thought would be difficult to cut out–I loved my social bottle of beer or glass of wine–became very easy when the results became so obvious.

Caffeine affects the adrenal glands and should not be consumed. Adrenal gland function is also very important for mood and mental health. I have consistently struggled with the avoidance of caffeine. I suffer such fatigue and exhaustion, and so I still have an occasional cup of black or green tea–I don’t recommend this. Coffee is completely out. Again, now that my diet is mostly pure, the caffeine in coffee immediately makes me unstable. One must first completely cut out coffee to notice the huge difference it makes when then taking a small amount once in a while. I was a hard-core coffee addict. This was the most difficult change for me. Most people have the most difficulties with cutting out sugar, refined carbohydrates and other processed foods.

In addition: no refined foods, no msg, no artificial ingredients. Read your labels people!

Also important, drink lots of pure spring water…flush your system of all those toxins.

As far as supplements go, I will for now make only one recommendation. Fish oil, Omega 3 essential fatty acids. There are lots of studies and clinical data that indicate that Omega 3’s help with mood and stability (as well as a myriad of other physical health symptoms).

The most recent study on fish oil debunks this idea and got a lot of media attention. I have no proof, but I wouldn’t doubt that this study was associated with pharmaceutical companies. There has been so many clinical trials that provide hard evidence that fish oil helps and I’m also aware of scores of anecdotal stories of improvement with fish oil. I know people whose only change in diet has been fish oil and they have had marked improvement in mood and stability.

These changes can also be made when someone is faced with being prescribed psych meds. Don’t take them! Change your diet and nutrition first.

Most professionals, even those loudly criticizing psychiatric medications, do not go far in recommendations about diet and nutrition. Certainly Peter Breggin and Grace Jackson recommend a healthy diet, but don’t go into details. Jackson does highly recommend Omega 3’s. As far as further supplementation goes there simply has not been systematic clinical studies done and therefore practice with nutritional supplements is virtually non-existent in psychiatry and the professionals, in general, stay mum on the matter, because they simply d0n’t have the experience and knowledge.

I may in the future talk more about other supplements, but because people vary in their needs so much I hesitate to make recommendations beyond the fish oil.

Part two here.